Hooley, Surrey

hooley shops

I moved to Hooley in March 1950 at the age of one month. (6 years before my sister Cheryl, (see other memory comments) was born. in addition to her comments, we had the full range of shops: from the garage (left) Peat and Townsends: grocers; Fords: newsagent / post office; "Camile": Ladies hairdressers; the Hooley Cafe; Porters: chemist / haberdashery; The Fruit Shop: greengrocers; Lee's: Baker and Confectioner (later stocked groceries as well) finally Merrit's the Butchers. Who needed Sainsbury's back then?? As a Wolf Cub and Scout I remember cleaning the glass display units in Fords and chopping fire wood in the greengrocers for "Bob - Job". I still live in the village but the only original trades left are the petrol station and newsagent - the Post Office closed after several robberies. The rest of the shops are now Antique Dealers!
Roger Wakeling

My first job!

I was born in Hooley, so I am an original "Hooligan"!! My family lived in Brighton Road, Hooley, about 300 yds to the left of this photo, in fact my mother still does. My first Saturday job was in the newsagents, Fords, which is the second shop along. Mr Merritt had the butchers shop at the end of the parade. How it has changed!!
Cheryl Holdway (nee Wakeling)

Netherne

Hooley Hospital, although near Hooley, was in fact Netherne Hospital for the mentally ill. Those patients allowed out frequented the Hooley shops, The Star public house (long gone due to road widening) and village jumble sales. The hospital site is now an up market housing estate and renamed Netherne -on the- Hill.
Roger Wakeling

Surrey Living Memories

Descending from Chipstead into the next valley east brings us to Hooley. It was long known to motorists on the A23 London to Brighton road for the major hold-ups at its traffic light junction with Star Lane, just out of view to the left. This photograph looks north past the garage, now rebuilt as a BP petrol station. Beyond is the almost inevitable Surrey mock-Tudor half-timbered shopping parade. Fords, the newsagent and tobacconists, is now Hooley Newsagents and Post Office, and the café has migrated to the end building.

Coulsdon, Chipstead and Woodmansterne Photographic Memories

The Corner Shop and Station Parade Post Office still provides an invaluable service to residents and passers-by, but an extension has been built on to the end wall for Saab who also trade from the garage premises shown here. George Jones commenced running The Corner Shop in 1966 with his wife, Pat.

Coulsdon, Chipstead and Woodmansterne Photographic Memories

Woodmansterne Station, situated in Coulsdon, did not arrive until 1932 and, although some distance from the old village, it was an impor- tant factor in the development of new roads off Rectory Lane as well as the profusion of roads in west Coulsdon. The photographic record importantly shows the villages at different stages of their expansion and repays careful study in understanding the way they have evolved. This record can be useful- ly supplemented by several other sources includ- ing official records, local newspapers and per- sonal reminiscences. Of the latter W G Gardner, station-master at Coulsdon South from 1891, recorded in 1916 the growth of the parish from a hamlet to an urban district: `Red Lion Green was a Green in every particular in those days. Very few houses were in existence excepting the old thatched cottages facing the Chipstead Valley Road. …Cornfields were seen where the Fairdene Estate now rises whilst High Street, Coulsdon [Brighton Road] did not exist. Truly a revolution in the short space of a quarter of a century.` In 1962 Mrs C Nicholls, born in 1872, recalled walking to St John`s School, Bradmore Green from Hooley: `We used to walk up to the Star [near Star Lane], turn left over the railway bridge, through lanes and across Farthing Down, then more lanes. We also had this walk when I and my sisters attended St John`s Church for Sunday School. Later I remember going to Sunday School in a tin hut situated where the Comrades Club now stands… We children used to wait by the side of the main road for the London and Brighton stage coaches, The Age, The Comet and Old Times, to pass, when we called out "throw out your mouldy coppers." One gentleman thought he was tossing down a halfpenny but it turned out to be a golden sovereign…Mother walked to Croydon to shop pushing a perambulator with wooden wheels and iron tyres and I often went too…There were only about six shops in what is now called Coulsdon but which was then known as Smitham Bottom. They were all in old cottages converted to shops. The nearest station was Caterham Junction [Purley]. When I first knew Chipstead Valley, the road was only a nar- row lane, with rough flint surface and no lighting. The only traffic was an occasional farm wagon or flock of sheep…The fields where Richmond and Alexander Roads are now always used to have lots of poppies and looked very pretty`.