Leigh memories
Here are memories of Leigh and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Leigh or a Leigh photo.
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Memories of Surrey
Betchworth Village Shop
A school friend at Reigate Grammar was Joe Cheffings; his parents ran the village shop and bakery about midway to the church, on the left of the picture. An elder brother, Tony, helped at home when on holiday from St. Paul's school, and had a penchant for very elderly motorcycles, picked up for nothing from a quarry dump towards Dorking somewhere. 2 dogs, and 2 donkeys completed the household! I used to cycle over from Salfords and have a wonderful time, birdnesting, fishing - and eating some of the wonderful cakes and buns that were produced, and which were so difficult to come by with the strict rationing in force!
There was a large German P.O.W. camp somewhere around, and the Cheffings had a couple of German bakers assigned to help in the bakery: years later I heard of various shennanikins taking place over these!
The blacksmith was active in his shop opposite The Dolphin, and the cobbler worked in his tiny shop around the side,... Read more
Priory Road 1962 to 1988
My father, William J Smith (Bill) had a newsagent at 47 Priory Road between 1962 and 1988 which was opposite Ports the Bakers. I remember seeing queues of people coming out of the Bakers on a Saturday morning to get their shopping. My fondest childhood memories were of living above and behind the sweetshop and playing with friends in Priory Road when there were just a few cars in the street, not like it is now. I remember the Butchers at number 50, the Greengrocers, the Cliff's Fish Shop and the handy shop. Nurse Banks the local midwife lived further up the road on our side, I don't know the number but it was past number 35. I also remember the Tuck Shop in Allingham Road opposite the Co-Op, the Post Office with it's dark wooden interior and all the wooden drawers behind the counter.
I also remember both the corner shops, on the corners of Allingham Road and Eastnor Road and Eastnor Road and... Read more
Doodlebug Exploding in Village, WW2
I was just 3 yrs. old staying in my aunt and uncle's bungalow in Newdigate, (they were working in a local munitions factory). My mother and baby sister were there from Sth. London with me. It was a lovely sunny day, I was in the garden playing when the Doodlebug engines cut out and it came down in the field next to the bungalow. The lady(Emily) in the next bungalow gathered me up from the garden and took me into her home and we hid beneath the table, whilst all the soil thrown up from the exploding bomb settled. My mother and sister were trapped beneath a large porcelain sink they had hidden beneath as the roof was blown off the Wood's bungalow by the explosion. My legs were cut by flying glass otherwise I was excited by the event, but mother refused to settle and insisted my father collected us and so we spent the war years, particularly the Battle of Britain period, in the safety of our cellar... Read more
Henfold Lane & Newdigate
I was four when my parents, Geoff and Pyll Kleboe, bought Keepers Cottage, Henfold Lane, Newdigate. A Mrs Thompson and her husband "Blackberry Jack" had lived there for many years and the property was very run down. With the talent of my maternal grandfather William Jones, over a period of 25 years "Keepers" was totally renovated. Believed to date back to the 1500s, it was originally an old coaching inn. It was lovingly restored to its former glory with wonderful ships' timbers, an enormous inglenook and a hand-made oak staircase, the oak it was made from came from a timber yard at Horsham. I remember being taken to see the tree trunk that my grandfather had shipped to his work shop in Bookham where it was stored before he started making the staircase. I attended Newdigate village school opposite Dean farm when a Mr Tuler was the headmaster. We used to walk to school from home, a trip of 2 miles each way, we didn't have buses or a car! On... Read more
Somewhere in Buckland
Round about 1840 my widowed great, great grandmother Hannah, and her son Joseph were brewers in Buckland. But unless any Buckland resident knows of the history of the village I shall never know where exactly. The Frith photograph shows something of the village, but is over forty years too late to help me. I know nothing of Hannah prior to 1841, other than that she was married to William Chandler who died in 1832, and she died in 1844, so presumably the brewing also stopped then, as Joseph, her son, went to Betchworth to become a butcher, and then on to Bell Street in Reigate in the same trade. Buckland of 1886 certainly looks to idyllic. A peaceful place to live in - then at least.
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I Remember When...
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