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Memories of Carshalton High Street

Alan Hare wrote.....
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Alan as a young lad
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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.
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Traditional Express Dairy horse and cart
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Carshalton High Street 1967
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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?

Words and images Copyright ©​ Alan Hare
Posted 28 January 2013
The Friends of Honeywood Museum
A Registered Incorporated Charity - ​CIO No. 1175789


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  • Home
    • Latest News
    • History of Honeywood
    • Find Us
    • Contact Us
    • Accessibility
    • Pastimes
    • Links
  • What's On
    • Events
    • Regular Events
    • Exhibitions
    • Online Exhibitions >
      • Painted Wandle
      • Picture Postcard Page
      • No Place Like Home
      • Story of The Oaks
  • Shop
  • Garden Project
    • Front Garden
    • Back Garden >
      • French Windows
      • Well
      • Raised Beds
      • Greenhouse
      • Northwest Corner
      • Rectangular Pond
      • Oval Pond
      • Water System
      • South Side
      • Belfry
    • Garden Blog
  • The Friends
    • Volunteers
    • Acquisitions
    • In Memoriam
    • Acknowledgements
    • Privacy Notice
  • Nearby
    • Beddington Park >
      • Beddington Park Audio Visual
    • Little Holland House
    • The Old Rectory CORA
  • Archive
    • Events >
      • Platinum Jubilee 2022
      • Open House 2020
      • Spooky Afternoon 2015
      • Carshalton on Sea 2015
      • Alices Mad Tea Party 2015
      • WW1 Centenary 2014
      • Model Rail 2013
      • Olympic Torch 2012
      • Museum Status 2007
      • Maid of the Oaks 2007
      • Other Events >
        • Horse Play 2007
        • Top Sutton Attraction 2007
        • VE Day 2007
      • Yarn Bombers
    • History >
      • Birds Eye View 2011
      • Carshalton Park Grotto
      • Culvers Lodge
      • Honeywood
      • Springs and Watercourses
      • Sutton Lodge
      • The Oaks
      • The Oaks Info Boards
      • The Old Rectory
      • Wallington Green & Holy Trinity Church
    • Memories >
      • 20th Century Stories
      • Carshalton Carnival 1952
      • Carshalton High Street
      • Carshalton Memories
      • Carshalton on the Hill
      • Coronation Day Morden 1953
      • Echoes of my past
      • Growing up around Sutton
      • Growing up in Station Road Carshalton 1945-79
      • Wallington in the 50s and 60s
    • People >
      • Lionel Tertis
      • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
    • Transport
  • Search