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Hi Folks

I used to live at Charlwood Park from 1954 to around 1966. It was the big white house as someone has described here. During my time there the owner (not sure if he might of rented) the property was a Mr Ashpool who ran a clothing business from the house with the brand name Ashpool and Twiddy. My father used to work for him in the business as well as being gardner and chauffer. Mr Ashpool had two sons named Jonathan and Jeremy.

We lived in one end of the house (say the west wing) and another person also working for Mr Ashpool lived in the other end (say the east wing). My mother used to cater for the family when they had dinner parties etc. Mr Ashpool was an ardent cricket fan and used to follow England religiously. We used to have famous cricketers visit and as a young lad I was taught to play cricket by, I recall, Colin Cowdrey and David Sheppard who became the Bishop of Liverpool.

The house was approached by two driveways, one from the Povey Cross end and the other from Horley Road near Farmfield drive. Keepers Cottage was on the driveay from Povey Cross and there was another smaller cottage just at that entrance.  I think not long before we moved there there was still a racecourse or greyhound track in the road from Povey Cross. That was soon closed down as the airport was developed.

The house itelf was surrounded by woods except for the rear where there was an open outlook over fields to the airport and I remember standing on the balcony to see the first jet airliner coming in to land. The other buildings within the site were greenhouses, a barn and garaging for 8 or 9 cars. I recall well the kitchen garden my farther looked after along with orchard of apple and pear trees - yum yum!

At one time the local hunt used to meet at the house and we would be invaded by riders in all their finery with dogs yapping at their heels.

There was a large cellar and again I remember there were often many rabbits and pheasants or partridges hanging just being readied for the pot.

The farm, approached from the Horley Road drive entrance, was run by a Mr Orial (not the right spelling perhaps but phonetically correct) and he would often be out in the field with his 12 bore, shooting game. There was a small pond in one of his fields were I used to spend most of my school holidays and weekends fishing for carp or tench. I had friends that lived at Farmfield cottages but sadly cannot remember names.

I was a wonderful place to live at the time and it is a real shame it was demolished to make way for the airport expansion.

Well thta's my trip down memory lane - I might have some pictures tucked away if anyone would be interested - let me know - hope this might have been of interest