Whyteleafe, Surrey was originally a small village between Purley and Caterham but it's now just part of a dormitory area for London stretching all the way along the Caterham Valley. My grandparents moved there in 1930 and we used to visit them regularly in the 1950s. I took the photos for this panorama around 1954 on a scruffy box camera, but only got round to stitching them together a few years ago. You can't reproduce these shots now, as the hill is far too overgrown and the view is obscured: my picture here shows a similar view to the extreme left of the panorama.

Over the hill on the opposite side of the valley is the site of Kenley Aerodrome, a world War 2 Airfield (where Angels One Five was filmed): I remember powered flights there, and it later became a field for gliders.

Click here to download a Google Earth placemark for the site from which the panorama was taken, facing approximately south-west. 




© Roger Wilmut