'K' is for Knaphill.
The earliest reference to Knaphill dates back to 1225, but little of historical note seems to have disturbed the village for the next 500 years. The 18th century saw the establishment of the first garden nurseries and, at about the same time, the foundation of the Knaphill Brickworks. The village developed further with the construction of the Basingstoke Canal in the 1790s and the London & South Western Railway in the 1830s.
In Victorian times, the local area gained the reputation as the home of the mad, the bad and the sad! The 'mad' could be found in Brookwood Hospital, the second County Asylum, in Knaphill. The 'bad' were held in the Woking Invalid and Women's Prisons, built on the outskirts of Knaphill. And the 'sad' were the mourners at Brookwood Cemetery and the nearby Crematorium in St Johns, the first custom-built crematorium in the country.
The Invalid Prison was converted into Inkerman Barracks at the end of the 19th century, but although there are still nurseries around Knaphill, the brickfields, prisons, barracks and hospital have all closed. Knaphill now struggles to find its identity amongst the sprawl of 'greater Woking', but there are still a few reminders of its heritage: the former prison officers' quarters in Raglan Road and Wellington Terrace; the preserved buildings and chapel on the site of the old hospital; and the world-famous azalea that bears the village's name.
Of course, Knaphill's place in history is secure thanks to Trinity Studios (now known as the Woking Youth Arts Centre): the birthplace of the Spice Girls! So tell me what you want, what you really really want?
To find out more about the village, you might like to try the Knaphill History Lessons.
The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates - these mark the centre of village. The cache has been hidden with the kind permission of the Woodland Trust elsewhere in Knaphill.
To find its location you will need to solve a simple puzzle.
Certificates for the first three finders. Remember, this is a 'Letterbox Hybrid', so please don't remove the ink stamp from the cache.
This cache was placed by IceColdUK.
Bonus Cache
Bonus numbers will be present in some of the caches in the series, collect these numbers as you will need to use them should you wish to find the series bonus '* - Bonus Cache - Surrey A-Z'.
Congratulations on the FTF to Moore4us.