Worcester Park

Read and share memories of Worcester Park and Surrey inspired by Frith photos

Barrow Hill

My father bought the land on Barrow Hill, and built a house called Carrick Lodge (1961). I am not sure that everyone at the bottom of the hill were totally impressed with the house although it did not effect the view. We did have our dogs poisoned however with rat killer! I used to cycle to and from the station down the Avenue as I was nursing at Epson District Hospital.
The fields adjacent to the house had retired horses on it and I have fond memories of my father breaking the ice on the water trough so the horses could drink, they all became good friends and were all named by us! It was a wonderful place to live and ...read more here
Contributed by marian hogan

Worcester Park from the bridge

I lived in Worcester Park from when I was born (1939) until early 1956 when I joined the RAF as an apprentice. The lad in the picture (W455012) could so easily have been me (it isn't) because I was often there looking in the model shop window, as he is. Memories of Keil Kraft and Jetex and balsa wood and plastic cement.....
The picture is actually taken from the lower slopes of the ramp leading up to the station, on the left. The road dropped down behind the camera to the right, under the railway bridge which was too low to accommodate ordinary double-deckers. In the shopping parade in the distance can be seen the shop of ...read more here
Contributed by Alan Lowe

Worcester Park, Central Road

The concrete streetlamps only appeared in the mid-1950s. Before then, the street lights were puny strutures housing ONE electric bulb. Everything was very dark at night. You would think that all the motorists would drive around on dipped beams, but no...Everyone drove on sidelights as use of headlamps was thought to induce glare. Motorists who used their headlamps were much disliked.

When the new lamps were installed they contained state-of-the-art sodium bulbs. At first they were disliked because the lamp posts were considered ugly, and because the yellow light was revolutionary. As a young boy, I thought to myself "Yeah, but at least you can see where you're going now."

Then there were the pre-war-built 213 buses - awful ...read more here
Contributed by Tony Kerr

The Bakers

I remember Mr Morley, who owned the bakers at the corner of Longfellow Road, roping the bread delivery cart , fully loaded, to the back of his old Ford car and pulling it up the hill to his shop at the top , with the delivery man, who only had part of one arm, swinging between the shafts of the cart. The poor old delivery man's feet barely touched the ground with the rear metal support wheels striking sparks from the road every time the cart lurched back onto the wheels. If the rope had given way, the cart plus the dangling delivery man would have gone backwards down the hill! Health and safety was not the same in those days. ...read more here
Contributed by Bryan McCansh