Growing Up In Old Coulsdon 1946 67

A Memory of Old Coulsdon.

I was born at 274 Coulsdon Road in 1946, my father had a business in Caterham-on-the-Hill and my paternal grandparents lived at 31 Canons Hill - all my childhood was spent in the area so I have a lot of memories! The Tudor Rose pub No.270, landlord Bobby Lorimer (florid face) he drove a Sunbeam Rapier convertible, his sons Paul, David, Robert & Brian were good friends, David & I planted two Willow trees in the pub garden, I think one has survived, at 272 lived Bob & Marjorie Neobard, their front garden full of Daffs in the Spring. I went to Downland nursery school at age 5, headmistress Miss Martin, at seven I went to St.Annes Prep school for boys in Purley and caught the bus outside Cullens every morning (no lifts in those days). Other shops I remember are Olivers the sweet shop and grocers (Mr Oliver was a big fat man) that later became 'Pay'n'take', Brants the Newsagent (Alan Brant often did my paper round for me when I overslept), Skingles the Butcher. Our house had a long garden backing onto the boy's school, previously a brickyard, I dug a pond in the clay which simply filled with water, but I remember our garden flooding every time it rained hard. Later on in the sixties the Ginsbury's moved in opposite, David, Raymond and their sister who's name I can't remember, they lived with their grandmother. Also living opposite was Tim Edwards who lived with is Mother, we used to play chess in the evenings sometimes, he was going to be a policeman but we lost touch when I moved. I remember Placehouse lane which was the 190 bus route, being re-laid with reinforced concrete by Mears Bros. and a friend I knew from school called Steven Vickers lived there. I used to ride my bike down in the woods behind the golf course (then Coulsdon Court) and especially along Caterham drive and up at the back of Kenley aerodrome where we could get into the air-raid shelters - in the early 50's part of Coulsdon Common was still used by the army and I remember shooting ranges in amongst the trees. At the Caterham end of the common was the Fox pub and in, what was then an ultra-modern house, nearby lived Barry who had muscular Dystrophy next door was a school friend called Bruce Glover and his father drove a Lee Francis, my father told me that Humphrey Lyttleton used to play at the Fox.
If anyone has a personal memory of Old Coulsdon and wants a chat please send me an e-mail colin@puttick.org