My name is Susan Ryder (nee Cheek) and I currently live in Spain. I was made aware of your web site recently by Paul Burrows who I recently rediscovered through friends re-united! I was born in May 1945 and lived for my first 16 years at 48 The Oval, Banstead. Margaret and Paul Burrows also lived in the Oval at that time. The Oval was a great place for children to live because the grass area in the centre was bigger. I think the road was made wider in the 1960's. We played football, cricket and numerous other games and climbed the trees etc. We used to build a big bonfire in the centre for November the 5th and all the families from Lambert Road and some from Wilmot Way would come and join us. I remember one year when a group of us took our bikes to the top of Salisbury Road where the trees were being cut down to make way for a new building fronting the High Street. We tied big branches to the backs of our bikes and took them back down to the Oval. (This sort of behaviour seems incredible now).
Anyway, what I really wanted to say is, I think it is me in the photo of Banstead Congregational Church group no. 3 in the third row back next to Susan Brown. She was my best friend at about this time. They lived in Salisbury Road and later moved to Wilmot Way and we inevitably grew apart!
My father had a lot to do with the Banstead Community Association and I still have a couple of old poems by someone called Ronald Mason about Banstead. One is called Banstead High Street and the other Hubert de Burgh.
All the best
Sue Ryder
