Esher memories
Here are memories of Esher and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Esher or a Esher photo.
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.
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.
Memories of Surrey
My Life on Weston Green
I was born in Weston Green, my parents having lived at Maisonette, Weston Green. My grandfather Charles Dobson was the local baker and lived on the green in the house on its own called The Lodge which was where the cricket was played. I used to watch it from my grandmother's back yard. She had ducks and hens and used to hire out horses to people, but I was not born at that time, I only remember the ducks etc. My great-grandfather built all of the Jubilee Villas on Weston Green Road opposite the cricket pitch. The bake-house was on the other side of the road and my grandfather's sister used to run the Greyhound pub with her husband, Frank Walthew.
Wilton Gardens, West Molesey
I lived and went to school in West Molesey. I remember the shops near the Royal Oak pub. My mum always took me into the shoe shop for my shoes. I remember going into the sweet shop on my way to school. Can anyone tell me the name of the local children's home in East Molesey? I remember going there often as 2 friends were living there from 1965 - 1975.
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
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.
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