Hooley | |
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Rural part of the Brighton Road (A23) in Hooley |
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Hooley shown within Surrey | |
Area | 1.0 km2 (0.39 sq mi) |
Population | 1,203 |
• Density | 1,203/km2 (3,120/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | TQ287564 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Coulsdon |
Postcode district | CR5 |
Dialling code | 01737 |
Police | Surrey |
Fire | Surrey |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
EU Parliament | South East England |
UK Parliament | |
Hooley is a geographically small village in Surrey, England that has in its small grid of streets the 13th century church of Chipstead which has been, since time immemorial, its ecclesiastical parish. Officially it remains a hamlet but today is an equal distance via paths and road to larger Coulsdon's centre which is downhill to the north, in Greater London and has a main line railway station.
Hooley until the early 20th century was a sparsely inhabited hamlet of Chipstead, both a largely permeable chalk upland area with little housing or industry. Both the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the South Eastern Railway recognised the construction of short tunnels here as the best route out of London to Brighton for their rival railway lines. Before these the 1805 extension of the Surrey Iron Railway, a horse-drawn plateway came through this pass.
The land equates to part of a western slope and a narrow pass which is the lowest road crossing point of the North Downs east of Westhumble/Mickleham in Mid-Surrey and west of Otford in Kent and avoids the height of the escarpment and steep south sides at neighbouring Reigate and Caterham.