A brief outline history of the Clockhouse Estate.

Clockhouse was originally named The Clockhouse Farm Estate as the estate was built on land that was part of Clockhouse Farm. The farm house and barn (on top of which was the prominent clock), both now demolished, were in Woodmansterne, a village about five minutes walk from The Mount on a bridle path across fields.

The land on which the estate was built was purchased at auction described as

‘Part of Clockhouse Farm Estate, Woodmansterne: 148 acres of freehold land comprising land fronting Carshalton Road and Grove Lane (46 acres) and land fronting Rectory Road and Chipstead Valley Road (102 acres), and Grove Lane Cottage, to be sold in 5 lots sale held on 23rd of June 1924 at the Greyhound Hotel Croydon.‘

The estate lies within the Parish of Woodmansterne and was part of the Carshalton Urban District.

Carshalton was a local government district in north east Surrey from 1883 to 1965 around the town of Carshalton.The district was abolished in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and the former area was transferred to Greater London to be combined with that of other districts to form the present-day London Borough of Sutton

The original part of the estate, including a small parade of shops, was mainly built between 1934 and the start of the Second World War in 1939 at which time building ceased.

In war time the area was subjected to a fair amount of enemy action as it lay under the regular flight path of the German bombers and V1 rockets attacking London. Anti-aircraft batteries were situated in Big Wood to the north-west of the estate and in Oaks Park further to the north-west. This resulted, when the guns opened up, in the German pilots jettisoning their bombs over the area and turning tail for home causing a number of houses to be destroyed. Some bomb craters can still be observed around the estate – in particular on Corrigan Recreation fields.

After the war the bulk of the remaining developers’ land was purchased by the then Carshalton Urban District Council.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s further council development took place when the many blocks of flats and a further parade of shops were built. Hillcrest Halls were built by public subscription on land leased from the Urban District Council.