The Enid Blyton Society

I've just been looking at the Wikipedia entry for Enid Blyton, and it says that in 1920 she moved to Chessington. I don't remember her living there. but can't find my copy of her biography to look it up, and I didn't spot it being mentioned in the section about her on the Society website. Can anyone give me any info about her time there?

The person who wrote the Wikipedia article must have meant Hook, which is in the same area. Enid Blyton lived at a house called Southernhay in Hook Road from 1920-1924. It belonged to the Thompson family and Enid was tutor to the four Thompson boys and other local children. Barbara Stoney put Southernhay in Surbiton in Enid Blyton - the Biography (as did Enid in a diary entry quoted by Barbara) but Mark Davison who wrote Hook Remembered said the house is actually in Hook.

Thanks Anita, I know Enid did move about quite a bit, but was surprised to think she'd moved twice in 1920. I've just looked on Google maps, and even that shows some confusion, as Hook Road Chessington, Surbiton and Hook all show the same location, it seems the road starts off in Surbiton and then continues into Chessington.

I've often travelled along the A3 on my way to Portsmouth, and never realised that Hook Road was running parallel. I could have made a detour.

My daughter and I have seen Southernhay from the outside. We went with Cliff Watkins, Mark Davison and members of a local history society who told us that that part of the road was in Hook. It's nice to see the house as it probably looks much the same from the outside as it did in Enid's time (though it's now divided into flats internally) but Hook Road is a really horrible dual carriageway these days. As you look at Southernhay, all you can hear is roaring traffic. There's a little park opposite the house where Enid sometimes used to take her pupils.