Carshalton High Street

Memories of Carshalton High Street

Alan Hare wrote.....

Alan as a young lad

Westcroft House Billiard Room

In the early 1940's I lived in the Westcroft house billiard room annexe with my family, which in around 1935-40 was converted by the council for domestic use. My earliest vague memory is laying in my cot in our Anderson shelter with about a foot of water beneath me. It was towards the end of the Second World War and we had an Anderson shelter in our garden. The house has since had the glass tower removed, But when we lived there all the heat in the winter used to go straight up and out through the glass roof! I remember the bomb shelter that was by the front of our house near the pavement to the high street and just opposite "hazels" garage, There was also a public bomb shelter just outside our garden next to the bowling green.

My father was a conductor on the 654 trolleybus route that went from Bushy Green in Sutton to Crystal Palace. I have many memories of going back and forth on the upper deck. In about 1950 my father worked for the express dairy in Shorts Road using a horse and cart. Bessie was the name of his regular horse and Smokey was his standby one. I remember delivering milk to "Ellis" the blacksmiths in Carshalton High Street in about 1948 and being fascinated by the huge open furnace. The blacksmith would hammer away on the anvil creating a sound I can still hear. After my father had stopped using the horse and carts he used an electric cart, the type that you walked in front of!

I also recall having a friend who lived in one of a group of tiny houses in Church Hill, next to All Saints church. They did not have electricity so they had to go to the local garage and charge the "accumulator" for their radio.

Traditional Express Dairy horse and cart

Carshalton High Street 1967

Ellis Blacksmiths

The only lights they had, of course, were gas ones. Hazel garage's petrol pumps used to swing out to the road on what I would call gantries or stanchion (pictured above left). How things have changed!

Its rather sad that the old Ellis shed/building is decaying so fast (pictured above right). Is there anything that can be done? I think it would be a good idea to have this old blacksmiths as a museum?