Our Local History: a collection of original articles

Gardner’s Tea Rooms, Kenley, and Court Farm Pleasure Ground, Warlingham

A presentation in old photos by Gwyneth Fookes and Roger Packham. It is here made available for your interest and amusement. To download the presentation in pdf format please follow this link. Please note that this is a large file (8.4 MB, so please be patient.

Old Coulsdon: A Pictorial Presentation by Margaret Davison

Take a tour of Old Coulsdon and its history in around 150 pictures, old and new, with descriptive captions. To download this exceptional presentation in pdf, please follow this link.

The River Wandle

A talk by Gwyneth Fookes originally delivered at the Bourne Society forum meeting on 4 March 2009, now revised with captions replacing spoken words. The talk is lavishly illustrated with over a hundred photographs, maps, and other images, so please wait patiently for it to download. To download the talk in pdf format please follow this link.

Some East Surrey Churches in Pictures

photographed by Robert Warner, with explanatory captions. Based on Forum talks given to the Bourne Society in 2012 and 2013.
For convenience the album is divided alphabetically into three parts in pdf format, each of which may be downloaded separately by following the appropriate ‘download’ link:
Part 1: Addington to Chelsham. Download
Part 2: Chipstead to Limpsfield. Download
Part 3: Lingfield to Woldingham. Download

100 Editions of Local History Records

Robert Warner and Gwyneth Fookes had prepared a Powerpoint presentation for the April 2020 forum meeting based on 100 editions of Local History Records. Sadly, this meeting coincided with the beginning of lockdown. A great deal of work had gone into this presentation, so to prevent it going to waste it was agreed to make the projected pages freely available on this website as a continuous pdf file.

To download the presentation in pdf format please follow this link.

The Shops and Shopping Parades of Coulsdon & Old Coulsdon, Surrey, from 1914 to 2018

Free download of tables collated in association with articles written by Margaret Davison & Jean Emery for the Bourne Society Local History Records.

Between August 2014 and May 2017 the Bourne Society Local History Records carried a comprehensive history of shops in Coulsdon and Old Coulsdon, Surrey. The complete survey was issued in twelve consecutive parts under the titles:
‘Over 100 Years of Shopping in Coulsdon’, by Margaret Davison & Jean Emery, parts I to VIII, LHR, vol. 80, August 2014 to vol. 87, May 2016.
‘The Shopping Parades of Coulsdon and Old Coulsdon’, by Margaret Davison, parts I to IV, LHR, vol. 88, August 2016 to vol. 91, May 2017.

The text of these articles was based on an extensive series of tables assembled by the authors from archival material, directories, maps, and local knowledge. These tables provide immediate reference to all addresses in Coulsdon and Old Coulsdon that are or were once occupied by shops, together with the businesses that over the past century have operated from them. The tables have never before been published, but are here made available for public download.

To download the tables please click or tap here.


Gwyneth Fookes awarded the British Empire Medal

Click or tap here to read a brief biography of Gwyneth, written on the occasion of her receipt of the British Empire Medal in the New Year’s Honours List 2017.

A view of The Restored Asprey Fountain in Caterham Valley

The Asprey Fountain

A Concise History of Caterham

Click or tap here to download a concise illustrated history of Caterham condensed into two sheets. These are edited copies of the two information boards located behind the Asprey Fountain in Caterham Valley, courtesy of Gwyneth Fookes and Robert Warner.

A Concise History of Warlingham

Click or tap here to download a concise illustrated history of Warlingham condensed into five sheets of words and pictures prepared by Ken Harman, with contributions by Roger Packham and Robert Warner.

A Concise History of Sanderstead

Click or tap here to download a concise illustrated history of Sanderstead condensed into five sheets of words and pictures prepared by Ken Harman, with contributions by Roger Packham and Robert Warner.


The History of Manor Park, Whyteleafe

Click or tap here to download Gwyneth Fookes’s ‘History of Manor Park, Whyteleafe’ first printed in Local History Records, vol. 26, 1987, pp. 10-15.

For a summary of the above article in two handy print-ready sheets of maps and plans, please click or tap here. These were drawn by Gwyneth for the benefit of those who accompany her very popular midsummer guided walks around the park, in a tradition pioneered by James Batley many years ago. We look forward to the next walk in the summer of 2017.


Snapshots in Time: Coulsdon 2000

Snapshots in Time, otherwise known as ‘Coulsdon 2000’, was a projected publication commissioned by Coulsdon residents which intended to record for posterity the many aspects of daily life in Coulsdon in the year 2000. Edited by Pauline Payne, it featured around 150 photographs by Andrew Scott. For various reasons the book never materialised in print format, but some years later the Bourne Society agreed to place an electronic version on the website. To download Part 1, consisting of 82 pages in PDF format, please click or tap here.


Businesses in the Whyteleafe area from Victorian times

A view of Whyteleafe in 1992

Peter Skuse, a former vice-president of the Bourne Society, has collected together and analysed details of the shops and businesses that have operated in the Whyteleafe area from 1842 until the present day. The material, which has been collected from a variety of sources, shows details of the business name, the proprietor and the address where known.

In some cases only the road name is known, or in others only a more general description of the location. The information is presented as a table with the data sorted by the address, firstly by road or street name and then by number where this is known. Please click or tap on Whyteleafe Businesses to get a full sized display of the complete table, which you may read and/or print on your own computer.