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McDermotts, the best Fish + Chip Shop in the area. 👍

Sorry I missed this live again! Watching the replay and it's full of the usually tidbits of local information. I need to find a way of reminding myself when you are on!! I forgot to share the story of Simon Rodger (aka Jolly), the former Crystal Palace midfielder. He lived next door to my Mum in Osward in Forestdale and used to walk his dog on the meadow / field between the Pumping station & cottages and Falconwood. Apparently while walking his dog his foot went down a rabbit hole and he twisted his ankle which meant that he missed quite a few games! I always wondered if after that incident the Club offered to make sure someone else walked his dog?

Praying 🙏 Phil I am Praying we can save it. Thankyou seriously appreciate you this building is so special. Thankyou for trying I will be watching from February like a hawk Thankyou

Keep up the great work 👍 love the snippets idea 💡 👏

Hi Phil

I was part of Warlingham CS School’s senior choir and my claim to fame? I sang on the Blue Peter Xmas show three times and got my silver badge as a result. By then of course the badges were plastic… white with a blue ship and then blue with a silver ship. I have no idea if they still do this. I think it was because our music teacher at the time, I think Mr Henley, had a friend that worked in the music dept. of the Blue Peter studio’s 🤔

Used to work at Home Office in Lunar and Apollo Houses on Wellesley Rd in early 80s lots of memories thanks fir the great vid 👍

I found your video really interesting, I have lived in Forestdale for 3 years now and enjoy a lot of local walks, and always think how truly lucky we are as it’s a lovely area😊 I’m really interested in the history of Forestdale thanks for making a very interesting and well researched video 😊 oh I have always thought it would be lovely to see Forestdale from the air, particularly above Courtwood Lane I’d love to see it if you ever do any more footage 😊

Very informative. I lived on and off in Shaw Crescent from 1956 to 1999, frequently walked the area, but knew so little about it till watching your video. Thank you.

Cheers phil great video. I remember st giles used to have an indoor swimming pool, became a Kingdom hall.

Interesting video. I used to work at Warlingham Park Hospital in the 70's.I used to drink in one of the pubs in Warlingham; might have been the White Lion. Danny Kirwan (Fleetwood Mac) used to drink there.

Excellent video which brought back some happy memories for me as I used to live at the other end in Tillingdown Lane in 1970. I was recently checking out another You Tube video on this area about rumored paranormal activity on the bit where you crossed over to the other side of the A22 leading up to the former Tillingdown Farm area. When I was younger I used to take walks in that area too. Beautiful countryside. I see on older maps there was a small racecourse behind the farm which I assume was where the owner you were referring to did some of the racehorse training.

Very good as always........just a small query do you have a drone now for some of the aerial shots ......though they are only a small part of the whole video

Prior to 91-93 church street being the Tech shop it was a toy shop. Dotty Toy's my mum use to own it. When we had the store we were not allowed to change the windows or touch the interior. The celing was low and over in the back left hand corner the floor went from painted woood to kitchen tile. The front looked very similar to the Singer shop. From what we found out 91-93 dates back from 1500. The ground floor was used for keeping live stock, and the owner lived above. At the time most of that end of Croydon still had the remenance of the Palace so me and mum assumed that the building was part of the old palace complex.

Thanks, another great video. Know so much of that area from childhood, walking from Selsdon to Forestdale School, swimming at St Giles, skateboarding everywhere 😊

I used to live in Falconwood Road. I remember doing some gardening in the front garden one day when a fairly old gentleman was walking by and stopped to talk. He said that he remembered farming the area where we were standing with a steam plough.

I've lived on Forestdale for 31 years, we walk along those footpaths often and I used to play golf on that course. It was lovely to learn a bit more about the area, your videos are always so well researched and enjoyable to watch. Thank you for creating this Phil, keep up the great work.

Thanks Philip Thanks this is brilliant thankyou 😊

Another Great video. 😃👍

I lived in Shirley all my life, many house parties there over the years 😂 it’s good to see this done well mate 👏

I know this area really well. As kids we went to Courtwood School on Courtwood Lane and on Wednesdays we walked with our PE teacher to St Giles School to use their pool! I was also friends with a kid called William whose Dad managed the pumping station and he lived in one of the cottages. He was a very honest boy! We also learned to play golf at that Golf Club as a kid! Kate Moss and her family lived at 11 Osward a few yards from where Windy Ridge would have stood. Love the drone footage too!!

Marvelous video... Only found your channel recently, and I'm going through the back catalogue with interest. I was 10 in 1967, and remember a white geodetic dome on the edge of the forestdale estate which I think was a marketing and sales office. I've never been able to find any mention of it whatsoever. It became a fun play area for children once it was abandoned. During those years I used to explore and play all around the area, at the time I attended Gilbert Scott junior school. Which was very close by. Additionally my maternal grandfather was an engineer at the waterworks until his death in 1955, I believe. Anyways, thank you so much for sparking the memories of my youth in this area. Please keep up the interesting content. Well done. Cheers Bob.

Brilliant as always

Brilliant thanks for shearing keep up the great work 👍🏻

Brilliant loved it very interesting

Yet another great video cheers phil

Superb video. Thank you for this and for the work you do to preserve this important and historic building.

Lovley video

Hi Phil. I'm new to your channel. I grew up in Shirley Croydon in the 60's and 70's would love for you to go around Shirley

didnt kenly have some sort of rocket system at the end of one of the runways that fired up as a german raider flew low. I ask this as i read it in a book called the hardest day 18th august 1940 by alfred price when the luftwaffe did a low level raid of the airfield.

my father was based there when with 615 squadron, his bedroom received a direct hit on eales day and he lost his logbook which had all his flights in France with no1 squadron, he was blown into a shelter by a close explosion, some of the bombs on adlers day had landed in the coal supply and his car was filles with coal however happily his car was not damaged as were others as they were all parked in the hangars which received direct hits so his car was used as a taxi for runs into town. he was also repremanded for setting on fire the officers mess after a good bash , when 615 was sent on rest he was sent to south africa to train pilots he later came back for a second tour on mossies

Excellent description with very good animations. Broadcast quality. Building at risk is important as historic townscape and not just for its history and first uses. An object lesson in variety and sequence/flow. A treat and a real You Tube find.

Another great interesting video alot of information, brings back alot of memories from the past

Nice to see a video of a different side of Croydon compared with others on YT. Any idea why it was called "Spurgeon's Bridge"? In addition to the swimming baths which I used to to a lot, I also went to Selhurst Grammar school down Scarbrook Road when it had an overflow school there to add to the school at The Crescent. It was almost next to the baths.

Cracking upload

Circa 1970 a unit of our tactical signals wing did an exercise at Kenley. Some of the lads being inquisitive, went to look in the hangers, although they were secure, they could see that they were packed with WW2 vehicles all mothballed as war reserve.

I lived in Purley 1966 to 71. Remember the Sainsbury's and Gilwins dress shop ? I was 6 when we moved. I lived in Highland Road and went to Reedham Park School , Old Lodge Lane. Anyone remember Miss Routledge? Please do a walk through Bletchingley, Nutfield and South Nutfield!!

The Addington engine is a beauty, particularly as it appears to be "unrestored", and still carrying its original finish.

The old airport at Speke Liverpool has a similar heritage

When I was a child in the 80's there were a Lot More rocks 🪨 To me they look like Durham limestone pavement type stones . I think over the years the majority of the stones have now been stolen . My father used to take his old Opel Kadett C Series special saloon in Saphire Blue to the Garage there to get his tracking done . The mystery is . Where the stones brought in from somewhere else and arranged there . Or do the come from the remains of a much older feature that was dismantled from nearby . Maybe it was a Barrow ? There lies the mystery Knowing what kind of rock they are would help to pinpoint the origion location .

Addington Village has always fascinated me and I have returned time and time again in some respect and for different reasons . St Mary's Church is lovely and the smallest part to the East is in fact the oldest and dates to 1080 . In the spring there Graveyard is very attractive with all the Primula's and Polyanthus wild around the heastones . Lion Lodge has always fascinated me . And Spout Hill being named after the spout . If you walked further up the hill . It used to be possible to walk in and into the Sycamore woods , that looked fabulous when the Native Bluebells are out . The Addington Spring rises there and it was once a covered spring and who knows maybe locals gathered their drinking or washing water there . But no phograph evidence of the covered spring seems to have surfaced . There is also an empty rectangular hole next to that where a Water tank once was . The spring rises in the Blackheath Series gravels and the stream runs down over the thanet sand , a short distance to The Spout which supposedly is the Cretaceous upper chalk . A roughly Rectangular looking pond full of sediment and Flag Irises . I maybe wrong , but it could well be the flooded foundation of a medievel building that filled up with alluvial deposits . I found a few bottles there dating to the early 20's in a man made mound of dirt and underneath was a section of wall with brick and flint , much like your tall walls on Spout Hill itself . What I found was likely of the same age , but looking at Ordinance survey maps what I found was outside of the current day Lion lodge interior area into the golf course land . I have found the Slag for an outdoor Iron furnace a Bloomery in the side of the short downward running stream . Also fragments of pottery . 4th Century white St Albans ware ( roman ) and other fragment going up to the 15th century in the stream bed . Another time I found 60% of what I think is a 18th century bowl 🥣 There are more signs of evidence of walls being cut by the stream . But what age they are I dont know . All I know is in the last 2000 years since Roman times , a lot of human disturbance as well as natural gravity have moved the vacinity downhill . The Lion Lodge Wood area and Spring is fascinating , and gives off a hidden and historical energy , burried history that they mean to hide 👀 In the last three years or so a Giant Beech Tree fell Sods Law right on top of the Addington Spring Head , of which I was dissapointed . Also they have put up lots of hideous Featheredge fencing now , blocking anybody getting in on the Spout Hill Road side . Not only that they chopped the site clean in half ! The top part is just a Rectangular space with the stream dissapearing under the fence and you look up the slope to a Collapsed Chestnut and Wire fence on the now Golf Course and a Former Gravel Pit. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Hidden History I also camped the Lion Lodge Wood a couple of times and Litterpicked all them woods

That Chinese Restraunt . I treated myself and the Ex to a meal there . Very fancy . Only priblem is , it was no better if not worse than your local Chinese Takeaway . We did'nt realy rate it and that was before 2017 . I also visited the the Shirley Hills Viewpoint shortly after the fire 🔥 But I think I was only a week or so after and done a video . There is done debate as to how the fire was started . Ignited naturaly in the heat , as said a partialy filled bottle acting as a magnifying glass . Arson , a Ciggarette . Or even DEW ! 😲 I guess we will never now for sure . While I was mooching the burned ground , I also noticed fragments and grills from protable Barbecue's . If that is the case then I dont know how stupid people can be . But the chance of Somebody having a BBQ at the Shirley Hills Viewpoint at 40C heat and the jettisoneing their charcoal into the goarse I find that either Unlikely or plainly out of order . The woods before the viewpoint surrounding the path are Glorious at certain times of the year , what with the Heather , pine trees and moss . A very beautiful spot . In fact one of my first video's was recorded up there back in 2010 / 11 , but it was of the Snow and I was at the viewpoint watching people walk up and the dissappear down the slope to one side .

Little Siberia as we used to call it 😂 New Addington

I remember back in the Mid to late 90's I went to the Peak District for a Long Weekend Break with the Ravensbourne Geological Society of Beckenham. One thing I realised about Castleton was the Absurd levels of Owl's 🦉 out at night 🌙 They were litteraly everywhere and to be seen . Pretty sure I visited Treak Cliff meself , but it was a long time ago and I fergit. Great video . Somewhere in the area is a location with columnular Basalt and on the floor can be found tiny Quartz clusters that were known locally as Buxton Diamonds . The Derbyshire trip was quite lucrative for meself as a elder teenager , as we were on the hunt for Flourite ( Blue John ) And you be suprised how rare it was . Luckily I am 6 ft3 tall and a pocket was found in a quarry . I was tall enough to start poking at the exposure and gain us some specimens . It was none of that beautiful vase and tabletop worth stuff , but we got some nice ugly dark blue cubes 😂 Other than that it was all Baryte lol

Brilliant video thanks Philip

Something about a letter in his hand.

Brilliant thanks again Philip such a good video thanks 😊