Worcester Park, Surrey

Barrow Hill

My father bought the land on Barrow Hill, and built a house called Carrick Lodge (1961). I am not sure that everyone at the bottom of the hill were totally impressed with the house although it did not effect the view. We did have our dogs poisoned however with rat killer! I used to cycle to and from the station down... [more]

Worcester Park from the bridge

I lived in Worcester Park from when I was born (1939) until early 1956 when I joined the RAF as an apprentice. The lad in the picture (W455012) could so easily have been me (it isn't) because I was often there looking in the model shop window, as he is. Memories of Keil Kraft and Jetex and balsa wood... [more]

The Bakers

I remember Mr Morley, who owned the bakers at the corner of Longfellow Road, roping the bread delivery cart , fully loaded, to the back of his old Ford car and pulling it up the hill to his shop at the top , with the delivery man, who only had part of one arm, swinging between the shafts of the cart.... [more]

Worcester Park, Central Road

The concrete streetlamps only appeared in the mid-1950s. Before then, the street lights were puny strutures housing ONE electric bulb. Everything was very dark at night. You would think that all the motorists would drive around on dipped beams, but no...Everyone drove on sidelights as use of headlamps was thought to induce glare. Motorists who used their headlamps were much disliked.[more]

Pam Cook and Mr Morley the baker

Pam lived with her family in Washington Road and on leaving school at  first worked with Mr Morely the baker in his Longfellow Road shop, helping to keep the books and doing counter work.
Years later when Pam was 24 we were married in St Philip's Church - now no longer there.

Morley's bakery

Morley was a funny old chap, he ran a top bakery but was rather miffed when 'these 'ere new fangled electric vehicles' started being used for home deliveries ... his response was as the previous poster related - to pull his wooden delivery carts to the top of the steep Central Road hill behind his car and let his delivery men... [more]

Houses in The Avenue

I lived in Woodlands Avenue and used to walk down The Avenue every day in term time to catch the bus to Kingston. At that time many of the big houses were still standing but one by one, probably as the owners died or they became too much for them, they were demolished and flats built. Even today there are some... [more]

School

John Major, who lived with his parents in Longfellow Road, started school this year, 1948, in CHEAM COMMON ... which was Balmoral Road School when I was there in 1932! His father's garden ornaments were sold from the family shop in Central Road.
Yes! He did become Prime Minister.

Sutton Photographic Memories

Worcester Park is situated north- west of Sutton along Malden Road. Until the railway arrived in 1859 the area was predominantly agricultural, with only a few farmhouses and cottages. This is a view of Central Road, originally called Cheam Common Hill. This area was extensively rebuilt in the 1930s, when a tide of semi- detached housing swept across the fields. The buildings on the right, Caldbeck Parade, were built in 1932, while on the... [more]

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.