Banstead Village

The roadway beside the Post Office was used by Post Office vehicles not by Express Dairy. East from the Post Office was a small parade of shops that included M&R Townsend, chemists, and BA Side, jewellers (and Westminster Bank at a later date??). East of this parade was another roadway and I'm fairly sure, but memory is old, that Express Dairy lorries reversed into this driveway from the High Street. The section of the High Street where Express Dairies was was narrower than that of the parade East of it that included Woolworth's, South Suburban Co-op (non grocery) and Seeboard (South Eastern Electricity Board). The frontage was taken back in the late 50s so that new shops such as Victor Towler's were in line with the front of Woolworth's etc.

In the 1950s cars were few and parking was in the High Street. As the number of cars increased parking was restricted to parking on only one side of the street but the side was selected on alternate days of the week. The round yellow signs atop the poles along the high street had a hinged plate in the middle, and this was lowered or raised every day to indicate on which side parking was permitted for that particular day, ie it displayed parking details or no parking as appropriate.

By the early 1960s there was a car park behind the parade of shops where Woolworth's was and the entrance/ exit was between this parade and the churchyard. What this area was before the car park I can't recall.

Express Dairies was accessed via the road between Lloyds and Nat West banks. My father worked there.

The depot was not on the car park site. It was where the new houses are. [Briarwood]

Note from LNW: Thanks Lyn, do you happen to have any photos of the depot?

Hi, LNW Sorry, no photos unfortunately.

Hi all, long time! the entrance for the Express Dairy was along the side of the now defunct Nat West Bank. That all changed in the 1970s . The old Express yard that use to stink of battery acid ( from the recharging of the 4 wheel hand carts or the three-wheel carts that were a forerunner to Del Boys Reliant!) It is now an up market housing estate. The entrance beside the post office was for the GPO ( telephone operatives ) or the post office & telegraph motor cycles! There was no other exit from beside the post office.
I can still remember the demolition of the garage " Watkins" & the new complex to be built that included a launderette etc. beyond the post office.
Hope this has stirred some of others memory!!!!

It's interesting that 3 of us agree where the access to the Express Dairy Depot was. It looks to me as though the 3 people in the foreground are standing in or close to that access. The parade of shops in the foreground is that I described previously. What has changed is the ownership of the shops and Express Dairy is now occupying one of them. This is what has caused the confusion.

The NatWest Bank only came into being when the National Provincial and Westminster Banks completely merged in the early 1970s. The bank in Banstead was Westminster Bank until then. It looks as though it's immediately on the left of the picture

picture #316 shows the High Street in about 1950 where it narrowed West of FW Woolworth. When this section was built with more shops including Express Dairy the kerb was realigned so it was straight along this length ie High Street widened. There is another photo on this website showing the newer layout but I can't find it at the moment.

Hodges, shop on the corner of Sutton Lane, was the main Dairy in Banstead until then. Our milk was deliverd by horse drawing a four wheeled rubber tyred milk float.

There were several buildings (some quite temporary looking) in the area behind the Post Office. The parade of shops that were built on the site of the old vicarage were hardly completed when war came, so one of them (a larger double fronted site) was devoted to be an air raid shelter although I don't think I would have taken my chances in there because it wasn't reinforced as far as I recall. It was the only shelter for shoppers at that end of the High Street.

Woolworths had a large area fenced off for delivery’s to the back of the shop it went lengthwise towards the church direction. All our crushed cardboard was baled up in a crusher there to be stored to be taken away regularly. There was a strong wooden gate which was locked at night.
There was a very large concreted area behind Woolworths like a large car park. Often vans waited there to wait their turn to be able to deliver their goods. It always seemed to me to be a wasted space. Urchins on their bikes often rode around it.
There were also garage doors and bins stored behind most of the shops.

I remember a lad in my class, Brian Knowles, lived above the end shop nearest the Church. His father worked in the gas showroom immediately underneath. We often went round the back of the showroom and climbed the metal stairs to his family's flat.

The area, as I remember, was just waste land and as Janice remembers, deliveries were made using this form of access.

My brother remembers a structure on the land with an access hole in the top, possibly some sort of storage tank.

Gas Board and Seeboard both had shops in that block - adjacent I think. The gas showroom became a shop for young children's items.

As regards what was there before the car park I agree with what others have said. I can't remember exactly when the car park was opened (1960?), and I think the area for parking may have may been later extended or re-organised.
As regards Express Dairy's access it was to the right of the block in picture #255. As far as I can remember this block was built post 1954 around 1955 and as previously mentioned the kerb was realigned.
It's interesting looking at the old 6inch OS maps of this area on the National Library of Scotland website:-
1911 map (published 1931)
1934 map (published 1936)
1938 map (published 1946)
1957 map (published 1958)
1961 map (published 1962)

Abbreviations here.

Sadly these maps also show the loss of chalk downland, abundant in my childhood, to woodland.

Note from LNW: Michael, good idea to include references to maps. I have added a couple more and inserted links for easier navigation.

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