Banstead Village

All Saints Church, looking towards the east wall

This postcard, published by Tonge’s grocers and post office in Banstead High Street, is of some interest because it captures the long-gone wall murals at the east end of All Saints Church. Lewis Wood (see the first comment below) dates it as 1919.

According to ‘The Story of All Saints Church, Banstead’, a booklet compiled in the 1970s by CH Falcon, ‘successive renovators of the church disliked these [murals] and instructions were given to whitewash the walls, except for the mural of Christ crucified’.

Judging by this postcard, one can see why. ‘Gaudy’ is one word that immediately springs to my mind, and as we can glimpse here, the painted adornments continued along both the north and south walls. The ‘Christ crucified’ mural still survives, as does the crucifix above the pulpit.

The caption at the bottom of the postcard reads “All Saints, Banstead, nr. Sutton” and, on the right, “Tonge’s Post Office Series 1135”. Another Tonge’s postcard, of the church exterior, is at picture #623.

• Tonge’s Stores & Tea Merchant, established in 1840, was a well patronised High Street emporium, and in the 1930s the smell of its freshly roasted coffee was a familiar aroma. It later became a post office. A fine image of the establishment, and a portrait of the proprietor Billy Tonge, can be found in ‘A Concise History of Banstead’, published by Banstead History Research Group (2018).

PD