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Inside The Oaks

A Memory of Carshalton.

I too remember The Oaks House with fondness. Aged 12 yrs old I used to cycle there from Purley & found a hole in the boarding on a window, so crept inside. The staircase was stunning but damaged, there was a fire hose left trailed down it and I understood that there had been a fire there some time before, so I never dared climb far upstairs in case the stairs or floors above gave way. The room that really caught my imagination was what looked like a Ballroom. A very large long room with an immensely high ceiling and of course completely empty, the windows were boarded up. I remember the walls & ceiling were decorated & even though the pictures or mirrors had been removed it still held an air of dilapidated grandeur. The building on the whole fascinated me & for a whole summer I kept returning. Then life took a turn & I went off to Boarding school, never to be able to return. Especially as it was obvious that I wasn't supposed to go inside. I still treasure my memories of the house & am sad to think that it had to be demolished.

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Added 08 March 2013

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1940-1943 as a boy of 10 and living in Banstead Rd I use to pay in the Oaks Park as it was just down the road from my house and use to watch the home guard practicing
there
Brian Shiers

By Brian Shiers on Wed Nov 4th 2015, at 4:46 pm

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Thanks for commenting on my post. It is interesting to hear your war time reminiscences of The Oaks. My experiences were in 1952-3, very much peace time by that time. I had an aunt & uncle who lived in Winkworth Rd, Banstead, so I was really intending to cycle to visit them, but stopped for a break at the wall that surrounded the property & a hole in the wall beside the road invited me into the grounds & hence on to explore the empty old house. Carol

By Carol Hebert on Thu Nov 5th 2015, at 7:15 am

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I only remember the house as stones marking out the foundations/foot print of the building so that must have been after 1955. We would past the Oaks from walking across Banstead Downs & come out onto the Croydon Lane where we would crossed to a style & then across or round the field (now Mayfield lavender) & enter Rose Cottage (in Carlshalton Lane) via the back garden. A great, great aunt lived at the cottage. I believe was in service or somehow connected with The Oaks when a young girl. My Grandfather's maternal Grandfather & then an uncle (stepping into dead man's shoes!) were the game keeper(s) for the estate.

By Mrs Susan Bishop King on Wed Aug 14th 2019, at 3:25 pm

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