Sheerwater rediscovered follow ups

A photo about our event in October 29 2025 reported in the Woking News and Mail 

After our successful event in 2025 "Sheerwater rediscovered!" (also reported in this blog), in 2026 I have been following up with several activities which I would like to share and reflect on.  

Here is a summary to date: 

• In November 7^th, 2025, and thanks to the support of the Mascot Hub and St Michael’s church, I was radio interviewed in the BBC Surrey Breakfast by Mr James Cannon (at 7:21am). I offered a quick summary of the project leading to the event, and highlighted the key project finding that “The Sheerwater community is still alive, we just need to know where to look for it.” 

 

• Also in November 18^th,  Mr Paul Salt visited Royal Holloway, University of London (my workplace) to talk about the “Sheerwater group” to the business school’s M.Sc. students.   This Facebook© group of around 2.3k members currently acts as a main forum for discussion and news about the Sheerwater community issues. Paul engaged very well with our students, and they enjoyed his company.  He made us all aware of the importance of having clear boundaries in both the design and use of social media and technology in general. Thank you Paul, it was a pleasure having you on campus! 

 

Sheerwater resident Paul Salt talking to Royal Holloway M.Sc. students (AI in Business and Business Analytics 2025-2026, November 18^th, 2025)

 

• In January 14^th 2026 I was invited to talk to teachers about the history of Sheerwater at the Broadmere Primary Academy in Sheerwater. The feedback received was very positive. One of them suggested to have the same talk at the David Bishop Brown secondary school next door. This is something to be considered for further funding and dissemination.  Many thanks to Tracey Francis (St Michael's Church in Sheerwater) and Karen Barham (Headteacher at Broadmere) for making this talk possible. 

 Presenting a history of Sheerwater at Broadmere Primary Academy

• On the 23rd of April 2026 and thanks to the invitation of Trevor Wenden, Sheerwater Football Club secretary and a long standing member of this club, I attended a Sheerwater residents meeting which included residents and local councillors.  During the meeting, I ventured to speak out to present our research project and one of its posters (history of Sheerwater).  Having listened to several problematic issues raised by residents during the meeting, I suggested that our project gave us the key suggestion to work together to face these and other issues as it was done in the past. I also offered an idea: to join forces with the Sheerwater Football club to help clean the rubbish that is still lying around from the buildings that have been vacated for more than a year now.  Am happy to report that the community engagement team of Woking Borough Council had a similar idea, and in May 22 2026 they organised a community litter picking event. Whether they took my suggestion or not, that will be up to the jury (of the meeting) to decide.  

• Throughout the football season of 2025-2026, I have become an almost staunch supporter of the Sheerwater Football club.  It is a great community of fans and volunteers which has given me a place to learn more about Sheerwater, take my children to live football on Saturdays and meet lovely people. We are to volunteer for the children's tournament on the 13th of June and are looking forward to see the mini-sheers in action.  

As I finish writing his post, and finally have managed to join the facebook Sheerwater group,  I can still say that the Sheerwater community is much alive, and that now I am more familiar with the places and events where this happens. I hope to help them continue rediscovering their communities and regaining a sense of hope for the future.   We all need it!

Sheerwater rediscovered!

Since 2014, the Sheerwater housing estate near Woking, in Surrey (UK), has been the subject of a partially completed regeneration project which is negatively affecting residents and despite some achievements. 

The regeneration project was stopped due to Woking Borough Council facing financial difficulties. At the end of 2025, some decisions were announced to refurbish dwellings that had already been vacated. Others were to be sold for redevelopment.     

December 2025 Map of Sheerwater planned refurbished/completed/to sell dwellings

(courtesy of the Mascot Hub) 

The Systemic Life Stories Project

I have been a regular visitor to the Sheerwater Parkview community centre since 2015.  In 2025 and after a very intersting conversation with a university colleague, I decided to apply for funding to organise a research project with Sheerwater residents and organisations. 

I partnered with the MascotHub (a partnership that provides aid and advice to residents) and the SurreyHistory Centre (a council sponsored organisation with more than 16 million historical records about Surrey). I recruited Dr Cecilia Loureiro from the Business School and Isabelle Kemp from the Social Science Impact Accelerator team. The project effectively ran between July and December 2025, with a main exhibition-workshop event on the 29th of October.  

 

Mr Paul Salt (left), resident of Sheerwater for 61 years being interviewed at the Mascot Office (September 2025).

 

With the help of partner organisations and personal contacts, I interviewed residents for their life stories. Using the systems thinking rich picture technique, with the information obtained from the interviews we (myself and Cecilia) produced and disseminated a visual history of Sheerwater as told by residents.  

A history of Sheerwater

We organised the picture (see above) into three (3) stages:  a ‘past’ (of resilience), a ‘present’ (of diversity) and a ‘future’ (of hope). In a nutshell, the past shows a community where people cared for each other.  The present shows the arrival of diverse community groups, supported by new facilities and by social media communication.  The reader can zoom in in the picture above for more detail.  

The future of Sheerwater

The future of Sheerwater as perceived by residents, is about building bridges between different community groups or constituencies.  

Participants at the "Sheerwater Rediscovered!" event, October 2025, Surrey History Centre. 

There are challenges and opportunities to do so.  A key challenge is to facilitated inter-group communication and understanding.   One opportunity to address this challenge as proposed by participants at the main project event (pictured above) is to design disseminate a welcome pack and restablish a community newsletter.  

During 2026, this possibility has been mentioned to representatives from some Sheerwater organisations.  There could be scope to do so, provided that there is an adequate form of leadership to take it forward, and that an appropriate format (i.e. electronic or other) is agreed between interested parties.

Hope for the future

We (myself included) are to 'move on' from what Sheerwater was: a fantastic, a very happy time (as told by many residents).  We are now in the present where, according to the philosopher Bying Chul Han (2024), it is still possible to act with hope and despite a sense of despair: to do something meaningful, to do something for others, spontaineously or in improvised forms.  To be open to possibilities as we do when we 'dream'; to positively turn to each other (positively), to trust in each other, and search for those possibilities together.  

The hope, paraphrasing the philosopher Byung Chul Han (2024) is for Sheerwater residents and groups to be open to accept that the future is uncertain, and that hope "increases our sensibility for what-is-not-yet, on which we have no direct influence" (p.27).  

With hope, the future becomes then up for the taking.  Let's try to infuse a good sense of hope in Sheerwater.  As we do when we cheer the Sheerwater Football Club team:

Come on Sheers!, Up the Sheers! 

Reference

Han, B. C. (2024). The spirit of hope. John Wiley & Sons.

Note

Further details about the event and the project “Systemic Life Stories for regeneration:  Helping Sheerwater” can be seen at: 

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/projects/systemic-life-stories-for-regeneration-helping-sheerwater-social-/, accessed April 2026