Carshalton and local memories
John Parkin wrote.....
John when a young school boy
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My early years
I was born on 2nd July 1950 at 5 Smallholdings, Little Woodcote Estate, in Carshalton, the roads now being known as the “Telegraph Track”. The house, which is still there today, is a short distance up from the Woodmansterne Road entrance to the Oaks Park. Some years ago, my late Mother told me that I was a “home birth”. As a family we lived with my grandparents, my granddad growing flowers. These houses, of quite distinctive character, were built for veterans of the First World War, of which my grandfather, Harry Robinson, was one. I think they were owned by Surrey County Council. Carshalton, of course was an Urban District within that County until the formation of the London Borough of Sutton. My father, an orphan, came from Yorkshire, whilst my mother’s family were from Croydon, my nanny’s maiden name being Potter. It was the Second World War, which brought my parents together. One of my mother’s sisters (she had two sisters and two brothers) had been evacuated to South Wales, where she later made her family home. |
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My mother, Isabella (Bella) Robinson, met my father to be, Thomas (Billy) Parkin, who was wearing army uniform, on a train and the rest, as they say, is history. They were married immediately after the cessation of the war at the former George Street Congregational Church in Croydon. Living on the Smallholdings, as we always knew them, meant that we had a life of fresh air – as my mother recalled. I was always out in the garden. After all, what entertainment was there indoors – no television, no telephone or videos and only the occasional listening to my grandparents’ wireless. My father would make a “soap box cart” for us to ride on along the driveway. The Oaks Park was a short walk down the road so the love of the countryside started at a very tender age.
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Thomas (Billy) Parkin, John's father
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However we were not confined to home, far from it. My first school was in Woodmansterne and my brother Norman and I walked there in all weathers (I recall the heavy snowfalls we used to get), taking the path alongside the Oaks Park and then along Carshalton Road – the education authorities provided an escort for a group of us from the Smallholdings. There used to be a small shop up to the crossroads and turning right. It was owned by a Mrs. Lane and I recall my brother and I walking there one day to find that she had sadly died. “Bunny”, I think he was called, ran the cycle shop in Ross Parade and his family lived on the Smallholdings. He told me that he often used to carry my nanny’s bag from Boundary Corner, where she would have alighted from the trolleybus. If you look at the names on the Smallholdings today (2008) there are still a number of families who have been living there for generations. I lived in the family home from July 1950 until 1959, when my granddad retired and moved to Croydon Lane in Banstead. We could no longer live there as a family, so we were put on the council waiting list for a council house. We moved to temporary accommodation, provided by Surrey County Council, firstly near Witley, secondly in a prefab in Kingston and then to a house called “Oakdene” in Denmark Road, in Carshalton which, I believe, is now the site of the Council offices. Later that year we were fortunate to move into a house in Stanhope Road, Carshalton-On-The-Hill, an area known as “Little Jerusalem”. The large houses in nearby Stanley Road were built as hotels on the assumption that Carshalton Beeches Railway Station would in fact have been nearer than it is!!
What else do I recall about life on the Smallholdings? The milkman came with a horse and cart and as far as I recall he delivered on a Sunday as well and I remember wonderful tasting bottled orange juice. We had blackberries at the far end of the land behind the house and this must have led to my continuing to pick blackberries in the autumns nowadays. The land backed onto the old Queen Mary’s Hospital. We would use Carshalton Beeches Station for train trips to the seaside and life has turned full circle, as for the past eight years I have been working at the station selling tickets for rail travel. But my greatest public transport memories are of the 654 trolleybus route, which was to finish in March 1959 – as I write these notes it is almost fifty years since motorbuses took over, at the start of the London trolleybus conversion programme, which culminated at Fulwell depot in 1962. We travelled most weekends to Croydon, on Saturdays to the shops – Surrey Street market was a favourite; my father got his haircut in a row of shops which were demolished long ago and which were passed by the 630 trolleybus route – Croydon Tramlink now operates where the rows of shops used to be, on both sides of the road, leading to the old Pitlake Bridge; and finally my Dad bought our first television at the Reeves store in 1959. On Sundays, Mum, my brother Norman and I took the trolleybus to Reeves Corner and walked to the George Street Congregational Church, where I was christened – this church building is no longer there. We would go to London at Christmas time and visit Selfridges to see Father Christmas and “Uncle Holly” (remember him?); we would take the 234 (double deck RT bus) or 234A (single deck RF with a conductor) to Purley to see the latest Norman Wisdom film and we might take an RF on the 213 from Beeches Avenue to the Downs at Belmont, for walks across the chalk hills. Rather than carrying a pushchair on to a bus, my Mum had two friends on the walk to the bus stops, where she could leave the pushchair to be picked up later. In the fifties, after leaving the top of Boundary Road and entering the Telegraph Track, it was possible to see the radar devices from the relatively nearby Croydon Airport. One final thing I recall – a fowl pest outbreak on nearby farms, when I saw chickens being thrown onto the fires. At the time we had recently bought some young chicks, but they were kept well clear of any visitors!! Talking of animals, the Crusaders Hall at Boundary Corner has been the venue for Missionary Mart auction sales for very many years. It must have been towards the end of 1958 that we went to an auction and bought a rabbit for five shillings – we named him Timothy.
I recall going just once to Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon in Wallington (now the “Whispering Moon” Wetherspoons pub); however Norman and I were regulars at Sutton Granada, taking the trolleybus from Boundary Corner into Sutton. For 6d (that’s two and a half pence in today’s money) we had a full morning’s entertainment. There were a couple of cartoons; a short film (maybe from the Children’s Film Foundation, possibly a documentary); a full length feature film and of course the weekly serial – it would finish with such a cliff hanger that you would want to return “same time, same place, next week”. There was pre-film entertainment, with the organ, which rose from beneath the floor, with some singing, including “We’re one for all, and all for one, the Sutton Grenadiers”. That was part of growing up in the fifties and sixties – going out for entertainment and mixing with other people. If the film broke, everyone would stamp their feet and I recall children occasionally letting off stink bombs; however as the cinema, in Carshalton Road, was opposite the Police Station, this wasn’t too much of a problem!! At Christmas and on your birthday there was a voucher for free admission and some free refreshments – those were the days indeed!!
The Stanhope Road Years
When we first moved to Stanhope Road there were some corner shops just a short distance away, separated by a coal yard (which was subsequently turned over to flats) – one of these sold fish and chips. There were also corner shops in Stanley Road and on the corner of Stanhope Road and a larger number in nearby Stanley Park Road – my mother liked to buy ham from Abbots on the corner of Stanley Road. All the corner shops have gone – but in those days there were no supermarkets and few people had cars. The nearest telephone was in Stanley Road – it was to be over twenty years before we first had one at home. We had an open fire, which would also heat water, in a big “copper” and with little or no other heating in the house, the family grouped together in the living room and of course we sat down at the table to take meals together – a far cry from the takeaway meals of 2008!! My father always used to count the bags of coal when they were delivered!! Gas for cooking was paid for my meter – so the gasman would come periodically to empty it. We also had the Corona man, delivering a range of soft drinks, including “dandelion and burdock”. I would cycle a great deal, not just to school, but for leisure and once went to Guildford and on another occasion to Shepherds Bush – I didn’t tell my parents”. My father, who worked as a gardener at St. Helier Hospital (he cycled to and from work) grew fruit and vegetables in the back garden and had some very tall sunflowers!! Whilst he was still alive I used to walk alongside the Oaks Park to my granddad’s home in Croydon Lane in Banstead. My grandparents are buried in the Parish Church in Banstead and my parents at Bandon Hill.
What else do I recall about life on the Smallholdings? The milkman came with a horse and cart and as far as I recall he delivered on a Sunday as well and I remember wonderful tasting bottled orange juice. We had blackberries at the far end of the land behind the house and this must have led to my continuing to pick blackberries in the autumns nowadays. The land backed onto the old Queen Mary’s Hospital. We would use Carshalton Beeches Station for train trips to the seaside and life has turned full circle, as for the past eight years I have been working at the station selling tickets for rail travel. But my greatest public transport memories are of the 654 trolleybus route, which was to finish in March 1959 – as I write these notes it is almost fifty years since motorbuses took over, at the start of the London trolleybus conversion programme, which culminated at Fulwell depot in 1962. We travelled most weekends to Croydon, on Saturdays to the shops – Surrey Street market was a favourite; my father got his haircut in a row of shops which were demolished long ago and which were passed by the 630 trolleybus route – Croydon Tramlink now operates where the rows of shops used to be, on both sides of the road, leading to the old Pitlake Bridge; and finally my Dad bought our first television at the Reeves store in 1959. On Sundays, Mum, my brother Norman and I took the trolleybus to Reeves Corner and walked to the George Street Congregational Church, where I was christened – this church building is no longer there. We would go to London at Christmas time and visit Selfridges to see Father Christmas and “Uncle Holly” (remember him?); we would take the 234 (double deck RT bus) or 234A (single deck RF with a conductor) to Purley to see the latest Norman Wisdom film and we might take an RF on the 213 from Beeches Avenue to the Downs at Belmont, for walks across the chalk hills. Rather than carrying a pushchair on to a bus, my Mum had two friends on the walk to the bus stops, where she could leave the pushchair to be picked up later. In the fifties, after leaving the top of Boundary Road and entering the Telegraph Track, it was possible to see the radar devices from the relatively nearby Croydon Airport. One final thing I recall – a fowl pest outbreak on nearby farms, when I saw chickens being thrown onto the fires. At the time we had recently bought some young chicks, but they were kept well clear of any visitors!! Talking of animals, the Crusaders Hall at Boundary Corner has been the venue for Missionary Mart auction sales for very many years. It must have been towards the end of 1958 that we went to an auction and bought a rabbit for five shillings – we named him Timothy.
I recall going just once to Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon in Wallington (now the “Whispering Moon” Wetherspoons pub); however Norman and I were regulars at Sutton Granada, taking the trolleybus from Boundary Corner into Sutton. For 6d (that’s two and a half pence in today’s money) we had a full morning’s entertainment. There were a couple of cartoons; a short film (maybe from the Children’s Film Foundation, possibly a documentary); a full length feature film and of course the weekly serial – it would finish with such a cliff hanger that you would want to return “same time, same place, next week”. There was pre-film entertainment, with the organ, which rose from beneath the floor, with some singing, including “We’re one for all, and all for one, the Sutton Grenadiers”. That was part of growing up in the fifties and sixties – going out for entertainment and mixing with other people. If the film broke, everyone would stamp their feet and I recall children occasionally letting off stink bombs; however as the cinema, in Carshalton Road, was opposite the Police Station, this wasn’t too much of a problem!! At Christmas and on your birthday there was a voucher for free admission and some free refreshments – those were the days indeed!!
The Stanhope Road Years
When we first moved to Stanhope Road there were some corner shops just a short distance away, separated by a coal yard (which was subsequently turned over to flats) – one of these sold fish and chips. There were also corner shops in Stanley Road and on the corner of Stanhope Road and a larger number in nearby Stanley Park Road – my mother liked to buy ham from Abbots on the corner of Stanley Road. All the corner shops have gone – but in those days there were no supermarkets and few people had cars. The nearest telephone was in Stanley Road – it was to be over twenty years before we first had one at home. We had an open fire, which would also heat water, in a big “copper” and with little or no other heating in the house, the family grouped together in the living room and of course we sat down at the table to take meals together – a far cry from the takeaway meals of 2008!! My father always used to count the bags of coal when they were delivered!! Gas for cooking was paid for my meter – so the gasman would come periodically to empty it. We also had the Corona man, delivering a range of soft drinks, including “dandelion and burdock”. I would cycle a great deal, not just to school, but for leisure and once went to Guildford and on another occasion to Shepherds Bush – I didn’t tell my parents”. My father, who worked as a gardener at St. Helier Hospital (he cycled to and from work) grew fruit and vegetables in the back garden and had some very tall sunflowers!! Whilst he was still alive I used to walk alongside the Oaks Park to my granddad’s home in Croydon Lane in Banstead. My grandparents are buried in the Parish Church in Banstead and my parents at Bandon Hill.
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The School Years
When I was living temporarily in Denmark Road, I went to Camden Road School. It is interesting that some 40 years later I should run Scout meetings in the school hall, when I was Scout Leader with 6th Carshalton. In 1961 I went to senior school – Carshalton West, at Wrythe Green, where the boys were downstairs and the girls upstairs (the girls now have the full school). In 1963 we combined with Tweedale and the new school was in Winchcombe Road. I took the 157 bus to school, in the days when there was a conductor. When I travelled to Carshalton West, I found I could save an old halfpenny, by alighting at Carshalton Station and walking the rest of the way. But then this was worthwhile for a penny lolly at Coopers at Wrythe Green. Rather than having school meals I would often go to Rose Hill to a café, or others in Ruskin Road or at Wallington Green, or I would have fish and chips at Rose Hill. |
Two RT-type buses waiting on the bus stand at Wrythe Green
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10th Wallington (Holmwood) Camp 1950 – with Bob Davidson (far right)
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The Scouting Years
Scouting was part of my life from 1958 until about 2005. I joined the 10th Wallington (Holmwood) Boy Scout Group in the Wolf Cubs at the age of eight – meetings were held in Holmwood Hall. I continued as a Scout and Senior Scout and then became a leader and I held a warrant for some 36 years. During my Scout leadership, having left the 8th Wallington (the 10th had merged with the 8th in 1968) I moved to 1st Belmont and subsequently 6th Carshalton. My first Summer Camp was near Tenterden in Kent – in those days we would hire a removal lorry (often Humphreys from Cranfield Road in Carshalton) – the camping gear would be loaded and the Scouts would sit on top – health and safety wasn’t an issue in those days. In 1964 we went to the Lake District by steam train. Throughout my time in Scouting I travelled widely, not only camping but also youth hostelling trips, taking the boys to every corner of England, Wales and Scotland, including the Isle of Skye. Nearer to home we held some camps in the Oaks Park and at Coulsdon, sometimes taking trek carts across the Smallholdings. |
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For many years, following the amalgamation of the 8th and 10th I could (and indeed have) written a book on Scouting!! For many years I ran the Scout meetings in the Stafford Road hall at Christ Church in Wallington, now occupied by the Sainsbury’s supermarket. We had bi-monthly church parades there too, whilst jumble sales and Fayres were a regular feature.
The Church Years Since attending Wolf Cub church parades, I have been involved at Wallington’s United Reformed Church, on the corner of Stanley Park Road and Holmwood Gardens, and have been a member for many years. I also attended parades at Christ Church in Wallington and recall the halls, with the cellars. |
Queue for a jumble sale at Stafford Road Hall
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It is interesting to note that when, many years ago, the local council wished to widen the road, by taking church land, it was agreed that if they built a wall then this could go ahead. The trams had recently been withdrawn, so the granite setts between the tram lines were taken up and used to make the wall – I have one as a souvenir!!
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The Transport Interest
I have always maintained an interest in public transport, particularly the local trolleybuses and buses and their routes. I recall many bus routes which no longer operate in this part of London and the vehicles which have long since disappeared from public service. As the conductor operated buses gradually disappeared, I took photographs of the last journeys, sometimes with the crew posing in front of them. For example I have some lovely flash pictures taken at the Wallington Belmont Road terminus (this was the main bus terminal point from the north when it was a low bridge at Wallington Station) of the last crew buses on routes 115 and 115A (worked by buses from Thornton Heath Garage). During the long hot summer of 1976 I photographed the last RF single deck buses on routes 80 and 80A out of Sutton Garage. When the last 154 bus ran via Ruskin Road and Park Lane (the roads covered earlier by both trams and trolleybuses) I photographed the last one (DMS type) driven by Johnny Gardener, who had started as a trolleybus driver in 1959. The following morning, 23rd April 1977, I rode and photographed the first 154 bus on its new route via Carshalton Beeches and the full length of Stanley Park Road. There are many memories I have of the local buses, far too numerous to mention here. |
The last crew-operated 115 bus at the Melbourne Road terminus before single-deck driver only buses commence their duties the next day
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And then there are the local trains. I recall the semaphore signal gantry at Sutton; the signal box at Wallington just before it was being demolished; the sidings at Wallington, where some trains started in the very early mornings. Then there were the fast trains from Victoria to the coast, which called at Sutton and overtook stopping trains at Cheam (which explains why the two platforms are so far apart); there were through tracks. I have many railway tickets, both day and seasons which I was issued with over the years. At Carshalton Beeches Station, where I spent almost ten years selling tickets until I took early retirement from the railways in January 2010, there were regular platform staff and I remember one, known as Taffy, who said he used to walk from Wallington, where he lived, along the track to get to work. The barrier was manned until the last train. With the introduction of Oyster Cards, ticket gates have been introduced at this station and thus, once again, staff are available throughout the traffic hours. I am fortunate that because I was employed by British Rail before the privatisation of the railway network, I have retained my travel concessions, which enable me to continue to enjoy travel throughout Britain.
Words and images Copyright © John Parkin
John's memories of local transport in Carshalton may be found on the Transport Memories page - he may be contacted by email by clicking HERE
Posted 16 July 2008
John's memories of local transport in Carshalton may be found on the Transport Memories page - he may be contacted by email by clicking HERE
Posted 16 July 2008
