Warlingham, Surrey - a walk to discover its history

Come with me on a walk & talk tour of Warlingham, Surrey!
Warlingham has a special place in my heart and my history as I have spent much of my life there through living nearby, attending school and starting my first job there.
I'll take you for a walk and talk about what I see and where some of it reflects back on my earlier life - I hope you enjoy it.
Jump To:
0:00 Intro - walking towards Warlingham Green
2:00 Warlingham Church Hall
3:00 Old National Provincial Bank Branch
4:11 White Lion and Horseshoe pubs
5:09 Warlingham Village Hall
5:58 Warlingham Methodist Church & Halls
6:52 Blanchmans Farm Local Nature Reserve
7:31 Back to the shops at Warlingham Green
10:13 My story about the old NatWest branch
11:18 School Common
12:44 Remaining shops on the third side of the green
14:20 Warlingham Community Library & Shelton Avenue
15:02 Site of Eagle Star Insurance Sports Ground??
16:23 War Memorial on Warlingham Green
17:40 All Saints' Church and Close
Thank you for watching, I really appreciate it.
If you would like to make a contribution towards the costs of making content then please click on the “Thanks” button on any video, or alternatively you can buy me a coffee here: www.buymeacoffee.com/philswallow
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All of my contact details/links are here: bio.site/philswallow
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Website: www.philswallow.com
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I would like to credit the following for use of media in this video:
© OpenStreetMap contributors - the data is available under the Open Database Licence
JOHN PARKIN / Buses outside former Chelsham bus garage / CC BY-SA 2.0
#Warlingham #Surrey #philswalk&talk #localhistory

[@peterclark9677]

Thanks Phil for letting me know

[@loopywren]

Thank you Phil. My friend has moved up from Broadstairs to live in one of the warden assisted homes. It was good to walk round the village and now I can visualise where she is.

[@philswallow]

That’s good to know 😊 - I’ve made some others of the local area too, including a time travel one. Thank you for watching!

[@teresacook6293]

Grew up in Warlingham from 1959 to mid 70s. Worked at Warlingham Park Hospital. Lived in Albert Road. School in Hamsey Green. My son still lives in the area. Great memories. Thanks.

[@valeriesutcliffe-woloszyn7965]

When did the hospital close? What section did you work in? Did you know Pinel House?

[@TheBouncedCat]

The White Lion, evey time I walked into the pub I allways hit my head on the tudor beam by the entrance 😀

[@philswallow]

Haha, you and me both!!

[@MarcoPallotti]

At 14:00 you mention how your local pub changed over time. When I first started going to pubs, we'd hang out at the Good Companions in Hamsey Green, but a year or two later I was friends with a bunch of guys from Warlingham, and we'd go to the Leather Bottle. I remember my mum telling me that in the late 40s she had a boyfriend with a car, and sometimes they'd drive from Brixton, where she lived, to the Leather Bottle. And I remember playing football on Sundays on the Warlingham School Green when I was 16-17.

[@jennibatten630]

I had my first Saturday job in the Post Office, used to get the bus up from Harewood Gardens. We went to the library for years as well.

[@davedrew9328]

Really good I lived in South Croydon 26 years of my life but spent a lot of time in Warlingham as my Brother and my Sister-in-law lived there. They lived past the shops on the Limpsfield Road towards Chesham. Sorry if the spelling is not right.

[@philswallow]

Thanks Dave, it’s Chelsham but no worries mate, have a look at my South Croydon videos too, if you haven’t already! 👍🏻

[@EdwardTBurke-pv3qr]

What an enjoyable bit of nostalgia! As an eleven year old American, I was a student at Warlingham County Secondary School on Tithe Pit Shaw Lane from January 1965 to July 1969. I lived in Kenley, and my route to and from school was the bus from Hamsey Green to Sanderstead Church then to Purley and then walk up Higher Drive to home. Or I could go the back route taking the bus along the valley and then walking up the (long, steep) hill to school. I loved living in England in the mid Sixties, and even considered London to be my home town more than New York City!

[@philswallow]

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Edward! Have you seen my other videos from the local area? I have a few covering Hamsey Green and a "Walk & Talk" on Sanderstead. I have more in the pipeline too so please subscribe to stay in touch 😊

[@adrianrevill7686]

You were there with my sister Susan Revill

[@philswallow]

Hi Adrian!

[@laurenceskinnerton73]

I used to travel through here with my parents and sister to visit my aunt and grandmother.

[@WenNorris]

Hello Phil, this was lovely. I lived in Gresham Avenue and left for Oz in 1984. Just terrific wandering with you. School mates at Warlingham Secondary. I worked in Coes Newsagent's on Thursday Friday after school n Sat, just up from Framptons . Disco night in Village hall and ofcourse the White Lion was , my local - the hippy pub haha.

[@philswallow]

Thanks Wendy! It is a place full of memories, I still go there every week to take Mum to the surgery in Church Road. Glad you liked it 😊

[@EdwardTBurke-pv3qr]

Many thanks again for your videos. It’s nostalgia that gives me the enjoyment watching them; a brief respite from the horrendous tragedy and suffering of my maternal grandparents’ homeland.

[@philswallow]

Many thanks, Edward.

[@tonygriffith4580]

Thank you for that I left the village in 1951 and it has changed a bit since then what I do remember is the swimming pool and the school on the common I went to as a small boy a long time ago but thanks again

[@philswallow]

Thank you Tony, I’ve got some others planned for Warlingham and the local area so stay tuned!

[@peterclark9677]

I SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN THE AREA WHEN I WAS A KID AND WHEN I WAS OLDER IT'S CHANGED A BIT I HAVE FREINDS WHO STILL LIVE THERE

[@Fsrjtyttzma]

I was born in balfont close sanderstead, Hamsey Green was up the road, lol I remember going down to the car dealer there when I was 10 as they had a Cadbury’s crème egg promotion 1972 and the buggers had run out. I’d walked from my new home in homefield road Warlingham with my sister. I also remember going to the lambo dealer in Whyteleafe as a kid as well. Fond memories. Used to drink in the White Lion. Leather bottle was an old man’s pub and the one next to the White lion was full of the local low life from Chelsham. Now in NZ via 15 years in Dubai. Nice vid thanks.

[@philswallow]

Some great memories there mate!

[@Roryn33423]

WHAT A triumphant tour as a m7 yone player i approve of this delightful area i clipped the penta in the community of Warlingham and must say the urban to rural balance is quite delightful to the eye Davis and Moore would also agree as they believe role allocation happens in the school quite local to Warlingham however i feel like the church doesn't get as much respect as it should mainly due to the fantastic architecture of the building but also due to secularisation.

[@ukstates]

Great Video. Like you, I was brought up in Hamsey Green and went to junior school there from 1965 then on to Warlingham Comprehensive, We moved to Warlingham in 1976. I haven't been back there for 30 odd years so it was fascinating to see how it's changed. I seem to remember a bookmakers in one of the flint cottages. There was just a little brass plaque on the wall to indicate what was inside. Keep up the good work.

[@philswallow]

Thanks Michael. Yes, now you mention it I too remember the bookmakers on the Green! I’ve got plenty more planned for the area, once I started the research all sorts of things came to light so the stories will continue 👍🏻

[@grahamlambourne6402]

Another lot of good memories…. Superb. If you had turned left at the Horseshoe pub at Mint Walk, down on the left, before the entrance to the Sports Ground, you would have seen the location of the old open-air swimming pool. We used to go with the Scouts. Last I heard it was now the home of 1st Warlingham Scouts and a pre-school on the same site, with the pool long gone. Having lived in the Hamsey Green area until I was 15 years old, and still living in South Croydon, your walks have certainly jogged the memory bank. I have many more thoughts and stories to add if we ever meet.

[@philswallow]

Thanks Graham, I did not know about that. I looked on a 1963 map and there it is, as you say on the exact site of where the Scout Hut/Pre-School is today. I wonder if there are any photos of it anywhere? Possibly in the library as they had a few aerial ones - I will check when I’m next there. It would be good to meet up, early in the New Year? All of my contact details are on my KZbin channel page or at www.philswallow.com. It’s fun having these trips down memory lane!

[@adrianrevill7686]

I can remember going into the National Provincial with my dad, I always think of it when watching Dad's Army, it was a real old school bank, musty, dark wood, and silent. I must have opened my first bank account about the same time you joined NatWest, never knew you worked there.

[@carolinerashbrook2768]

Hi my uncle don Pryor was the butcher at Baileys butcher shop for many years. His family still live in Warlingham

[@nikonandys]

So many memories, I think the bank building became a Barclays at some point when the Nat West moved over to the other building, Martin Wallbank worked at that Nat West for some time, used to have Bernie Frost (Status Quo producer or manager) as a client. I remember cashing my dole check there many times!! 😂 Remember we did our first gig with Graham Page, Donna Watson, Wendy Snow & Martin Borley at the Church Hall. I have some photos , me & you were in white shirts, you had an acoustic six string & I had my old Rickenbacker bass. Martin was just learning to play the drums & Nick Adams (great rock drummer) put his hands through the curtain & played the drums for Martin as he just sat there & hit the bass drum pedal. 😂 😂 I remember the jumble sales that used to be held at the Church Hall, the discos at "Boppers Hall" (Village Hall) & there used to be a youth club disco some nights at the Methodist Church Hall. By the time we played gigs at the Village Hall we were actually not bad musicians. When we took a break during a gig Martin Wallbank did a quick boogie woogie solo on the keyboards & Graham did his dj-ing with his turntables. Mike Watson did the sound & lighting for us, Steve Stimson,Gary Constable & Dean Pushong ran the bar, made quite a healthy profit if I remember correctly.

[@MrChiptatum]

warlingham is so beautiful but so expensive

[@joyfaulkner8807]

Its been great looking at your walk and talk. I use to live in warlingham crewes avenue. But moved back to my roots near Burton on trent staffs. It bought back fond memories. Will catch up again with some more of your places round warlingham..

[@philswallow]

Thanks Joy, so glad you enjoyed this, it means a lot. I keep uncovering things during my local history research so will have more stories to tell for sure!

[@rscurran]

414 Limpsfield Road was Stedman’s butchers. I know it was also a letting agency for a while (Valley Homes) then it was a furniture shop. Now it has been taken by Streeter Marshall.

[@EdwardTBurke-pv3qr]

I watched the Sanderstead and Hamsey Green videos and also the one on Kenley aerodrome. I lived less than a KM away from the air field, yet did not know anything about it. If you went to Warlingham School in the Seventies, perhaps we had many of the same teachers together.

[@philswallow]

I expect so, Mr Baker, Mr Henley and both Mr Wilmshursts, perhaps?

[@barrywinsor6390]

Hi Phil just seen your videos on Warlingham. I worked in Warlingham for 20 years at E C Bailys butchers & in December 1994 took over as the owner of it but kept E C Baily & Son as a shop name.. Lots change now since I closed the doors in 2006 😢😢

[@philswallow]

Hi Barry, the rate of change seems to be getting quicker! Thankfully Warlingham seems to have fairly ongoing shop use unlike some of the local towns nowadays.

[@stephenwatson2024]

Yes eagle star sports ground was there. I'm pretty sure Man Utd trained at greenacres which is almost next door and where I frequented for many a year.

[@TheDenihunter]

Really enjoyed that Phil and love your channel.As an expat its so great to hear and see my old stomping ground.I think we used to go to Palace together back in the day.

[@philswallow]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it 🙏🏻- I've got more planned in the local area so stay tuned!

[@Fsrjtyttzma]

Off license correct! Unwins, I remember bumping into Ian wright one day in there.

[@MarkJohnson-cs4ur]

Phil. Hi Old chap. Away on holiday and thought I’d do some KZbin surfing….turned up your video. Excellent…!! Have also had a peep at some of the others. Gardners airfield really interesting and link to Overhill. Keep them coming. Mark.

[@philswallow]

Cheers mate, hope all is good with you. Loads planned, some take quite a bit of researching but I think it’s worth digging into the details as it makes for better films. Stay tuned! 😁

[@MarkJohnson-cs4ur]

@@philswallow Yes all good with us. Say Hi to Sue as well… I’ll be watching. Have forwarded, see if you get any responses. If you manage to turn up a picture of the pre 1974/5 Leathwoods. Let me know. The old building was a quintessential village garage. Unfortunately I have no records just remember the workshop with my Dad.👍👍

[@philswallow]

Will do, I’ll check my sources and see what I can find, cheers mate.

[@chrisward347]

Nice informative walk mate, thanks

[@philswallow]

Cheers buddy!

[@lisadunning1503]

I enjoyed your film. Bill Coe was the Newsagents and Framptons was the sweet shop next door. Eagle Star was in the field opposite the allotments and the vicarage field. It became Shelton Sports and we're now expecting a plannning application for houses. I didn't know about Manchester United - interesting.

[@philswallow]

Thanks Lisa, was it Framptons that stayed open late - in the days when everything closed at 5:30pm? I seem to remember that. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@lisadunning1503]

@@philswallow Sorry, I don't remember that.

[@grahampage2146]

Great video. It was great showing my children and grandchildren. Sloucombs was the old name of the estate agents with the olde sweet shoppe next door. Lloyds radio used to be where hyders was and wallace jewelers next door. It was nice also reading Andrews comments. He is one of the funniest guys I have ever met. Look forward to more videos.

[@philswallow]

Cheers Graham! Lots more planned 😊

[@grahampage2146]

by the way did you see our record was used on planetnameddesire channel on youtube and someone did an extended mix only a couple of months ago. weird. 74t7 lol

[@philswallow]

Haha, I didn’t know that - did they retitle it? Any royalties??!! 😂

[@grahampage2146]

@@philswallow its basically the same but twice as long. same title, fingers crossed for royalties lol

[@grahampage2146]

I messaged you on facebook

[@janetsullivan6062]

Coop was once called Barons

[@nikonandys]

What a coincidence, Laura was saying to me a couple of days ago "why don't you ask Phil to do a walk around Warlingham so you can see how it;'s changed", & boom there it is. You must be a mind reader! Great video mate, brings back a ton of memories but a bit sad that it's changed so much, still what should I expect after being gone for 30 years?

[@philswallow]

Great minds!!

[@EdwardTBurke-pv3qr]

I had Oliver David Wilmshurst for Maths, Mr. Arnold for English, Miss Morgan for French, Mr. George taught Art, Mr. Henley sounds familiar, Mr. Spice had piloted Hurricanes and Spitfires in WW2, but was too young for the Battle of Britain, had him for Maths. Can see his face and hear his voice, but can’t remember the name of my Latin teacher. Can’t remember the name of our Geography teacher, but learned she died in an accidental fall years later on a school field trip. How about doing a video on Purley? My Mom, Dad and I lived on Foxley Lane for a few months before our new construction house on Langham Dene in Kenley was complete. John Surtees lived on Foxley Lane and I used to see him race at Brands Hatch. My Dad loved horse racing, and we would go to all the tracks nearby. As I said, from eleven to sixteen, I loved living in England, and the area from Purley to Caterham was home.

[@philswallow]

Wow, great recollection Edward. Miss Tate sadly lost her life along with some pupils at Lulworth Cove in Dorset. Tragic, I remember it on News at Ten, she was our geography teacher at the time. Purley is on my list, along with South Croydon.

[@philswallow]

Hi Edward, Purley video is now live! kzbin.info/www/bejne/apqzmXiYpciDh5o

[@peterclark9677]

Is tithe pit shaw mobile homes still there i wonder I have an old .mate that lives there

[@philswallow]

Yes they are, Peter

[@janetsullivan6062]

Son flowers used to be a sweet shop 70s

[@janetsullivan6062]

Bakery was where hardware store is

[@valeriesutcliffe-woloszyn7965]

Where was the mental hospital that was taken down for homes?

[@philswallow]

It is now GreatPark in Warlingham, Valerie

[@janetsullivan6062]

Sports ground closed

[@janetsullivan6062]

Maggie’s was were valgreys is

[@janetsullivan6062]

Courts butchers and post office