Waste Collection and Clearance in Shirley

Shirley lies about 10 miles south-south-east of Charing Cross, east of Croydon, with 14,296 residents in the ward at the 2011 census. The name was first recorded in 1314 and probably means shire clearing.

It stayed a small hamlet for a long time and then changed almost entirely in the 1930s, when house building expanded rapidly — largely suburban semi-detached houses, with the Monks Orchard estate built in the same boom. That single-era stock is the most useful thing to know about clearing here.

Semis of that period are generally straightforward to work in: driveways, gardens front and back, reasonable doorways. What catches people out is the loft and the detached garage, which on a 1930s plot routinely hold far more than expected. Describing those when you enquire is what avoids a surprise on the day.

Wickham Road is the commercial spine, with a library, shops, restaurants and two pubs, and it stays busy. Addington Hills woodland forms the southern boundary and the ground rises towards it. Shirley Windmill, a Grade II listed tower mill built around 1854, is the obvious landmark when an address is hard to describe.