My Husband's memories of Brighton Road: A memory of Surbiton

My Husband's Memories Of Brighton Road

A Memory of Surbiton.

My name is Robert Madgwick and from the age of 3 I lived at 80, Brighton Road with my 3 sisters and David Clements and his family. I remember Harper's Paper Shop - my sister Rosemary had a paper round there. I think the shop next to the Black Lion was called Holtons, in Maple Road. I remember Susan Dunford and, until recently David Clements worked with her in Unichem, Chessington. I sang in the choir at St. Andrew's Church until 1957. I left Brighton Road in 1964 and now live in Sussex.

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Added 15 February 2014

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my name is Susan Reeve ,my Grand mothers Father was a coach builder for Madgwicks in the late 1800 to early 1900. His surname was Randall.
Are you any relation to Madgwicks coach builders?

By Susan Reeve on Thu May 22nd 2025, at 2:03 pm

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Hello Susan, I'm Robert Madgwick's wife, Joy. He doesn't use the Internet, so he is dictating this to me! We don't think the Madgwick family were coachbuilders, he remembers a firm of coach builders in London Road called Chamberlain's, they lived in a cottage next to the yard. This was in the 1950's. Old Mrs. Chamberlain always dressed all in black and walked with a stick, the children were frightened of her. Robert's father worked for Pannells, who were next door to number 80, when they used horses for deliveries. When they used lorries he had to leave as he couldn't drive. The newsagent where Robert's elder sister Rose was a paper girl used to pay her in toffee apples and occasional tickets to the circus, instead of wages!

By Joy Madgwick on Tue May 27th 2025, at 6:24 pm

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