Back in the old days
Recollections of Lower Kingswood
Lower Kingswood is a vastly changed area these days. There are still some very old houses in the village.
One in Lovelands Lane dates back to the 1500s. The Sportsman public house is also very old;
Dents Farm is another old building and there is another one behind the Mint Arms public house.
This area is shown on old maps as Cheesley Town. There was originally an older Mint Arms, but this was built further back from Buckland Road.
The A217 was not made into a dual carriageway until the 1970s. Long before the days of motor vehicles,
there were stagecoaches running along it as the original road from Brighton to London and there was a tollgate at
Red Lion Hill, now the site of the Dorking or Tadworth (depending on how long you have lived here) roundabout.
There was another toll?gate by the Yew Tree Pub at the bottom of Reigate Hill.
Lower Kingswood used to belong to the Parish of St. Mary's at Ewell, and people from the village used to
walk there for services. This is why residents of Lower Kingswood are still eligible for grants from the
Ewell Trust Charity.
 The Fox and the hunt
The Fox public house (now called The Fox on the Hill) stands on a site where there was an old building of
which there are photographs and there was a large pond on the opposite side of the road
(now the middle of the dual carriageway). Traction engines used it to fill up with water after
labouring up Reigate Hill. It was also a temptation to local children as one elderly late resident told
us some years ago - he would be playing by the pond instead of going to choir practice!
There are photos in the 1920s of the local hunt meeting there too. It did look nice there in my youth with a
large area of grass. The old AA box stood on the corner by the Wisdom of God Church; this was
modelled on the bell tower of the church. It went to the Automobile Association's Reading museum but
fell into disrepair. There was also a police box there.
When the A217 was a single carriageway road, it was very attractive with lots of beech trees, especially
the Chipstead Lane end going up Church Hill where it looked like an avenue.
However, these trees did cause damage when they fell on vehicles, even in some instances causing deaths.
The Church Hall
The Church Hall was built in the 1930s by the local building firm of Mees Brothers and opened in 1938.
There had been a collection by villagers to build a hall on land opposite the Recreation ground,
but this land was sold for building and the money put into a trust fund, known as The Village Trust.
Local village organisations can benefit from this money, and it has helped in many ways to this day.
There was also a hall called the Womens' Institute, this was on the A217 almost opposite Josephine Avenue.
This hall was very well used for dances, church services, infant welfare, drama groups and youth groups -
we even had film shows there. It finished being used in 1951 when nearly everything moved up to the
Church Hall and even today many of those organisations still use this Hall.
The Infant Welfare Clinic is still run on the first Monday of each month. A doctor is always there to
see the young ones between 2.00pm and 4.00pm; but the existence of this Clinic continues to be
under threat if it is not used.
There were cafes and tearooms in the village, and also a transport cafe called the Cambridge Cafe
near the Kingswood Village Club (formerly known as the Mens' Village Club and originally called
the Reading Rooms when it was first built) on the A217; the structure of the former and its sign
is still visible today.
Drainage
The main drainage for the village was done in the early 1950s. Beechen Lane and Josephine Avenue
were not made up until the 1950s, so there was many rocky patches there - a potential hazard for those
riding bicycles. There are of course still some areas not on main drainage even now. The council
originally dealt with the waste emptying service, but now it is a private concern and is expensive to
some, especially in the Mogador area.
Lower Kingswood School
Lower Kingswood School (now called Kingswood Primary School) was opened in 1893 and originally consisted
of just one building; for many years pupils stayed there until they left school. At one time soup was
served for children who couldn't get home, especially from the areas of the Margery, Mogador and Mugswell.
Winters were much harder then with plenty of snow, and in the days when milk was given to each
child it was often stood on the radiators to unfreeze. The school also had gardens, which
the children were allowed to work in. This area is now used for the staff car park and the
adjacent building - called Fl Unit.
The girls and boys were separated at play times. The boys were on the right hand side and the
girls on the left, the railings that separated them can still be seen on the left of the school office.
It was just one building, and it seems amazing that there were three classrooms with many children
attending school there. The school took part in a lot of activities, such as swimming,
when we travelled on the 406 bus to Reigate swimming baths. We were taught by a very strict chap,
pulling us along by a rope and a piece of material round our middles.
There was also much country dancing, which was lovely. District sports events were also held.
Street Lighting
Street lighting arrived in the village in the 1950s. Of course no one felt at risk in those days
and girls would walk over the Margery footpath to guides etc. without worries. The public transport
was excellent: the green 406 bus ran to Redhill from Kingston via the A217 and the red 80 bus running
to Tooting terminated at the Mint Arms for many years, after turning off the A217 from what was
called the Canada Hut (now the BP service station). Both of these buses ran every twenty minutes.
There was also the green line coach from High Wycombe to Reigate via the A217; this was a super service
as it ran through London and one could go to the theatre and catch the coach home from
Northumberland Avenue to the Fox getting in about 12.30am.
Shops
There were many village shops: bakers, butchers, clothing & haberdashery, fishmongers, grocery shops
and shoe repairs making us very self sufficient, but there has not been a bank here.
The Windmill Press (originally occupying all of the Kingswood Fields business park) was a large
employer of local people - many of them walking to work; also many couples met and married from there.
Also the insurance company Legal & General employed (and continues to employ) many of
its staff from the village and around. There was also an engineering works and a dairy too.
We always had our own curate who lived at the old Church House, now the area known as Church Close;
the local builders Mees Brothers built the new Church House in the 1960s. There was always a very
good church choir and, of course, a large congregation with services several times a day.
There was a flourishing Sunday school, so it's nice to see that the Junior Church is doing so well these days.
There always seemed lots to do, there were lots of dances held and, as with today,
there were a number of organisations including: Scouts and Rovers, Cubs, Brownies, Guides,
youth clubs and drama groups; there was also a Mens' Fellowship club, British Legion,
Young Wives group, Mothers Union, cricket club and football clubs.
Colley Hill was a popular spot for the young people to explore and spend all day on climbing up
and down the hill and looking for the seven springs - even though no-one seemed to find all seven!
The common (as we called Walton Heath) was a great playground where boys and girls would
play all day, building bracken houses etc. There always seemed to be common fires and a call
would go out somehow around the village and one could see children rushing up
Mogador by foot or if lucky on a bike to help put it out, the firemen never seemed to mind us
being there, with our pieces of birch whacking the flames.
Farms
There were several farms too, which were worked as farms. Wrights had Dents Farm, where again many
local people worked, and where raspberries and strawberries, plums and mushrooms were all grown.
There was a large pig farm at Dents Farm for many years and also at Beechurst.
The area where the mushroom sheds were originally, is now Dents Grove; it was also previously a
brickyard and a lorry depot.
It all seems so different now, as we all mostly knew each other around the village,
but when I walk through Margery Woods and see the bluebells I feel life hasn't changed that much -
that is until the noise of the traffic on the M25 roars at me!
Judy Parfitt
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