Tony was one of the founding members of the East Croydon Community Organisation. He came to our first public meeting on 7 October 2014 and became part of our steering group soon after. As such Tony helped organise many public meetings. Although he did not always contribute to the discussions, he had other ways of expressing an opinion. Once, when someone kept talking for too long, Tony simply started to stack the chairs and move them to the side of the room. Other people soon joined in and the meeting finally came to an end.

In 2015, Tony and I held the first of four pub quizzes, with all the questions relating to the ECCO area. As Tony had lived here since he was two, he had a wealth of knowledge to draw on. For the picture round, we would walk around the area with our cameras looking for interesting details for participants to identify. Tony had a proper 35mm camera, which he knew how to use, so his photos were always the best. We also had a history round, which again played to Tony’s strengths. As a pupil at Oval Road School, Tony had been taught by Lilian Thornhill, who had a particular interest in local history. She would take her classes on walks in the nearby streets pointing out historical features. This inspired Tony’s lifelong interest in local history and he built up a fine collection of local history books, maps and prints.

When we ran out of quiz questions to ask about our small area, Tony and I moved on to conducting local history walks.  Although Tony was already knowledgeable about historical sources, his memories of living in the vicinity were what set him apart.  As we guided people round our neighbourhood he shared his experiences, some of which are noted below

• The old lady on Addiscombe Court Road who would often ask him to buy a loaf of bread for her when he passed by as a child. One day, she invited him into her house and her kitchen was full of loaves of bread 7& he realised she was just very lonely.
• Living at 75 Addiscombe Court Road next to Heron Road before it was tarmacked  and his father using clinkers from the boiler to fill in the pot holes.
• The woods he played on where Tunstall Nursery is now, scrumping apples and pears from the trees and having bonfires there on 5 November
• Using the back alleyways as short cuts to Oval School in the morning & for playing hide and seek.
• The rattling of the milk bottles in their crates at dairy bottling plant on the corner of Leslie Park Road and Lebanon Road
• The small shops along Leslie Park Road – Snelling the grocer, the shoe mender, a sweet shop
• The hatch on the side of what is now Spice Corner, but was once an off-licence
• The underground toilets and the police telephone box at the corner of Lower Addiscombe Road and Morland Road
• Taking his dog to be mated with the one at Tom’s barbershop on Lower Addiscombe Road
• Visiting Little Road (off Freemason’s Road) before it was demolished and turned into a children’s playground & the horses stabled under the arches nearby
• Playing on the flat roofs behind The Leslie Arms with the landlord’s son
• The general store on Cherry Orchard Road that smelt of pink paraffin & the old-fashioned haberdashery shop nearby with glass-fronted display cabinets
• The solicitor, Kathleen Harding, refusing to move from her home so that it could be demolished when George Street was widened at the expense of its southern side.
• His first home in the area, above his uncle’s grocery shop on Oval Road, next to the school alleyway
• Trainspotting stream trains from the curve of Cherry Orchard Road
• Walking on the top of the wall alongside the Cherry Orchard Mansions (where The Crescent flats are now) which varied in height along its length.
• An old fire insurance plaque on a factory on the corner of Local Road and Cherry Orchard Road (now replaced by offices)

In between, Tony

• attended numerous meeting on behalf of ECCO, notably those relating to the Save the Glamorgan campaign and the Healthy Streets initiative.
• staffed stalls at several local fairs, using his historic maps and photographs to draw people into discussions.
• took part in many street clean-ups, including those of Oval Road, Leslie Grove and “The Boulevard” (Addiscombe Grove).  In the 2017 photo above, he is planting Croydon Crocus bulbs in the triangle of land at the corner of Oval Road and Cherry Orchard Road.   He had obtained them from the pop-up crocus farm in Queens Gardens where he was also a volunteer.

Tony volunteered to help several other organisations as well as ECCO – Shirley Windmill, the Shirley Park Bowling Club and the Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society to name just three. As far as I know, Tony did not write any historical articles himself, but he was keen to see the work of the people who inspired him remembered. He transcribed Lilian Thornhill’s short history of Oval School and Ron Cox’s account of the development of the Cherry Orchard Road area both of which are re-published on this website.

In many ways, Tony was a wonderful support to a host of local people.  He enabled a great many things to happen because he could always be relied on to play his part effectively.  He was also great company.  For many years, Tony and I would go to ECCO’s building society together to approve transactions. The queues were often lengthy, but we never ran out of things to talk about. He was a very dear friend and I miss him a great deal.

Angela Vanegas

The Leslie Grove Clean-up 2018.  From left – Tony, Mike Griffiths, Sasha Konechni, Jerry Fitzpatrick & Steve Thompson