Banstead Village

Peter Metcalfe, Beechholme

This 1950s photograph is of Peter Metcalfe, perhaps aged 11 or 12, and was taken at Beechholme residential home in Fir Tree Road, Banstead, where he lived. I got to know him in 1957 when he joined my class at Banstead County Secondary School in Picquets Way. We were both 13, but as so often happens, in due course we grew up, changed directions and lost touch.

So what do we have here? “This is the back of one of the Beechholme houses up at ‘the boys end’, or as it was later called, the ‘Upper Avenue’”, says Gillian Stile Los. And if anyone should know, it’s Gillian, who was resident at Beechholme from infancy to the age of 16, so she remembers the place well and knows it inside out.

“All the ‘upper end’ houses were identical,” she recalls. “In this photo, the side-by-side doors on the right were outside lavatories and outhouses – which, before then, were stores for coal and vegetables.”

At any one time, some 500 children were in care at Beechholme, and Peter Metcalfe was just one of them. I often wondered what became of this easy-going smiling child, seen here holding an animal (a chicken… a cat?) in front of a home-made soap box mounted on old pram wheels… the forerunner of today's go-kart, perhaps!
PD

♦ The Banstead History website has extensive information about Beechholme, including memories from many of the children who once lived there. We have also published two books that might be of interest:
1. 'Beechholme – A Children’s Village', a 100-page book of stories relating to events and people who resided there. Details are here.
2. 'Banstead Residential School - Holiday to Sandown, Isle of Wight', which tells the heartwarming story of a holiday back in 1936, led by the inspirational Isabel Mountjoy. Details are here.