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Copthorne Bank
Copthorne Bank photos
Displaying the first of 6 old photos of Copthorne Bank. View all Copthorne Bank photos
Copthorne Bank maps
Historic maps of Copthorne Bank and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Copthorne Bank maps
Copthorne Bank area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about Copthorne Bank and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Copthorne Bank
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Copthorne Bank.
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I Remember...
I remember Hewitts well as a child but that would be about 1973. The first shop on the other side was a hairdressers that I remember as 'Sandra's.'
I Also Meant to Add...
I also meant to add that the 'Whitgates' I knew was a riding establishment on the road to East Grinstead just past the 'Hedgehog'. Run by a Mrs Welbourne for years but she did not own the property - a very elderly lady who lived in the house did - could she have been the recipient I wonder?
Love Letter Found.
My wife has a poetry book. Inside was found a love letter dated New Years Day 1943. It was addressed to a person at 'White Gates', Copthorne Bank, Sussex.
It is a wonderful message from a gentleman to a lady. To hold a letter, written in the cold and darkest of days of the 1940s, when the future was unsure, and people still sending warm words of love, is a real privilage.
I hope that someone can provide some information on where White Gates can be found.
The Four Shops at Copthorne Bank
In the picture of the four shops at Copthorne bank the last on the left was, until recently a Branck of Lloyds Bank. But during the long sweaty summer of 1959 it was a grocer's shop. The shop next door was a newsagents shop (owned for a long time by a chap named Hewitt). Last time I stayed above the last shop on the left was the summer of 1960. You could travel from West London to Crawley (in 1959) on a Green Line Bus for just under 4 Shillings. Memory is so short.
Surrey memories
Burstow Cubs
I was in the cubs at Smallfield and I remember carrying a flag in a Saint George's Day parade to the Burstow Parish Church. Cubs met in the village hall at Smallfield, the same hall we ate our school lunches in, half a mile from the Smallfield County Primary School. The school was half a mile out Redehall Road towards Burstow, and we lived another half mile past the school, on Red Road. I would do Bob A Job week around Burstow, calling at the Hall and at the few other houses in the area.
Burstow Barracks & Westlands Farm
I would be interested to hear from anyone who has photos and any info on Burstow Barracks during 1881 - 1911. My ancestors William & Sarah Carman lived here during these times and were buried at Burstow Church.
Shops And Services in Smallfield During The 1930s
bill.haylor@btinternet.com Resident in and around Smallfield for 81 yrs.
Shops and services were limited but adequate. Village hierarchy although unwritten was arranged in a manner that suited most people; the traders held most sway by the nature of their businesses, builders and farmers controlled most of the land.
Starting from the centre of the village. The first shop in Smallfield was on the corner of Wheelers Lane, in the 1930s it was owned by McKenzie the Grocer, the Post Office was first located here. Outside the shop on the wall were machines for Nestles Chocolate and Woodbine cigarettes in thin green packets of fives. The next shop going upwards and south was Warnett the Butcher, the daughter was cashier in the small office to the rear, the men would select a carcase of meat from a large walk in fridge which they sawed, chopped and cut on a large wooden bench. During the summer there were flies!
The Church Hall was next, then across the drive... Read more
