Banstead Village

Can anyone explain the name of the railway station, shown as Kingswood and Burgh Heath?

I can't help with the station name; I always knew it simply as Banstead.

What we know as Winkworth Road was indeed built as 'Banstead By-Pass' and later renamed.

The Isolation Hospital was 'Cuddington Isolation Hospital'. I spent 5 weeks there with 'Scarlet Fever' during the epidemic of 1949. I remeber it very clearly but can now find very few records of the hospital. Can anyone help with this one?

The map makers have made a mistake with the station name. It was at one time called Banstead and Burgh Heath Station but then became just Banstead. I have a map of 1913-ish which shows Kingswood and Burgh Heath Station where it should be. Initialled as SC & CR – could that be South East and City Railway?

The Isolation Hospital was always known locally as Cuddington Hospital. Some children with Scarlet Fever were sometimes admitted and I have no doubt that there were Beechholme inmates there from time to time. Rather grimly, it had its own mortuary.

I reckon that Lambert and some of the other roads mentioned were built very soon after Wilmot Way. Shown on a 1933 map Lambert linked with Salisbury and many streets and houses are shown on the map. We were the first occupants of 9 Wilmot Way and that was in the summer of 1933. The road was not 'made-up' in those days.

I don't remember the Belmont gas works at all. Built specially for the Asylum no doubt.

David - I can't help you directly, but you may find what you're looking for at The National Archives at Kew (search online and book the documents you wish to view in advance, to save considerable time); or The Surrey History Centre at 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking GU21 6ND.

Banstead station had "Banstead" painted in large letters on its roof. This was to help pilots navigate. I thought this was prewar, although it might have been covered or removed in the war.
The mapmakers must be wrong.

And in answer to another query somewhere on this site, notice how Croydon Lane is a junction with Sutton Lane separate from the junction of the bypass. I can remember it like that! I think It was changed sometime in the 1950s.

Note from LNW - Yes Michael, I have a photo of that which had me puzzled for a while.

SC & CR Railway. I think the CR could be Chipstead Railway.

According to spellerweb.net/rhindex/UKRH/SECR/Chipstead.html regarding the Tattenham Corner Line. Chipstead is given as "Chipstead and Banstead Downs". Kingswood is "Kingswood and Burgh Heath" - name I think it had for a long time even to the 1960s?.

I don't think I was quite clear. The name "Banstead" was on the roof of the station after the war. As far as I know it was there before the war as well, but presumably removed or covered during it.

Note from LNW: My understanding is that the name was painted on the roof to assist pilots in finding Croydon airport. The actual wording was SR BANSTEAD STATION. I have one photo clearly dated May 1936 which shows this detail however other images simply show BANSTEAD STATION.

The Kensington and Chelsea Cottage Home School became Beecholme home for orphans, run by Barnado's I believe. It was redeveloped in the early 1970's.

Note from LNW ; Sorry no, not run by Barnados

Reference Beechholme, when I was at Picquets Way school in the 1940s some of the boys from what was then known as the LCC Home (London County Council) attended Picquets Way School. They were by no means all orphans, several had parents who would visit occasionally or the boys would have visits home. It was often a case of the children having been taken into care for one reason or another.

It was so in the 1950s when I was at Picquets Way, Derek. Beechholme wasn't an orphanage. I think it's fair to say that in my day, the Beechholme kids were less than high achievers, which no doubt reflected their disturbed or disrupted family backgrounds.

Note from LNW: Hi Peter, I am sure that what you say is correct for the time but rest assured that many did very well for themselves in later life. Many write to me from all over the world and their stories can be found on our main website at www.bansteadhistory.com.

Oh, I take your point entirely, Lewis, and didn't intend to denegrate any Beechholmer. It's just how things were for a handful of kids at Picquets Way in the mid and late '50s. It's heartening that so many other Beechholme boys went on to create lives of achievement for themselves, and raise happy, stable families. All power to them!

Note from LNW: . . . and girls of course!

Since seeing Peter's publication of this map I have also been intrigued with discussions on "Kingswood & Burgh Heath Railway Station", as Kingswood was first named as this in 1897 when it was opened.

Just to throw another spanner in the works, I have been looking at the OS County Series 1:2500 maps of 1913-14 and 1934-35 and have come to the conclusion that the last area to want to visit in those years would have been Burgh Heath as the earlier map shows both "Banstead & Burgh Heath Station" AND "Kingswood & Burgh Heath Station" at the stations we know of today as Banstead / Kingswood !.

By the time the 1934-35 OS maps were published Burgh Heath only appeared alongside Kingswood as "Kingswood & Burgh Heath Station", as already known.

So maybe the above error on the 1932 map was because some poor luckless railway traveller had gone in search of Burgh Heath c1932 and was left very confused !

Coincidentally, I have just bought a postcard of the platform of "Kingswood & Burgh Heath Station", published by G.P. Roberts of Burgh Heath approx a century ago.
On the card it clearly shows "View from Kingswood Station" printed on it, and the view tallies with Kingswood Station when the railway sidings still existed.

On another note, I believe The Kensington and Chelsea Cottage Home School was recorded as having been renamed to Beechholme in 1951 in the BHRG publication "Beechholme - A Children's Village".

Cont'd -

"Banstead & Burgh Heath Station" was also printed on the OS County Series (1:10560 scale) map of Surrey for 1914– 15 too.
Have never seen this anomaly mentioned anywhere else, despite the extensive records of images and maps available to us.
As the naming of Banstead had been correct on the previous 1895 / 1897 editions and post 1915 maps maybe this "Banstead & Burgh Heath Station" / "Kingswood & Burgh Heath Station" anomaly all stemmed from an error by Ordnance Survey mappers ? We will probably never know !

There is a large old ornate route map in Victoria Station (date unknown near the left exit) which shows Banstead Station as "Banstead and Burgh Heath" - not sure this answers anything!

We do know that the railway line from Croydon to Epsom Downs was created by Sir Henry Cosmo Bonsor (Bonsor Drive, Kingswood) when he was Chairman of the Railway company. It was originally to allow Queen Victoria to travel from London to the Derby on Epsom Downs.

All very interesting. "Kingswood & Burgh Heath" clearly looks like a naming error on the Geografia map. Also worth noting is that the location of Tattenham Way is incorrect. It does not actually intersect the Brighton Road opposite Chipstead Road as shown but some 300m further south!

I was in the isolation hospital as a child with scarlet fever. I remember the buildings being wooden huts with crisscross wood railings, Are there any old, photos available?

Note from LNW: I am sure I have come across a photo and will see if I can get access to it. In the meantime see picture #665

It would be somewhat better to turn to a reliable source documenting railway history than speculating needlessly about station name changes. H V Borley’s Chronology of London Railways published in 1982 by the Railway & Canal Historical Society shows the present day Banstead station opened, named as such, on 22 May 1865 and that its name became Banstead & Burgh Heath on 1 June 1898. The name reverted to Banstead in August 1928. The present day Kingswood station opened as Kingswood & Burgh Heath on 2 November 1897 and was renamed Kingswood on 1 December 1968.

The first renaming of Banstead station rather looks like a competitive response by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway to the opening of Kingswood & Burgh Heath station by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway [NB], the need for which fell away after the consolidation of the two companies from 1 January 1923.

To clear another potential ambiguity in the commentary above, Sir Cosmo Bonsor was a director of SE&CR, and appears to have promoted its line to Tattenham Corner, not Epsom Downs.

More generally it should be borne in mind that station names may not necessarily be used consistently in a variety of official and unofficial documents ranging from platform signage, printed tickets, timetables, company minutes etc etc.

The illustration above therefore contains a number of cartographic errors as others have already pointed out. It is not quite as “Authentic” as the publishers of the atlas from which it is taken, Geographia [NB spelling], claimed.


Note from LNW: Thanks Paul, very informative.

The London County Mental Asylum was self contained in that it produced its own gas, electricity, etc.. The coal was delivered to a depot on the downs side of the Brighton Road now known as Commonside Close. As one walks from Commonside close and aim for the gap in the trees, you will discover long pieces of hard stone in the ground which was the cart road from the coal-yard to the Asylum. Continuing up the road and arriving at Sutton Lane and looking across the road a gap in the shrubbery can be seen linking Sutton Lane to High Down Road. The gap is because the ground is so compacted because of coal and other carts driven between Belmont station and the Asylum. It may be that there are stone slabs under there as well.
The current road entrance to the prison is the original entrance so I think that it is safe to say that all deliveries were made through that gate. I don't think that Fairlawn Road played any part in accessing the site with the possible exception of the hospital, currently stables.

These old OS maps with side-by-side viewing of satellite images are likely to be really interesting to folk who like this page:
(If Bing says "too many views today" or something, try another map layer)

This is the 25 inch from 1892-1914

maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17.1&lat=51.32342&lon=-0.20054&layers=168&right=BingHyb

This is 1944-72 1:1250 series and you can see most of the modern Banstead.

maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17.1&lat=51.32342&lon=-0.20054&layers=170&right=Opendata

There are quite a few other maps - enjoy!

Yes, I have linked to that NLS OS source several times previously, but on the side by side the view the OS presumably must be composite. For some purposes it can be better to try to find the OS maps for specific years of publication.

Hi in 1903 (October 3rd) it was Banstead Station as on that Date Elijah Harding (Railway Signalman/Porter) was killed by a passing train. I am researching for reports in the railway publications (none exist) or local papers but not sure what existed then and if archives exist.

Reply from LNW: Elijah James Harding, a railway porter, lived in a Cottage on the Downs but so far I have not found any newspaper reference to an accident. He died from a fractured skull and a compound fracture of the right thigh on 20th October in the cottage Hospital in Sutton. His burial details and also railway record refer to him as James Harding.
I will ask our railway 'expert'.

Hi LNW I could send a scan of his death certificate that shows the coroners finding if that helps.

Ian, Is it the family you are interested in or the accident?

I saw a record somewhere that there are three burials in All Saints Churchyard from an accident in the railway.

Hi Lewis, specifically I wanted more about his death as it will add to his story. I have details from birth to death with records of him and colleagues at Banstead Station if it would add to your records.

Reply from LNW: Thanks Ian. Always pleased to collect more history for the Banstead area.
Our member who has a special interest in railways has replied that fatal accidents to railway staff were, unfortunately, not uncommon at that time so perhaps it was not very newsworthy. He may well be right as I tried again this morning with no success.

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