One Of My Playgrounds

A Memory of Coulsdon.

I lived in Tollers Lane, Old Coulsdon and would regularly go to the Marlpit Lane rec' to play rounders, football and hide and seek around the memorial. There was a hole in the chain-link fence behind the memorial which gave us access into the working chalk pits and the goods yard and sidings of Coulsdon North Station. We hunted for lizards and slow worms amongst the debris and building materials stacked in the goods yard and ate our picnics in the 1st Class carraiges of the trains parked in the sidings.
In later years I would stop off for pop at the cafe in the rec' on my way home to Coulsdon Rise from Chipstead Valley School or Coulsdon South Station.