Donkey In The High Street

I don't remember the donkey, however from the description of the garden and the wall it makes me think that your memory is of the house belonging to the Paynter (?) family who had a fish shop on the opposite side of the road which became Woolworths.

Mind you its a long time ago and I could be totally wrong!

On the subject of donkeys, my mother who worked through WW2 running a NAAFI van to gun sites, sometimes collected me from the kindergarten at Hookstead School on the corner of Beacon Road and Goldsmiths Avenue, with a donkey named Jenny who I rode back to Harlequin Lane.

I too went to Hookstead School but only from 1962-64. There were wonderful rhododendrons which we would play amongst and a tennis court in what seemed like a vast garden. There was an old lady who lived alone in a tiny old bungalow next to the entrance to the school.

I wonder if you are thinking of Fernbank? This was pulled down many years ago and is now the Fernbank Complex.

If you don't have it already you may wish to find Bygone Crowborough by Malcolm Payne and Luther Batchelor.