You are here:
Claygate
Claygate maps
Historic maps of Claygate and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Claygate maps
Claygate area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about Claygate and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Claygate
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Claygate.
Add your memory of Claygate
or of a photo of Claygate.
The Parade in 1950s
I lived in a flat over 12 The Parade (then a Garden Shop) until I was ten years old, from 1944-1954. Our gate was on the alley round the back. At the Hare Lane end of the alley were hung 'pig bags' - sacks where people put scraps to feed pigs (post-war, so still on rationing!). The other end of the alley went through to one of the brickyards that were then still around Claygate. A rag-and-bone man came along The Parade every week, perched on a horse-drawn shallow cart; we called him the 'Yak-Yoh man' because that was what his 'ragandbone' cry sounded like.
I Lived at 1 High St Claygate
My name is Michael Smith, I went to Esher school in the 1960s, I have lots of memories, anyone remember me? Please email m5076@quickclic.net
Old Bakery - High Street
I'd be interested to know more about the Old Bakery on the High Street - I believe my great-grandfather, Arthur Brown, worked there at some point. The Brown family lived at 5 Rose Cottages, Station Road and also at 6 Foley Cottages, High Street (from at least the 1940s to 1961). I've found Rose Cottages, but I'm still trying to locate Foley Cottages - can anyone help?
Surrey memories
Lawrence And Peggy Berg
My uncle Lawrence married Peggy Smurthwaite in about 1935 and took over the Hinchley Wood Hotel. It was already well-known to him and his brother, Ellis, because he was a partner in the building firm E & L Berg which had developed an estate over the other side of the Kingston Bypass. Though he knew little or nothing of the licenced trade, his wife, Peggy, was the daughter of teh Smurthwaites of the Kingston Hotel (now demolished). They later moved to the Roundabouts Hotel in West Chiltington, West Sussex; while there they began building. After Lawrence's death Peggy continued building, having disposed of the Roundabouts. The Hinchley Wood Hotel has gone, sadly. It was a meeting place for service men and women, particularly RAF aircrew. Peggy led a conga train through her normally staid pub on VE day. She was a most glamourous woman, an example of a 'South of France' type of pre-war days. Lawrence was a burly and genial sporting type who had been a bayonet-fighting instructor at... Read more
Growing up
My family moved to Hinchley Wood when I was very small. We lived in the flat over the butchers shop on The Parade, at that time it was called Hodson & Harmer but later progressed to Baldwin Brothers and later still to West Butchers which it was for several years later. The shop can be seen on the picture of The Parade.
My father Reg Martin became manager of this shop and was so for a good few years. My mother Eveline Martin often helped at christmas times and suchlike in many ways and at christmas times would be catering for many extra staff called in for 'plucking and trussing' the turkeys. This was of course before frozen birds became available, an event which relieved some of the pressures of the christmas trade. My brother later became manager of Coopers Stores at the far end of The Parade and my mother worked in the household side until her untimely death in 1962. Miss... Read more
Happy Days
In 1945 I was stationed in Esher racecouse, as a Welsh Guard who had just completed 3 months of hard discipline in the guards depot in Caterham. The difference in Esher to the depot was remarkable, N.C.Os were suddenly human beings who treated men as men, not objects. I can say in the 3 years I was in the army that the time at Esher was the most enjoyable. I was also friendly with a girl named Mary Edwards. She live in a road opposite the racecourse, I believe it was named Madresfield Road. I was 18 years of age then,I am now 83, so that would make Mary,about 81 years old now. Perhaps older people can remember the influx of Welsh guards to the town, especially on Friday nights.
Happy Days
Mary Edwards was my sister, she would have been 15 at the time. We lived in Sandown Road, Esher, in a house called Madresfield, where I was born. Sandown Road was a private road, off the A3 Portsmouth Road, opposite Sandown Park and next to the Council Offices; my father was the Clerk and Solicitor to Esher UDC. Mary, who became an air stewardess with British European Airways, married an Australian in 1956 and went to live in Australia; she visited Esher in 1961, the year my father retired. She had five children, four boys and a girl. She loved the outdoor life there but sadly died in 1977 in Adelaide. I remember the Welsh Guards being stationed in Sandown Park; I was a schooboy at the time at Newlands College in Claygate.
