Place:Waddon, Surrey, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Waddon is a place in the London Borough of Croydon, to the south west of central Croydon on the borders of the London Borough of Sutton. Waddon has an older area with 19th-century properties, some even older, close to central Croydon. Further south is a large estate of Council-owned homes and a small number of tower blocks.

Waddon is in the Wandle river valley. Waddon Ponds is a public open space, the ponds in which are one of the sources of the river. There are plans to open up the culverted river once again at various places.

The former Croydon Airport was on the edge of the Waddon area, with the local community consequently suffering badly in the Blitz and subsequent bombing raids in World War II. Land and existing buildings in this area may be found to be subject to 20th century restrictive covenants preventing new construction above a certain height due to the proximity of the former airport, but those restrictions ought to be redundant by now, given that the airport has long since gone.. The imposing hotel which used to serve the airport remains to this day.

The Croydon Pirates are one of the most successful teams in the British Baseball Federation, playing at Roundshaw close to part of the old airport.

Running through Waddon, from Purley to West Croydon, is Purley Way, the A23, home to many superstores and light industrial units. Waddon railway station is on the line between West Croydon railway station and Epsom Downs or Sutton. There are Tramlink stops at Waddon Marsh and Wandle Park.

Politically, Waddon is the most marginal ward of Croydon Council and has seen its representation swap between the Labour and Conservative Parties for many years. In 1994, Labour won all three seats, then in 1998, the ward returned one Labour and two Conservative councillors, one of whom defected to the Liberal Democrats. In 2002, Labour once again won all three seats, albeit with one of them scraping home with a majority of eight votes, the only Labour ward in the seat of Richard Ottaway MP, Croydon South. In the 2006 elections, Waddon returned three Conservative councillors.

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