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Chaldon
Chaldon maps
Historic maps of Chaldon and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Chaldon maps
Chaldon area books
Displaying 1 of 18 books about Chaldon and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Chaldon
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My Memories of Living in Chaldon
We moved to Chaldon from Purley in 1963 to live at 20 Roffes Lane in Little Bindles, which was the middle of three thatched cottages built in the 1920s by a builder to live in with his houskeeper one side and his parents the other. It was to showcase his skills as an architect and builder. The Batemans lived there before us and next door at number 18 lived Katherine and David Ring and Julie and Peter Jeffries in number 22. I started school at the old school house now a house in Chaldon Road on the corner of Willey Broom Lane and then I moved to the C of E school St Peter & St Paul's just behind the Village Hall. I also attended 1st Chaldon cubs in the old scout hut which used to be opposite the Village Hall behind the car park. Later we moved to the new scout hut at the end of Willey Broom Lane in Six Brothers Field when the scouts were led... Read more
There Seems to Have Been Changes
I first visited Chaldon in the summer of 1946. My parents and I lived in Colindale, NW London in a rented house, at the end of the war the owners, who had lived downstairs, moved to Chaldon, and lived in the small bungalow named 'Valley View' at the end of Leazes Avenue. In 1946 my parents and I visited for the first time and in subsequent years would enjoy a summer holiday 'In the country'. We would visit surrounding towns using the green buses and spend much time walking the fields. Often we would see Guardsmen from the depot out on route marches and if the wind was in the right direction could hear the bawling and shouting from the square bashing. Leazes Ave was an unadopted road in 1946 and was quite rough such that many local traders etc wouldn't risk their springs. I haven't been back since the early sixties, but thanks to the miracles of modern technology I see that the valley which we overlooked, usually populated... Read more
Surrey memories
Family Day Out - Clerkenwell to Caterham 1925
The above photo depicts Dorothy Connor (nee Step) aged 10, with her late Mother Elizabeth Step (aged 46) and her Sister, Florence Step (aged 21) having alighted from the 159a Bus which brought them from their home in Clerkenwell, London, pictured Outside the Old Surrey Hounds Public House, Croydon Road, Caterham Surrey on a Day Out to Caterham in 1925. They were on their way to the Barracks Hospital to see Dorothy's Uncle Charlie (her Father's Brother) who was in the army hospital. Wearing a pull-down bonnet and a typical twenties dropped-waist shift, the young Dorothy and her family had no idea they had been caught on camera. It was not until Dorothy was looking through a copy of Helen Livingstone's book some eighty years on that the exciting discovery was made. Dorothy said "My Son, Dave, knows I like old books and pictures and as an early Birthday present he bought me the Surrey Photographic memories. I looked through it and was absolutely flabbergasted; I really... Read more
Paper Boy
As a 12-year-old I sold newspapers every morning outside the cookhouse where hundreds of National Servicemen were going through the horrors of their initial training in the Guards regiments. I believe they earnt 28/6 per week, much of which they had to spend much of it on boot polish, brasso and blanco! Their breakfasts look pretty disgusting - porridge, greasy fried grub and then bromide laced tea - all in the same mess tin. All the regiments had their own bands, so the sound of marching music echoed around Caterham on the Hill nearly every day. They had their mascots too - I really fancied owning the Irish Guards' wolfhound. Recruits used to go in, in their teddy boy drapes - and not emerge for eight weeks, by which time they would have been transformed into disciplined, clockwork men! After this preview of life in the Army, it's no wonder that 3 years later I joined the Royal Navy!
Clifford Wheatley
remembering walking through the main gates and your feet dont touch the floor
View From Paddy's Heaven
I saw this photo and recalled how little the view had changed from the 1920s into the 1960s and early 1970s.
There was a place called Paddy's Heaven which was a few old cottages at the end of Commonwealth Rd, this is where my mum and dad lived when I was born, it was demolished sometime in the 1960s. Although I don't really recall the cottage myself I do remember playing on the spot after they were gone and this was the view we had.
We could always rely on the clocktower in Harestone Valley Rd to let us know when it would be time to go home and if it was getting dark the face was well lit, also it would chime regularly just in case it was out of sight.
Some of the surnames I can recall are - Hickmott, Bew, Stone, Buckland, Pain, Bright, to name but a few and we all went to the infant school at the end of Farningham Rd followed by Marden... Read more
Met my Wife When Stationed There
I was stationed here in the Irish Guards 1970-1971 and loved the town and people. I met my wife in the Caterham Arms, she worked at Stangrave Hall in Godstone as a riding instructor. I will always remember the lovely people, great memories wish I could go back ah well must move on. James G Brown
