Comments on: Stanwell, Kicking up a Stink.

By: Marcus Knight

Marcus Knight — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:45:43 +0000

Hello there,

I was wondering if anyone could tell me the history of ” The Old School House” in Park Road, Stanwell which is now been converted into flats?

What was the name of this school and when did it close?

I am interested in the local history, so any information would be gratefully appreciated.

Thankyou.

Marcus Knight

By: Linda Hill

Linda Hill — Fri, 27 May 2011 22:12:52 +0000

I would love to hear more of your stories Mary and also when and where you lived in Stanwell and for how long, and also your family’s history.

By: Linda Hill

Linda Hill — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:07:34 +0000

I haven’t looked at this blog for a few months – hence the delay in replying! The Lintotts were from a very long line of Stanwellians – most of whom are buried in the church yard, and the Lintotts that ran the little bicycle shop in Oaks Road were very old when I lived there (or seemed that way!) I can’t remember what happened to them, obviously must have died, but I do remember their cottage being vacant for quite a while and being burnt down, and I do have some inside info on ‘who dun it’ too!!!!
I can’t remember if the village school was entirely a girls school or not – I think it may have been, as my brothers went to Lord Kynvetts for a time. I believe the village school has been made into an aged care residence now, but it was in Park Road and I went there for a year or two before going to Town Farm, around 1958 era. You and I must be about the same vintage Nigel!
I was interested to hear about your brother working at Ackland Snow- I remember seeing the Daleks from Dr Who standing about in the yard there and also the blue police telephone box! There were always big flash cars parked along Oaks Road outside Ackland Snow – obviously big wig executives from the BBC and ITV!!
All I remember about the woods at the back of the church was that it was called the ‘Soldiers’ and was a favourite place for my brothers and his friends to play. I do remember coming home from Town Farm school one lunch time and taking a short cut through there and being terrified as I thought someone was following me and I ended up getting lost for a while and was very very scared! I never went back in there after that, and always walked the long way round to school, past the prefabs and the reservoir.
I have very happy memories of Stanwell in the 50′s and 60′s and had a great childhood there. I live in Australia now, but whenever I go ‘home’ I always visit Stanwell and relive all those happy memories!

By: Mary Rose

Mary Rose — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:18:02 +0000

Re Stanwell, I was born there of an old local family and lived there until retiring to the country. Some info that you may like
Stanwell Place was owned and lived in by King Faizal nas a weekend homw whilst he was at Harrow, shortly after he completed his studies he returned to Iraq and was executed.The house was shut up and frequently ransacked and vandalised until it became unsafe and was demolished, and the gravel gang moved in. The house was described to me by a cousin of mine who was a cleaner there as Ok if you like dark and draughty<

St Marys church in stanwell is haunted by the builder who built the spire, who after its completion saw it was crooked and promptly hung himself on the apple tree in the cemetry.

As an old Stanwellian I have many stories of village life,

By: Nigel Love

Nigel Love — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:25:17 +0000

If you lived there from 1949, Linda, then you’re of an even riper vintage than me.

I’ve always assumed that the New Estate was bulit on land given over to market gardening – field after field of vegetable crops. Is that true? Or were there woods, etc? The patch of woodland just south of the church lasted a couple of years into my time. In the middle of it there was a sunken, marshy pond that was ideal for getting yourself muddy from head to foot.

When you mention the “village school”, do you mean the girls’ school in Park Road?

My brother worked at Acland Snow for a time, making daleks for Dr Who. As for the Lintotts, I had a bicycle bought for me from their premises in Oaks Road, where they apparently made a living reconstituting bikes out of old scrapped parts, and recharging car batteries. It seemed a meagre basis for a viable business, which may be why they disappeared quite early on.

By: Girl, 25

Girl, 25 — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:26:33 +0000

Dont even know where stanwell is but was is really, really fascinating to read
Sounds just like you think the 50′s was – but I thought it was only like that in books.
Cheers guys!

By: Linda Hill

Linda Hill — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:01:00 +0000

I so enjoyed reading your comments about Stanwell. I lived in the village from 1949 to 1965 and remember the place with fondness. Do you remember Ackland Snow, the people who made scenery for BBC and ITV? I lived next door to them in Oaks Road. It sounds as though you are the same vintage (Nigel Love) as me. I went to the village school, also Town Farm and Abottsford. I remember the “Soldiers” at the back of the church and before the New Estate was built – a wooded area where my brothers and I used to play. I also remember the King of Iraq’s house. I think my brother went there once with a friend to play cards with one of the children who lived there. Maybe he was the King’s son, or could be the son of a houskeeper, I’m not too sure.

I also remember the rag and bone factory! The smell was appalling, and I remember a man with a horse and cart who would go up and down the streets calling out ‘Rag and Bone’. His horse would leave droppings in the road and my Father would send one of us children out to collect it with a shovel for the rose garden!

I love the old church too and on each subsequent visit, I always make sure I take a wander around the church and the churchyard (with all the Lintott graves) and relive happy times!!! I spent many a Sunday morning there with my Mum, and was christened and confirmed there too.

I had a great childhood in Stanwell, and there were lots of ‘characters’ living in the village, such as Maisie Webster who would always give you a telling off for something or other, even if you were innocent!! Happy happy memories!!!

Kind regards,
Linda

By: bolcom

bolcom — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 11:39:03 +0000

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By: Nigel Love

Nigel Love — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:06:35 +0000

It’s a myth that the name “Stanwell” has anything to do with St Anne.

Stanwell simply means “stone well”. Stan (pronounced “stahn”) was the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) for “stone’”, just as hlaf (“hlahf”) was loaf, and ac (“ahk”) was oak. Etc., etc. There was a general change whereby OE “ah” became “oh”. So Stanwell would now be “Stonewell”, if it wasn’t that there’s no reason for place names to undergo these changes because place names don’t have to mean anything.

Of course this doesn’t explain where Saint Anne comes into it, as she undoubtedly does. Alongside St Anne’s well and St Anne’s School, there used to be a St Anne’s House. Can anybody shed any light?

By: Larjanus

Larjanus — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:54:36 +0000

I DO remember Mrs Jones! She was a large dragon faced lady with ginger hair and glasses and a voice like a foghorn. I was terrified of her for years, until one day I cut my hand open, which requred stitches. She was so nice to me that day my fear of her vanished completely.
As for St Mary’s church, yes it is very old, I believe a plaque somewhere on the building stated it to have been built some time in the 1200′s! It was famous for having a crooked spire for many years until the parish finally got the funds to restore it.
There was a turnstile gate at the ‘back’ of the church grounds, leading to a cow pasture which ran all the way to Clare Rd, now the site of the Falcon Drive estate. Going the other way from the church to Town Lane, there is to this day a tiny fenced off square adjacent to the pavement which contains a sort of sewer grating. This is supposedly the actual St Anne’s Well, by which the village got its name.
By the way, did you know that the church is HAUNTED????? (wooooooo!)
One afternoon a friend and I were mucking about near the entrance, when the Vicar came out of the church door. He smiled and wished us good afternoon, then locked the door and walked off to the Vicarage which was the first house on the right outside the gate..
About 10 minutes or so later we heard the organ playing. Now we had seen the vicar leave, so we wondered if he had inadvertently locked a parishioner in, and this was a ‘distress call’ to be let out. I crept up to the door and peered through the letter slot. There were the pews, there was the lectern, and there was the font. Over to the left was the organ, which was still playing……BY ITSELF!!!!!!! Yet another occasion when we ran all the way home.
Also, I vividly remember the night in 1979 when Stanwell was visited by……ALIENS!!!!!
It was a foggy night, and I had been spending the week with my parents while on term break from university. By about 9 pm the fog had lifted from the streets but still hung over the rooftops, and it was pretty chilly. I was in the living room with mum watching tv, when the whole house began to shake, accompanied by a deep droning sound. It sounded as if some huge machine were running in the front garden, so we went outside to investigate.To our surprise most of the neighbours were out, and everyone was looking up at a point over our roof. Directly above our house, and just barely visible in the mist was an absolutely GIGANTIC object, hovering motionless. There were no visible lights or windows from where we were standing, and it was difficult to tell how far up it was, due to the fog and the darkness. I went back in the house and upstairs to my parents bedroom to get a better look. To my great surprise, there was a green beam shining from ‘our’ spaceship to another one a couple of miles distant, in my estimation somewhere near St David’s Welsh Girls school in Ashford. That ship in turn was projecting yet another green beam to a third ‘ship’ , somewhere in the area of Staines. I got my binoculars and tried to make out a shape or distinguishing feature, but could see nothing but darkness. Of course nowadays lasers are a common sight, and the first time I saw one at a disco it immediately reminded me of the green beams coming from these craft. However such things were uncommon back then, so thoughts of ‘death rays’ etc were going through my mind. Was this War of the Worlds come to life?
Meanwhile, my mother was still out in the street, but was now shouting at the ‘aliens’ to land and take her for a spin in their saucer!!! She was always into the books of Erich Von Daniken and so forth, and saw this as an ideal opportunity to visit another world!
I leaned against the windowsill for a good 45 minutes watching these objects, during which time they performed a kind of aerial dance, moving a short distance left or right, but maintaining their height at all times. The one over our house never moved however, only the other 2 . Eventually all 3 of them rose eerily into the fog, and were not seen again to my knowledge.
Of course living right next to the busiest airport in the world, we are used to seeing strange things in the sky. This story made it onto the front page of the Evening Mail (local rag in those days), along with a comment from the Civil Aviation Authority that they had ‘no record of aerial traffic at low altitude’ at the time and places in question. In fact the matter was treated as something of a joke.
When I told this story to my friends, they accused me of taking drugs! This is the first time I have told this tale since then. I wonder if any other ex-Stanwell residents remember the night of our ‘Close Encounter’?