Leatherhead & District Local History Society - Over the Bridge, by Brian Hennegan

The bridge that features in the title is the one which carries the Kingston Road over the railway and is located between the Plough Roundabout and the Kingston Road Recreation Ground.

The author spent seventeen of his formative years, from the early war period up until 1956, over the bridge on Leatherhead Common, or North Leatherhead as it is now referred to. He is a member of the local History Society and has an interest in transport of all kinds including Aviation. He is currently serving as a volunteer at Brooklands Museum where he is a member of a team engaged in the restoration of a Hawker Hurricane Aircraft. Just to seal his credentials, he can still walk from home to the centre of the bridge in three and a half minutes.

The bridge was and is the defining barrier that divides those who live in the North and South of the area. Some say that it is akin to the Great Wall of China, but be assured that this is a slight exaggeration. However, the bridge does take on a persona of its own. If you walk over it you might be heard to say “crikey it was hot, wet, or windy over the bridge today”. If you drive over it you might, at certain times of the day, be held up in queues of traffic.

Brian Hennegan: photo via Goff Powell

In the book the reader will be taken on a journey through the areas on both sides of the bridge, including a trip into the distant hinterland of Fetcham.

The period in question is not that far removed from the present in ‘geological’ terms, but it was a very different world when compared to the 21st Century. Although the Author was just a little chap during the war, he has many vivid recollections of the period, especially spending a small part of his formal education in the air raid shelters at Fetcham School. You will have to read the book to find out how a chap from North Leatherhead came to be at Fetcham School.

The Author trusts that the reader will find the contents of interest; whether they have lived in Leatherhead or its surrounding area for only a short time, or if indeed they are of a certain age and can say “yes I remember it well”.

December 2011

And now Over The Bridge The Southern Side

Over the Bridge related the Brian Hennegan’s memories of growing up in Leatherhead Common in the 1940s and 1950s and in the main, covered the area to the North of the Kingston Road railway bridge.

It had been suggested that a sequel should be written which looked at the area to the South of the railway bridge.

The idea was taken up, so Brian Hennegan and Goff Powell have joined forces and this book is the result ..... full details