Place Name
This is on the Selsdon Vale estate laid out between 1960 and 1972. However development of this area had begun some decades earlier. When, in 1923, brewer Wickham Noakes, who had bought Selsdon Park nearly a quarter of a century before, died, the estate was broken up and some 300 acres including Ashen Vale and Selsdon Vale were bought by the newly formed Surrey Garden Village Trust. In 1925 they divided the land into smallholdings for sale to ex-servicemen from the First World War. Although low density, the destruction of the local wildlife habitat began to concern local people. In order to stop further development an appeal was launched to raise funds to protect Selsdon Wood and create a Bird Sanctuary and Nature Reserve. This was finally achieved in 1935 with the woodland vested to the National Trust. Hence this cluster of roads has an avian theme and is known locally as the Dickie Bird estate. Also part of the estate is Albatross Gardens, Bullfinch Road, Curlew Close, Dove Close, Goldfinch Road, Kingfisher Gardens, Kittihawk Close, Lapwing Close, Mallard Road, Martin Close, Nightingale Road, Osprey Gardens, Peacock Gardens, Quail Gardens, Redwing Close, Sandpiper Road, Turnstone Close and Wagtail Gardens.
