Bookkeeping in Coulsdon

Based in Coulsdon we will provide a full and convenient bookkeeper and accounts service. Please call and we can arrange to visit you, early morning or evening so as not to disrupt your day is fine. After discussing your needs we will propose a way forward and an estimate of time and cost for work involved.

The interesting History of Coulsdon

Coulsdon has a strong and vibrant local history, which includes Saxon burial mounds and an Iron Age Field System on Farthing Down, an ancient church recorded in the Domesday book, Marlpit, a former industrial chalk quarry, and the former Cane Hill Mental Hospital (a site currently under development). Appearing in the Domesday Book as Colesdone it boasted one church and rendered £7 to Chertsey Abbey. Its only other Domesday assets were 3½ hide, 7 ploughs, and woodland worth 3 hogs.

Prior to Domesday, the village's name appears to have gone through a number of changes. Originally it seems to have derived from Cuðrædsdun, i.e. Cuthred's down (or hill), via Curedesdone, subsequently elided to Curresdone and Cullesdune.

The town later lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Wallington hundred, but is now firmly established as a locality in its own right. Indeed, Coulsdon now covers a multitude of geographical settlements - from Old Coulsdon, through Coulsdon Woods, the High Street (Brighton Road), properly Smitham Bottom, to the Mount (Clockhouse).

Formerly within the administrative county of Surrey, as part of the Urban District of Coulsdon and Purley, boundary changes, London Government Act 1963, meant that in 1965 it became part of the Greater London Borough of Croydon. Until postcodes rendered such things unnecessary, however, Coulsdon remained postally as 'Surrey'.

The area between Smitham and Old Coulsdon was filled by housing development in the later 19th and especially the 20th centuries. The two centres still, however, have separate characters, with the village green, parade of shops and mediaeval church giving a 'village' feel to Old Coulsdon, while the Brighton Road and the railway give the old Smitham Bottom a bustling, busier atmosphere.

Coulsdon has recently benefited from the long awaited Bypass, which has enabled a greater community feel to the town centre. Whilst mourning the loss of Woolworths and the local bookstore in recent years, The Pembroke (a Smith and Jones branded pub Group)and Cafe Nero opened in the past few years. There is a reducing percentage of empty shops and plans for a supermarket on the old Red Lion site are making very slow progress. Prominent in the middle of Coulsdon is the head office of the world-famous Jane's Information Group. That Coulsdon is set for further modernisation is visible from the plans to add a sports centre, further supermarkets and the proposed altered usage of the Cane Hill Hospital site.

Around Coulsdon are attractive and important open spaces, largely chalk downland which is on the northern edge of the North Downs. Farthing Down and Happy Valley are owned by the City of London Corporation and are popular with walkers. The London LOOP footpath around London passes through on the route between Hamsey Green and Banstead.