Cobham memories
Here are memories of Cobham and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Cobham or a Cobham photo.
Happy Motoring
I believe the white building to the centre left in picture is the Thompson & Taylor garage. I worked there briefly (about 1 year), the manager then was a Huw Edwards? I think, but the name of T & T was very well known in motor racing circles & particularly with the nearby Brooklands motor racing circuit. There was a huge old car Napier Railton I think, memory going, which was kept in the showroom & with which the land speed record was won sometime in the 1930's. Stirling Moss was an occasional visitor as he had then just purchased a very special cooper mini, and John Cooper (Cooper Cars) also came & went, and to top all that the great legend Juan Manuel Fangio once visited, sadly I was so in awe & so very junior I didn't think to ask for any autographs.
The Shop on Cobham Tilt
My father Clive Impey,was demobbed from the forces in 1946 and at the time the shop was a shoe repair shop. He converted it to a greengrocers shop and during the next few years it became a general store. My mother Jocelyn worked and helped out in the shop. Although we lived in D'abernon Drive, I spent most of my childhood around the Tilt and the River Mole, fishing! My father sold the shop in 1972 to a customer's son-in-law and it stayed as a shop until it was converted to a residential cottage. My memories are so vivid of playing football on the Tilt green with all the other local lads.
The Shop on Cobham Tilt
My grandfather owned the shop when it was a grocers shop from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. I vividly remember sitting in the shop while he served customers. Dad used to deliver goods to customers on a trade bike. Although we no longer live in Cobham, it still makes us very nostalgic when we drive past nowadays but it is strange to see the shop as a cottage again.
Thompson & Taylor
In the 1950s the Railton Mobil Special with which John Cobb had taken the world land speed record in 1947 was displayed in the showroom. Reid Railton, the car's designer, was associated with Thompson & Taylor. The garage was also an Alfa Romeo dealership and to see beautiful red Guilietta coupe's in the showroom with 5 gears, twin overhead cam engines and twin carburettors in the 1950s when my mother stopped for petrol in her 3 gear sidevalve Ford Anglia was a schoolboy's dream.
The Tilt
Does anyone remember the little sweet shop on the Tilt. I do, and remember walking home from St Andrew's School in Cedar Road, along the little alley onto Stoke Road, across to the Fire Station and up towards the Running Mare. The little shop sold sweets and ice lollies and buttons! The Frith photo is great, it shows the cottage that was the shop and is now a cottage again.
Ann & Vic Norman's Shop
My mother Joyce Stannard worked at the shop in this picture in the foreground with the canopy next to the wine merchants. When she started it was a little wool shop owned by Miss Wright - she sold it to the Norman's who expanded and did dress design upstairs. My brother Nigel and I attended the Infants school in Hoggs Hill Lane followed by the Primary School which was behind this row of shops. There was a sweet shop on the opposite corner to the post office where we were allowed to spend 2d on sweets after school. We lived in Coveham Crescent and walked to school daily through the rec - along by the allotments - out to and along Anyards Road. These photos of Cobham have brought back many memories.
Hatchford Church
My father, Capt. F.C. Dyer used to play the organ at Hatchford Church until his death in 1950. It was a pump organ and Bubbles was the name of the hunchback who pumped the organ. We lived in the Semaphore Tower up on Chatley Heath and would walk down through the woods and through Hatchford Park to the Church every Sunday for the Church Service. Capt. Dyer is buried in the third grave (unmarked) from the south west corner of the church foundations ~ the church itself having been subsequently demolished due to dry rot in the roof.
Shops in High Street, Cobham
Does anyone remember a children's clothing shop named Rosalind which was located on the same side of the street as the chemist which had a dentist's above it and near the La Capanna end of the High Street? I was taken in there during the 1960s for my clothes. Also I remember a small department store opposite (the name Gamages springs to mind but am not sure) which sold both women's and men's clothing. It was a lowish building but went back quite a long way and reminded me of Grace Bros from 'Are You Being Served'! Again this was the 1960s. It is now an office block I think.
Grandfather's Memories
My grandfather was born in Cobham on Painshill. My memory is that it was on a slight hill with a slight bend, the Greenline bus used to stop near the old home, it was a cottage with a porch and had a very thick door with big locks on it. I have a photo of my great-gran standing at the gate. My great-great-grandfather was a pit sawyer, in the 1881 cencus it has him as a lawyer, but I remember seeing the pit he use to work in and above sawing trees into lumber. My grandfather (Daniel Seach Osborne) used to tell me stories of his brother Peter John Osborne who was a journeyman carpenter, he helped build a wooden flying machine, it flew a few feet then crashed, this was at Fox Warren, he had a barrow and a big tool chest he made with a picture of Queen Victoria on the inside and a cloths chest. He wheeled these around jobs over a big area. My grandfather had... Read more
Memories of Surrey
Conliston
Does anyone know of a house called Conliston in Oxshott. Built in the 1930s, it was "one mile from Oxshott Station and Leatherhead Golf Course. Standing on the brow of a hill, facing full south". This house was built by my aunt and her husband and sold in the early 1940s for £3,000. The property was said to be held on a 99 year crown lease. I would be grateful for any help.
Sheath Lane And Goldrings Road
My great-grandfather bought Heathway in Sheath Lane in 1925. We lived there from 1945 to 1953 when my father built Winterbourne in Goldrings Road on Crown Land with a 99-year lease. I went to Oxshott Primary School and St Andrews Sunday School in the old village hall. I can remember the milkman and the rag-and-bone man driving horse-drawn carts down Sheath Lane, and the walk through the woods to the station, or to Brown's shop in Fairmile Lane. Oxshott Tennis Club had a grand fete every year with a fairground, and in 1951 my mother made us 1851 costumes for the fancy dress parade.
Oxshott
My memores relate to 1950 (year of my birth) onwards. My maiden name was Lockett. I was born at The Pines, Sheath lane in 1950 (delivered by John Lytle) and about 2-3 years later my father built 'Whitethorns' on Goldrings Road. It was a wonderful road to grow up in and I had lots of friends my own age and we were always in and out of each other's houses. being out and about was safe and Oxshott Woods was a wonderful place to play.I used to love watching the cricket at the Sports Club. The weather always seemed to be lovely and sunny and we used to lie in the grass and watch. I remember Oxshott Fete very well and I loved entering the miniature garden competition and the miniature flower arrangement competition. Also loved the old fashioned merry go round. I used to enter the fancy dress competition and I have black and white photos of myself dressed as The Queen with a little boy called Peter... Read more
Highfield Moles Hill
I'm trying to find any info on a E.J. Elsbury who was living at Highfield , Moles Hill Oxshott in 1957. Looking on Google Earth I can see Moles Hill, but does Highfield still exist? If not what kind of property was it? Does anyone know who E.J. Elsbury was?
Film "THE RUNAWAYS"
I founded an amateur film club in 1959 called Royston Films and the very first short film we made in May of 1959 was called The Runaways all about two lads who decided to run away from home following arguments with their Parents. It was shot on 9.5mm Black & White stock. This short film shows the boys camping in Oxshott Woods and also features Oxshott Railway Station and Brown's Grocery Store. At this moment in time (August 2011) I am in the process of restoring the film, re-titling, re-doing the sound track and adding a Deja Vous experience to the story. It is hoped the film will be ready in DVD format fairly soon.
In 1996 I filmed a "Then & Now" short intro depicting some of the original locations used in The Runaways - this too will also be resurrected and form part of the final production.
During the 1990s we shot numerous dramas and documentaries, picking up several awards along the way.
Parts of... Read more
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