Purley, Surrey

Sunny Sunday afternoons.

I remember every sunny Sunday myself and group of friends inclusing Maria M, Susan, Jules and others, we used to walk from Carshalton and Beddington through to Purley to go to the open air swimming pool. It was a fantastic time. We would take a packed lunch and spend the day there, it was brill, a really great memory.

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Reedham orphanage

My father died just before I was born and my mother had to put my brother and I into Reedham orphanage.  I was still on a potty as I remember complaining that I was now old enough to go on the toilet and have some privacy.  I remember a row of potties along a wall oposite the tiny 'grown up' toilets... [more]

My three years at Reedham

I recall walking past the gate-house with my mother on a Tuesday afternoon in March 1950. I was to start my lustrous career there for a period of three years, leaving in March 1953.
Starting there was an real shock to the system. I was eleven years old at the time and this was the first time in my life... [more]

Swimming at Reedham Orphanage

I went to Whyteleafe Grammar school. At the time it was an all girls grammar school. We used to go on a coach to swim at Reedham Orphanage. I didn't know how to swim and I can remember to this day, telling Miss Edwards, the phys ed. teacher who was very strict, that I had read in a... [more]

Working in Dartmouth Road

I worked at the gas board showroom on Dartmouth Road. It was next door to the bank on the corner of London Road. As well as selling gas appliances and receiving payment on gas bills we used to sell bags of "shillingsis!" for consumers to feed their slot meters. Black men used to call them punch meters! I used to park... [more]

Growing up in Purley

When I lived in Purley, there weren't many stores.  I can remember when Sainsbury's opened across from Purley Fountain.  There was a toy shop in the High Street called Morgan's.  I stole a whistle from there when I was not very old.  I can remember it to this day.  It was yellow plastic with one of those pea things in that... [more]

Norfolk - A Second Selection Photographic Memories

This small town stands on a inlet of the River Wensum. Lothbroc, a Danish king, landed at Reedham in an open boat when he was driven ashore during a violent storm. Built in the Elizabethan style, the orphanage has room for one hundred children.

Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories

Nestled in the rear slopes of the North Downs, the village derives its ancient name from the Saxon word 'wudmeresthorn', meaning 'thornbush by the boundary of the wood', and was mentioned in the Domesday Book. This 1930s mock-Tudor shopping parade still stands on Rectory Lane as it winds its way south to the junction with the Chipstead Valley Road, where the... [more]

Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories

Much of Banstead High Street was rebuilt during the 1920s with a series of shopping parades. The leafless lime tree in the middle distance occupies the spot where the village pond once existed, while All Saints' churchyard is concealed behind the trees on the extreme right.