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Westcott

Westcott photos

Displaying the first of 68 old photos of Westcott.   View all Westcott photos

68
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Westcott maps

Historic maps of Westcott and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Westcott maps

Westcott area books

Displaying 1 of 16 books about Westcott and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Westcott

Westcott memories
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Displaying a selection of personal memories of Westcott.
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The Crown

I was landlord of the Crown from 1971 to 1973.  I was only 19 and apparently the youngest landlord in England at the time.  My father, Bernard Edmund had been landord at the Prince of Wales  across the road, for many years.   We had some wonderful times at The Crown.

Surrey memories

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

Wedding Day

Wesleyan Church 1905
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My wife and I were married in this church on the 30th March 1957. I had spent most of the first twenty five years as a Sunday School member and later as a full member of the Methodist Church.

Working For The Southern Railway Company

Deepdene House 1891
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I started work for the first time on 31st December 1946 as a messenger in the Bridge Section of the Chief Civil Engineers Department of the Southern Railway. Our offices were situated on the whole of the top floor of the building. Then on the 1st January 1947 the railways were nationalised and I worked for the Railway Executive at Deepedene until I was called up for National Service in 1951.

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