This year it is fifty years since the creation of Chessington District Residents’ Association. To celebrate, we have created ‘Chessington Memories’ to share residents’ memories and stories from the past fifty years … or more!
Chessington has been here longer than many people realise. Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Cissan dūn, meaning a ‘hill belonging to a man named Cissa’. In the Domesday Book, compiled in 1085-6, Chessington appears as Cisedune and Cisendone.
The mansion at Chessington World of Adventures, known today as the Burnt Stub, was originally built in 1348. In the English Civil War, it became a royalist stronghold and was razed to the ground by Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary forces, giving it its modern name. St Mary’s Church in Garrison Lane dates from the 12th century. On the main road near Hook Parade is Vane cottage, which is dated 1669.
Share your memories
Fast-forward a few hundred years … do you remember the counter service at the old Sainsbury’s at the Ace Parade? Or visiting the model village at Chessington Zoo or sitting on the small train that ran around the site? Perhaps you have a story to tell about your time at Fleetwood School or a memory to share about the old RAF camp. If so, we’d love to hear your memories and photos of times and places of Chessington past. We will share the memories on our website, social media and at our Annual General Meeting and Celebrate Chessington event.
Please email your reminiscences to chessingtondra50@gmail.com.
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Read your memories
“I grew up in north Kingston and remember visiting my grandparents who lived on Hook Road. We would go shopping at Sainsbury’s at Ace Parade. I remember thinking it was a grand shop. When I married in the 1980s, our wedding cake was from Manuels at the Ace. We carefully transported it to the wedding reception venue in Richmond. In 1996, we moved from Surbiton into a new home on the Mansfield Park development. Being on the edge of the green belt, it felt like we had moved to the country!”
– Louise S, Chessington resident
“I have lived in the borough all my life. I went to Moor Lane, Gosbury Hill and Fleetwood schools which may be the reason for my interest in transport as all three schools were adjacent to the railway. I spent 15 years driving buses from Kingston and Norbiton garages. I often went spotting trains, buses and planes using red and green rover tickets. Having held a PCV licence for fifty years, I still drive buses for the London Bus Museum where I volunteer driving, stewarding and miscellaneous workshop duties. My photo shows Kingston Bus’s 71 by the Blackamoors Head pub, now the Chessington Oak.”
– Graham, Chessington resident
“I remember my first visit to Chessington as a child (maybe 5 years old) when it was still the zoo, with a ride on the miniature railway, and again when it had the suspended monorail. As an adult, I started my working life as a field service engineer based on the Chessington industrial estate, sometimes visiting UK military administration offices across the south east. One of those calls was to RAF Chessington when it was still the RAF regional payroll processing site to repair one of their computers. Incidentally, the contemporary regional army payroll office was up in Tolworth Tower.”
– Gulraj R
I don’t know how many residents would remember the pig farm in Chessington. It was on the ground I now believe is Woodland Walk, just past the William Bourne (Bonesgate). When I was a child in the 50s, my dad and I used to go on a Sunday morning to feed the pigs. Then they opened a shop on that site which sold pork and sausages known as Porky Whites. My own children would stand at the back door and watch the butcher making the sausages. Many happy memories of the good old days.”
– Wendy, Chessington resident
“Having moved to Chessington as a teenager in 1959, I started work at Hinchley Wood in 1962. I opened my first bank account at Barclays Bank, Ace Parade. I struggled to work through the harsh winter of 1962/63 with snow on the ground for 3 months.
Having started a family, my wife walked over a mile each way with the pram and a tray underneath for the shopping to Sainsbury’s with their marble counters. Also stopping at Boots in the parade.
Oh, great times and happy memories.”
– Terry, Chessington resident
“My greatest memory of Chessington was before I became a Councillor, and that was when the Olympic Torch was carried through Chessington and Hook in July 2012.
Walking to Hook from Chessington Industrial Estate early in the morning with my daughter and her friends and with the crowds of other residents, up through Gosbury Hill and Elm Road. Once we got to the Hook Centre and seeing how many people were there took my breath away, it was incredible. We walked up towards the junction of Hawkhurst Gardens where we watched James Cracknell hand over the torch to Joe Smale. James then walked straight over to us and let us take a photo of the children.
It was a real occasion for all Chessington and Hook residents who came together to watch something we will probably never see again, certainly not in my lifetime, I loved all the smiles, the cheers and the feeling of being an entire community.”
– Councillor Lorraine Dunstone
“We moved to Hook in 1976 and once our children reached school age, they attended St Paul’s school, which is associated with St Paul’s Church. At that time, Mr Giles was the vicar and Bill Mullinger the rector. From memory, Bill was a regular patron of the North Star. For a few years, on bonfire night, Mr Giles and Bill arranged a bonfire party for local people in the garden of the church, plus a burger stall.
Although not churchgoers, when she got married, our daughter, who was living in Morden, insisted that she was married at St Paul’s.”
– Brian, CDRA Executive Committee member
“At its peak in 1933 the once glorious Ace of Spades Roadhouse boasted an outdoor swimming pool, restaurant, ballroom dancing to famous cabaret performers.
Unfortunately, there was a serious fire in 1955. Although the building was repaired, it no longer enjoyed the popularity of previous years.
It was in the 1970s when it was in its lesser glamorous state that I regularly went there with my friends. On the lower floor, there was a dance floor and a bar. The restaurant was on an upper level. After dinner, we would dance the night away. It is a lovely memory.
It is such a shame that it has now been turned into nothing more than a retail site and gym.”
– Diane, Chessington resident
“My three children went to Buckland Primary School from 1984 to 1999. My four grandchildren also went to Buckland. My youngest grandchild is still there and thoroughly enjoys it. Buckland Road was always chaotic at school times with cars, but now the Council has made it a school street. The lollipop person has served the Moor Lane junction for many years. In 2015 the school changed its name to Castle Hill Primary School. Castle Hill is a local nature reserve owned by Merton College, Oxford. Originally being on the edge of a deer park, there is likely to have been a hunting lodge there in medieval times.”
– Ken, Chessington resident
“Catherine of Sienna RC Church on Leatherhead Road holds many memories for me. It was my grandmother’s church. She lived in Stormont Way, then in Frimley Road. In 1961, I was christened at St Catherine’s. Two of my children were christened at the church in the early 1980s and both got married there too, one in 2005 and the other one in 2012. It’s a beautiful, small local church.”
– Louise R, Chessington resident