WOKEN BY GHOST AS BLAZE STARTED.

Since appealing for information about the supposedly-haunted St Valery building in Beulah Hill, more and more of you have written to us.

Last week, John Brown from Green Lane, Streatham, revealed who designed and built the house. This week, Pilar Howard, from Croydon writes: "I lived on the middle floor in 1985 to 1988.

"It was a beautiful house before it was split up and modernised. The owner was a relative of our Queen Mother and she told me a lot about the house as she had it for a long time. Her brother lived there in the chauffeur's quarters.

"There was definitely a ghost of a young woman about and I often saw her. In fact, once there was a fire in my kitchen and she woke me up!

"I always felt very happy at St Valery. It is with pride that I look back to those happy days as it was a real privilege to live in such a beautiful place."

Does anyone else have memories of St Valery? Current resident Neil Smithers believes the house used to be a convent.

Meanwhile, as always, we've been inundated with your fascinating letters on a number of subjects. We'll be featuring plenty more of them next week, so keep them coming in.

Dorothy Turton, from Coulsdon Road, Old Coulsdon, writes: "Referring to the correspondent who wrote two weeks ago recalling the small public hall at the corner of Wellesley Place and George Street, I also remember the Public Halls.

"It was while I was attending school in Croydon that I and my best friend used to go one afternoon a week, after school, to this building for our dancing lesson.

"This was taken by Audrey McCulloch, the sister of Uncle Mac on Children's Hour on the wireless at that time - about 1930.

"We also had one small, rather shy boy in the class, I think he was a nephew of Uncle Mac (Derek McCulloch), but in spite of his reticence, he made us laugh with his brilliant impersonation of Uncle Mac's Larry the Lamb!"

She adds: "I also seem to remember the very sudden demise of the class due to the elopement of Audrey McCulloch!"

Remember, if you have any memories or pictures to share about Croydon's heritage, we'd love to hear from you.

Write to: Gary Taphouse, Heritage Column, Croydon Guardian, Guardian House, Sandiford Road, Sutton, Surrey SM3 9RN, or fax 0181 770 2277.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.