Purley
Purley maps (2 available)
Map of Surrey
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Purley books (18 available)
Purley memories
Read and share memories of Purley and Surrey inspired by Frith photos
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 that I living under the roof of people I didn't know. Up to that time I lived with my parents, brother and sister and if and when we went on holidays etc I was always in the company of a family member. I remember seeing the actual school looking gray and forbidding as I got closer to it. Music has ...read more here
Contributed by David Donnan
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 on one of the side streets off Dartmouth Road and one day the handbrake broke and I had to leave it in gear. My uncle helped run "Days Garage" on Sydenham Park Road. It was originally owned by a Peter Day (no relation). Today there are houses built over the old garage. My neighbour worked in the china shop along ...read more here
Contributed by Raymond Day
Surrey memories
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 on one of the side streets off Dartmouth Road and one day the handbrake broke and I had to leave it in gear. My uncle helped run "Days Garage" on Sydenham Park Road. It was originally owned by a Peter Day (no relation). Today there are houses built over the old garage. My neighbour worked in the china shop along ...read more here
A memory of Purley contributed by Raymond Day
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 that I living under the roof of people I didn't know. Up to that time I lived with my parents, brother and sister and if and when we went on holidays etc I was always in the company of a family member. I remember seeing the actual school looking gray and forbidding as I got closer to it. Music has ...read more here
A memory of Purley contributed by David Donnan
Extracts From Purley & Surrey books
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 buildings of the Woodmansterne Treatment Works, belonging to the Sutton and East Surrey Water Company, are just visible.
An extract from from"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.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
The station, on the branch line from Sutton to Epsom Downs, opened in 1865, and the white stuccoed house, now a builder’s offices, dates from around the same time. The small confectionery kiosk was one of a trio servicing the requirements of commuters, with other branches at Sutton and Epsom. The roof of the station no longer bears the white lettering, and the building is almost a mile from the town centre itself. The road almost immediately makes another sharp bend over the railway line below, before passing the Cuddington Golf Clubhouse and continuing on to East Ewell.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
Originally founded for ladies in the autumn of 1890, the club admitted gentlemen to membership within a year, and from a tin hut close to Banstead Railway Station it moved to this site in Burdon Lane nine years later. A putting green was added in 1923, and further major development took place in the years after this photograph was taken.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".
Situated on the corner of Sandy Lane, these courts, flanked by suburban houses, now form part of Cheam Fields Club. The pavilion in the background, although substantially altered, has also survived to the present day.
An extract from from"Around Cheam, including Sutton, Ewell, Banstead and Epsom Photographic Memories".