Parks and playgrounds directory

Location

Kenley, between Old Lodge Lane and Hayes Lane.

Area

30 acres 12.14 hectares.

Facilities

• Extensive open grass and scrub land.

History

Betts mead was acquired over a period of years by the Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council. The first area was a gift to the Council in 1925 from F.Betts Esq., who presented it as a Gift in Trust for the perpetual use of the public for a recreation ground and park.

There was stipulation in the Conveyance that Bylaws were to be introduced that no public meeting for the discussion of political, religious, trade or social questions or other matters of controversy shall be permitted. The two other areas of land were purchased by the U.D.C. from Representatives of F.Betts estate after his death.

Nearby Waddington is probably of Saxon origin the name coming from "Wheat down". The local community would have reared its cattle and grown its corn in the clearings in the surrounding woodland that had been cultivated in strips. Part of Betts Mead was substantially filled with rubbish and was relandscaped in the 1970's as an area of meadows and woodland.