This month we visit South Nutfield.
Its northern neighbour, Nutfield, was listed in the Doomsday Book back in 1086; however, South Nutfield’s origins are more recent.
Almost all of the village was built by Sir Henry Edwards, a developer who worked closely with the Southern Railway when Nutfield Station was opened in 1884.
Many of the houses were relatively large and detached, and were targeted at the new Victorian well-to-do businessmen who regularly commuted into London. Even some of the houses that appear older, such as Magpie Cottage in Mid Street, were ‘pastiches’, and were actually built in the 1920s, in the Tudor fashion.
The photo shows the parade of shops along Station Parade (now known as North Station Approach). The first shop in the photo, W Taylor, was a newsagent, confectioner and tobacconist and, no doubt, did a very brisk trade in the morning rush hour. All the shops in the photo have sadly now gone, converted to private houses as our habits have changed.
Find out more about South Nutfield, and many other areas of East Surrey at East Surrey Museum, on Stafford Road, Caterham.
