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Society’s archives offer a glimpse of Warlingham’s past

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This is how Warlingham looked, barely 100 years ago, according to the Bourne Society.

The Bourne Society is one of those quiet groupings of learned locals, who enjoy their shared knowledge and wisdom, and who cherish local history and records.

They posted this photograph on social media this week, accompanied by some text from slightly earlier in the 20th Century about a rumbling controversy at the time over the hot topic of … the naming of a railway station.

The Goodman Parish Notes of August 1900 said, “WARLINGHAM – 1900 – Even the very name of the village which has existed for at least nine centuries is constantly assailed by the application of the prefix ‘upper’, belonging only to an unattractive modern railway station.

“Although we cannot prevent the encroachment of suburban London with all its depressing surroundings nor entirely stop the advent of fogs, obtrusive advertisements, unsightly Telegraph poles and other eyesores, yet we can endeavour to mitigate the loss of fast disappearing scenes of rural beauty by carefully preserving what still remains of our few old and picturesque buildings, noble trees or other ancient landmarks and avoid doing anything to vulgarise our village and render it still more unattractive.”

Could one of Inside Croydon’s talented photographers manage to get an image, from a similar spot, of what Warlingham looks like today?

The learned members of the Bourne Society explain that the railway station was called “Upper Warlingham” to distinguish it from a station on the Caterham line called “Lower Warlingham”.

It had been called simply “Warlingham” before the Oxted railway opened.

Lower Warlingham was renamed Whyteleafe South later in the last century, but somehow Upper Warlingham stuck.

For more about the Bourne Society, visit their website by clicking here.

Or view their Facebook page for many other fascinating snippets from the archive here.


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