Nostalgic memories of Epsom's local history
Share your own memories of Epsom and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying Memories 11 - 20 of 26 in total
I left school at 16 and went to work for Sir Freddie Laker of Laker Airways fame. I was a stud hand at his stud farm in Woodcote - The Woodcote Stud. He provided a bedsit just outside Epsom opposite a pub (can't remember the name). I used to get paid £9.50 a week and used to go straight down to the local snooker hall on the High Street and play all the jockeys. I learnt to play snooker very well very ...see more
Just a little way down Fir Tree Road from where this was taken, was the home and surgery of my childhood doctor - Dr Smallshaw. I remember him as a kindly man, and his surgery smelt of surgical spirit and his waiting room had dark leather chairs.
I have very happy memories of tugging a little plastic boat on a piece of string on this pond. Often sail boats would become becalmed in the middle of the pond and you would have to wait patiently for them to reach the shore. I remember this willow tree very well.
This is the parade of shops as l remember it from my childhood. I remember at the top of the parade, a butcher's shop, Leila the hairdresser (run by my friend's mum Joyce), which was next to the optician, a grocery store, the post office, and at the very bottom used to be the Fir Tree tea rooms. Beyond that was the garage, and then the Drift Bridge Hotel where l spent many a Saturday night nursing a rum and pineapple in ...see more
My partner Tim and I have owned this shop since 1999. This has been a family busines for 12 years with our daughter Amanda helping us. This was originally the "paper shop" which is how many older resdents of the village still refer to it however over the years it has been extended and is now a "village shop" and in fact is the last shop in the village (apart from the small one in the garage). We have removed the side ...see more
This building was owned by my mother's family, the Longleys, from about 1915. 93 High Street was the head office of Longley & Broadhead, a firm of estate agents ran by my great-grandfather Henry B. Longley (of Woodcote Hall) and later by my grandfather Leslie B. Longley, for over 50 years until L&B was incorporated into Osenton & Lamden in 1969. However, the Longley family retained ownership of 93-95 High ...see more
During the Second World War, as youngsters we would look forward to the Saturday mornig matinee at the Odeon cinema (4th building on the left of photo). Entrance was thruppence (three pennies). With our pocket money we would lash out on a penny peashooter with a packet of peas, the matinee used to start with a sing-along followed by a cartoon, then two half-hour films, the last being a western serial. One ...see more
Back in 1944 then being 13 years of age I was admitted into the Cottage Hospital in Epsom to have my tonsils removed. I recall at the time the only other person in the ward was a soldier at the far end of the ward, who each time the pretty nurse came in he tried to get her onto the bed for a kiss. One day during an air raid warning a doodlebug [V1 rocket] was heard approaching with the motor cutting out just before getting ...see more
Above "The Woolwich" (c1987-91) on the corner of Waterloo Road rhs also Mike Burton's "Radfords" Electrical Installation Design Consultants moved from 2a East Street(1984- 87) then to Church Street c1991-94. Mike now works from home near Plaistow, Sussex.
In our early teens we used to go to the Nell Gwynne, upstairs in the 'coffee bar' where we had what I believe was the worlds first Nickelodeon (manual version). We paid the lady 3d, I think it was, and she put our favourite record on the record player on the counter and we listened while we chatted. Anybody out there remember the Lecture Hall School in Upper High Street (circa 1943/44)? Headmistress was a Miss Gray. I ...see more
