The Plough, Stoke D'Abernon

Yes, I used to go into Four Ways on rare occasions (for ice cream perhaps?), but more usually Gale's Stores on the Tilt, where I was fascinated by the bacon slicer - and was partial to the bacon itself.

Later on, when I was at Reed's, it was The Plough that was the attraction. In 1975 or thereabout you could get 5 pints of Mild for just over £1. Or there was the infamous Watney's Red Barrel - dreadful stuff. You had to be careful where you sat as various old chaps in flat caps had their seats in the public bar (on the left-hand side of the door, where beer was cheaper than in the saloon bar on the right). If one of the old boys came in and gave you a meaningful look, you knew to move! How I wished I'd chatted to them and picked their brains for memories of times past, when Stoke D'Abernon was still a quiet backwater.

The wooden bus shelter was another local 'landmark', where very occasionally, at unpredictable times of day, a green RF single-decker on the 462 from Leatherhead would call. I think I travelled on it once, or twice at the most, as the service seemed to be completely random, as its successor. The C1 Chatterbus, though, is a great improvement, a true community bus.

Farther down Station Road, near the village hall, there was the Forge, a rather mysterious place - I never knew what went on there but was sad that the authorities allowed it to be demolished and replaced with yet more houses. My earliest memories of the railway are of the very last steam-hauled goods train taking empty coal wagons out of the goods yard in January 1965.

By contrast with the irrational 462 timetable, the Southern Region's trains were mostly quite predictable in the 60s, heading off at the same times twice an hour in each direction all through the day bearing headcode 42. I could check for myself, as our house in Evelyn Way overlooked the railway. The trains were 1950s-built 4 EPB units, originally painted a smart green and panelled inside in wood. The seats were well-padded and rather bouncy - at speed, the EPBs and their shabbier, formica-panelled predecessors the aptly named 4 SUBs could give a 'lively' ride. Some of the carriages were of the compartment type, which were tightly packed in winter and, as many people still smoked, the compartment was usually filled with a fug of tobacco smoke and steam gently rising from damp overcoats in winter. For the young, elderly or inexperienced passenger there were the additional hazards of steamed-up windows, incomprehensible announcements at stations (none in the train itself in those days) and door catches that could be exceedingly hard to open from the inside. In the mid-60s, a dark suit, hat, rolled umbrella, briefcase and folded newspaper were de rigueur for the homebound City men traipsing along the well-worn path through the Rec (Stoke Recreation Ground) to Evelyn Way and the middle section of Blundel Lane.

The pillar box is still there on the corner of Blundel Lane, though the magnificent chestnut tree was chopped down a number of years ago. In spring, this corner, the Field of Hope, is a glory of daffodils planted in memory of various local people who passed.

I'm researching the history of Blundel Lane and would dearly love to find photos or hear of memories that relate to it.