When developers started to clear more of the wood in 1925, campaigners launched an appeal to preserve sixteen acres. An unexpected degree of success permitted the acquisition of nearly 200 acres, which were presented to the National Trust with the local authority taking responsibility for their maintenance. North of Addington Road, Littleheath Wood was similarly saved in 1932. Selsdon station, which closed in 1983 (when it was still lit by gas lamps), was nowhere near here. Opened in 1885 as Selsdon Road, it was on the unsuccessful Woodside and South Croydon Railway.

In February 1970 Conservative leader Edward Heath convened his key advisors at the Selsdon Park Hotel to draw up a new manifesto with an emphasis on tax cuts and free market economics. Labour prime minister Harold Wilson saw this as the thinking of a political Neanderthal, whom he branded ‘Selsdon Man’ – but Heath won the election four months later.