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North Holmwood memories

Here are memories of North Holmwood and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of North Holmwood or a North Holmwood photo.

Location

Bell Holm Hotel c1955
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The Bell Holm Hotel was in Mid Homlwood on the A24 nearly opposite the Norfolk Arms, on the south bound side and was finally demolished in the mid to late 1970s. I played around it as a kid but never went in though. It was haunted, so we thought.

Memories of Surrey

Mid Holmwood

This is categorically Mid Holmwood. An old pond just up from Bonds Pond that is now filled in.

My Weekend Job

Boxhill, The Wimpy Bar c1965
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WOW, I never thought that I would see this post card again. Yes, that's me doing my weekend job as a waitress at the funky new Wimpy bar on Boxhill. My name was Vanessa Howard and I lived at Ismanola, Boxhill Road. Reputed to be one of the first in the UK, locals, mods and rockers, and day trippers flocked to buy their Wimpy and Chips and Coffee, Knickerbocker Glory, Pepsi Cola in a glass bottle and all else Wimpy by the thousands. Hot doughnuts were a speciality with queues of folk waiting anxiously for their fix at 4d each or 4 for 1/-. Folk marvelled at the huge picture window which overlooked Dorking. Astute locals would return the glass Pepsi bottles to get the 3d deposit - it was quite a lucrative way of earning a bit of pocket money. Oh! and the washing up on a Bank Holiday was never ending! Situated opposite Upper Farm, the Wimpy bar was previously a tea garden and now is a restaurant.

Pepsi-Cola And Merry Legs

Castle Mill c1960
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These two ponies belonged to Dorking Riding School and they were popular characters with gentle dispositions. They retired in 1963 to good homes. Pepsi-Cola is in the foreground. I was a groom at the stables and regularly rode them around the area.

Working For British Railway's Southern Region

Deepdene House 1891
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My mother, Valerie Evans, worked for British Railways southern region from 1957 -1960 at Deepdene House. She was a shorthand typist and remembers Deepdene House to be a beautiful building with extensive grounds. She has happy memories of friends in the typing pool.
The building hadn't changed much since 1891 although I don't believe there was a conservatory in 1957.  During her lunch breaks she would play tennis, table tennis and netball or just sit out on the grass and enjoy the scenery.

Not so Much Traffic Then.

Deepdene Avenue c1965
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The photo was taken from the railway bridge and the new dual carriageway was only a year or two old. Round to the right opposite Deepdene Garage was Fairfield Drive and what a lovely area it was to be growing up in. We lived at no 4, the Parsons at no 6 and the Skiltons at no 8 or 10, the Barrows were no 8 or 10, but it was many years ago. The road was full of baby boomers. The Cooke twins lived at no 26  and the Chatfields at no 54. All this was in the 1950s and until the early 1960s. We had a stream to play in (which now runs under flats), there was Bonfire Night on the waste ground with the torch procession round the drive. We moved to a posher Yew Tree Road in 1963.  Hedges each side and now 16 years old and everything changed, but I still have photos of the first car, a little tin pedal job, and tea parties in... Read more

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