Ashtead



Post to the north Ashtead
Post to the west Lower Ashtead


Barnett Wood Lane
Ashtead Recreation Ground. This is the only public recreation ground in Ashtead and is surrounded by houses. It is an area of open amenity grassland with two full size football pitches, skate park, Multi Use Games Area, tennis courts, pavilions and a play area. There is a wind-up shelter with Bluetooth that allows users to play music from their phones through speakers in the roof.
Ashstead Football Club.  This dates from 1898 when they played on the cricket club ground. They now play on a variety of pitches including Ashtead Recreation Ground.
Village Pond

Cradddocks Avenue
The parade of shops on the south corner of the road are on the site of Woodfield Farm with the farmhouse on the site of the garage.  The farmer was John Craddock.  This was the last working farm in Ashtead surviving into the 1920s.

Dene Road
St.Giles Church of England Infants School. This church school dates from 1852  when it was called Ashtead Schools and presumably took pupils of all ages.
Sydney Simmons Homes. They provide homes for elderly people in need.

Epsom Road
A24 This is the main road through the village and was the turnpike road between Leatherhead and Epsom.
Memorial fountain. This dates from 1880 and commemorates the Mary Greville Howard. It is in the form of a medieval cross. The inscription says:  “This cross & fountain are erected in memory of the Honourable  Mrs Mary Greville Howard by the Parishioners of  Ashtead and many of her relations and friends. She was beloved and honoured during a long life spent in doing good and mourned by all when taken to rest on Oct. 19 1877 at Ashtead Park aged 92. Her works do follow her.”
Pound and stocks. These stood immediately behind the current site of the memorial and were still there in the late 19th.

Greville Park Road
Peto and Radford. In the 1890s this company developed their accumulator business here. They were responsible for many of the advances in accumulators from the earliest days and exhibited at every show of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.   One accumulator was named ‘Ashstead’. By 1919 they had amalgamated with Pritchett and Gold Electric Power Storage Co

Grove Road
Ashtead Centreless Grinding. These worked for the aircraft industry in the 1970s.  The site is now a motor repair business.

Purcell Close
Built in 1926-7 as workers’ housing for Sir Lawrence Weaver and his wife Lady Kathleen Purcell who founded Ashtead Potters to employ disabled war veterans. Some bomb damage here destroyed records and mementos of the company.
Commemorative lamp standard on the green

Stonnycroft
Greville Primary School. This opened in 1958 and was extended in 1996, 2004 and 2005. There are twenty-two classrooms, and a large hall. There are also extensive grounds including a Woodland Walk.

The Street
Lime Tree Court.  Sheltered housing block. This was previously the Victoria Works.
Victoria Works. This is on the site of the works of W. Galloway who was a Tyneside based screw manufacturer. He had a licence to build American Stanley Steam cars here and set this up as his overhaul workshop. The business closed in 1916 as wartime conditions and the demise of steam road vehicles coincided. Later this was Ashstead Potters
Crawshay Williams,Ltd. The Ashtead Motor works, which was either here or further along the Street. In 1907 they exhibited at the motor show the chassis of a Valveless motor car and are said to have made two models.
Ashstead Potters. Founded by Lady Kathleen Purcell to employ disabled war veterans. Sir Lawrence Purcell was president of the Design and Industries Association in the 1920s and he inspired Ashtead designers to produce progressive pieces. It had support from Clough Williams-Ellis and Stafford Cripps. The company began with four untrained workers with no moulds or designs. It closed following the death of Sir Laurence. The pottery produced art deco items and figures such as Winnie the Pooh milk jugs. They also specialised in advertising wares for Genozo toothpaste and Guinness,
9 Ashcroft House. This building has also been known as Herriot House. It appears to date from the 1970s – and a previous building on site is described as ‘Research Laboratories’.  The present building was used soon after by Sunbeam Electric which is assumed to be a subsidiary of the US Sunbeam company producing both pharmaceuticals and small electrical items.  It later became Rowenta UK described as a ‘the newly formed division of Sunbeam Electric Ltd’ – although Rowenta were originally a German small electrical manufacturer – now French. Rowenta remained in the building but by the 1990s it was used solely by a construction company, bankrupted in 2008. It has now been converted into flats.
13 Royal Mail Sorting and delivery office. This is now a osteopathy clinic.
Telephone Exchange. This remains to the rear of the old sorting office
15 Brewery Inn. In 1839 there was a beer shop on the site of what is now The Brewery which started brewing its own beer in 1871.
Ashtead Brewery. This was owned by George Sayer and is said to have been at the bottom of Woodfield Lane. It is not really clear if this was separate from the pub of the same name.
Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower. The earliest reference to this pub is apparently 1769.
104 Ashstead Village Club. This is a members club affiliated to the Clubs and Institutes Union.
Almshouses. Feilding House, These were founded by a legacy from Lady Diana Feilding in 1733 for six needy widows.  More almshouses were added to the rear in 1975


Woodfield Lane
Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall. This is a local community hall and centre. It was set up after a committee was formed in 1919 at the end of the Great War to build a village hall as a permanent memorial to the Armistice. The land was donated and funds raised, the new facility was finally opened in 1924.
Ashstead Cricket Club. In 1875 Ashtead had no cricket club, but games were played on the Common. A club became established, with the Dene field as its headquarters. In 1886 Mr Lucas leand east of Woodfield Lane  and in 1887 the club was set up.
Library . This dates from 1967 and shares its building with the clinic
St.Michael’s Roman Catholic Church. Up until the Second World War there was no Catholic Church here and people had to go to Leatherhead.  St Michael's Church started in a large garage of a private house, Mawmead Shaw which had been bought by them in 1944. It was pulled down and the current building opened in 1967. A house, called Rushmere to the rear was demolished to make the church hall
Ashtead Station.  This dates from 1859 and lies between Epsom and Leatherhead on Southern Rail and South Western Rail. It was originally a joint station between the London and South Western Railway and the London Brighton and Chatham Railway. The current buildings date from 1967/8 and there is a ticket office, and a shelter and waiting room. There is a level crossing whch was once controlled from a signal box which was closed in 1978 and demolished in 1979. There were goods sidings were on the down side which are now the car park.

Sources
Ashtead and Leatherhead Local. Web site
Ashstead Cricket Club. Web site
Ashtead Football Club. Web site
Ashtead Potters. Web site
Ashtead Village Club. Web site
Fields in Trust. Web site
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Greville Primary School. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Knowles. Surrey and the Motor
Pevsner. Surrey.
St.Giles School Ashtead. Web site
St.Michael’s Church. Web site

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