Coulsdon, The Recreation Ground c.1960

Photo ref: C165050

More about this scene

Woodmansterne Station, situated in Coulsdon, did not arrive until 1932 and, although some distance from the old village, it was an impor- tant factor in the development of new roads off Rectory Lane as well as the profusion of roads in west Coulsdon. The photographic record importantly shows the villages at different stages of their expansion and repays careful study in understanding the way they have evolved. This record can be useful- ly supplemented by several other sources includ- ing official records, local newspapers and per- sonal reminiscences. Of the latter W G Gardner, station-master at Coulsdon South from 1891, recorded in 1916 the growth of the parish from a hamlet to an urban district: `Red Lion Green was a Green in every particular in those days. Very few houses were in existence excepting the old thatched cottages facing the Chipstead Valley Road. …Cornfields were seen where the Fairdene Estate now rises whilst High Street, Coulsdon [Brighton Road] did not exist. Truly a revolution in the short space of a quarter of a century.` In 1962 Mrs C Nicholls, born in 1872, recalled walking to St John`s School, Bradmore Green from Hooley: `We used to walk up to the Star [near Star Lane], turn left over the railway bridge, through lanes and across Farthing Down, then more lanes. We also had this walk when I and my sisters attended St John`s Church for Sunday School. Later I remember going to Sunday School in a tin hut situated where the Comrades Club now stands… We children used to wait by the side of the main road for the London and Brighton stage coaches, The Age, The Comet and Old Times, to pass, when we called out "throw out your mouldy coppers." One gentleman thought he was tossing down a halfpenny but it turned out to be a golden sovereign…Mother walked to Croydon to shop pushing a perambulator with wooden wheels and iron tyres and I often went too…There were only about six shops in what is now called Coulsdon but which was then known as Smitham Bottom. They were all in old cottages converted to shops. The nearest station was Caterham Junction [Purley]. When I first knew Chipstead Valley, the road was only a nar- row lane, with rough flint surface and no lighting. The only traffic was an occasional farm wagon or flock of sheep…The fields where Richmond and Alexander Roads are now always used to have lots of poppies and looked very pretty`.