You are here:
Drift Bridge
Drift Bridge photos
Displaying the first of 13 old photos of Drift Bridge. View all Drift Bridge photos
Drift Bridge maps
Historic maps of Drift Bridge and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Drift Bridge maps
Drift Bridge area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about Drift Bridge and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Drift Bridge
No memories of Drift Bridge have been shared yet - be the first!
Add your memory of Drift Bridge
or of a photo of Drift Bridge.
Surrey memories
Hairdressers Banstead High Street 1969-1973
I worked as a Saturday girl at the hairdressers opposite the church in Banstead High Street when I was 15 in 1969. It was called Nicolette then and I worked for Margaret and her mother Mrs Anscombe. Margaret was a lovely boss, she taught me many things. The salon seemed huge to me in those days, but on a recent visit I was surprised at how tiny it is now. When I worked there we had seperate booths and front was basins. The curtain was pulled across once the customer was seated within. I recall one client who worked at the church would request a foot stool while under the dryer and would read her bible while waiting for her hair to dry. Miss Deacon (Deaky) was her stylist. The salon also had a barbers attached and Ian and Trevor were the two barbers. Famous clients were Peter Osgood and Peter Bonetti - both footballers playing for Chelsea at the time. My school friends were really jealous of me over... Read more
Opposite The School
Does anyone else remember the chain railings and posts, painted black and white around the green in front of these shops? I used to jump over them as a small child. They enclosed all the grass area.
Bassett House
The large oblong building on the left was Bassett House of which the ground floor was Waitrose. The Bassett Family lived at Hunters Lodge, Banstead and the three children grew up to represent England. Sheena in running and swimming marathons and Pippa and Karen won bronze medals for the British team in the horse four in hand World Driving trials They are both short listed for this years team [2006] and Karen is the leading lady driver in GB and the World.
Moving of The War Memorial
Note in this photo that the war memorial has been moved back and the wall lowered. Flats have been built on the Banstead house site. You could always see the green houses over the high wall from the top of the 164a bus. The corner shop, which I think used to be a bakery (top left) has gone and the road widened. The bus always used to mount the curb on this corner when turning towards the downs and Greenacre school roundabout.
Banstead War Memorial in Its Original Position
This card shows the Banstead War Memorial before it was moved to its current positition in the 1990s.
Sutton Lane was very narrow in earlier times and conductors used to have to get off the bus to check that there was not another one coming the other way. Often the buses had a hard time coming up the hill from Sutton and an old watering can was kept by the Woolpack to enable the driver to top up the radiator.
If you would like to know more about the history of Banstead, check out the Banstead History Research Group website. You will also find an ongoing project to research the history of the memorial and the stories of the men listed on it.
I would particularly like to find any information about the rededication of the memorial after WWll. Please contact me via this site or the Webmaster link on the BHRG web site.
Thank you.
Jan 2010 update - nearly three... Read more
Catching A Train
After visiting my aunt and uncle who were the Matron and Superintendant of the Banstead Residential School, which was adjacent to the railway line, my mother and I would hasten along to the station to begin our journey home. If a train was drawing into the station on the way towards London mother would call down to the station staff on the platform, which was well below the footpath, and the train would be held until puffing and out of breath we could continue to the station and run down the stairs. What a service. Today the staff would strain to keep to the timetable!
The schools have long since been demolished and a housing estate has taken their place.
Banstead Station
I well remember Banstead station in the 1950's. I used it to go to school in Wallington from 1953 to 1959 and then to go to College and then to work in London. At this time I lived in Nork and of course in those days the trains were all steam trains. My father used to go to work by train in the 1940's and always said that at 8.00am , standing on the platform waiting for the London Bridge train, you could hear a nightingale sing. Sadly as the station became busier, this ceased, but it was always one of his abiding memories of Banstead Sation.
