A deed in the Bethlem archives details the purchase of the land and dwelling house called Eden Park Lodge by Edward George Miles and William Henry Gorham, builders, for £450.  Mr Burchett, the Head gardener was given a week’s notice to quit on 5 September 1928 with a recommendation that he would be retained on the staff.  He had occupied the lodge for two years at a rent of 7s 6d out of his £2 per week wages.

In The Gallery there is a photograph taken from 415 Upper Elmers End Rd when snow was on the ground by the north drive before the houses were completed on the other side of the road.  The Croydon Local Studies Library let us use a photograph of the lodge itself that shows the resemblance between the north and south lodges.  The third lodge in a Tudor style is still there along the road towards Croydon.

Various papers held by the Bethlem museum show how Samuel Jones Loyd extended the property, buying up Eden Park farm from John Woolley in 1838 and further land at Upper Elmers End including the Rising Sun in 1847.  The Spring Park estate was also acquired in February 1847. 

It was about this time that Edward Lawford was living at Eden Park, the mansion of William Eden in what is now Crease Park.  His son Melville Lawford kept a diary between 1842 and 1843 in which he frequently mentions visits to Mr Loyd’s pond to catch perch.  He played cricket at Coombe, football in the South meadow and took part in a tableaux evening watched by neighbours including Mr and Mrs Cator and Mr and Mrs Jones Loyd.  He describes an archery evening where Henry won the gentlemen’s prize and Sophy Holland from Langley farm won the Ladies.  He would ride to Addington to meet the hounds and return through Spring Park to Jones Loyd’s wood off Long Lane. 

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