Loving Vincent at Leatherhead Theatre

Beverley or Bookham? Your choice for 19 January.

Once the seasonal festivities are over, you are warmly invited to the first Society event of the New Year on Friday, 19 January at the Abraham Dixon Hall of the Letherhead Institute. Starting time 7.30pm for coffee before the lecture. It costs just £2 each for members and their guests.

Richard Hughes will be speaking on Beverley Nichols, Ashtead’s Forgotten Celebrity, who lived at Merry Hall, the Georgian manor house in Agates Lane for ten years after World War 2. Between 1920 and 1982, Nichols (1898-1983) wrote more than 60 books and plays and regular magazine articles. His works included novels, short stories, essays, children's books, non-fiction on travel, politics, religion, cats, parapsychology, and autobiography. He also composed musicals. Among his best remembered works now are his gardening books. He lived at Merry Hall from 1946 until 1956 and wrote about its renovation.

Alternatively, you can go to St Nicolas Church Pastoral Centre, Great Bookham to hear local archaeologist Lyn Spencer talking about her book, Great Bookham - The Development of a Surrey Village in Maps, published by the Leatherhead & District Local History Society. Lyn will be explaining how recent research and excavation in the centre of the village have helped to bring the past to life.

The price there will be £7.50 to include wine and light refreshments, payable on the door. Call the Parish Office on 01372 450709 to book.

What Beverley Nichols the writer did while living in Ashtead

Once the seasonal festivities are over, you are warmly invited to the first Society event of the New Year on Friday, 19 January at the Abraham Dixon Hall of the Letherhead Institute. Starting time 7.30pm for coffee before the lecture.

Richard Hughes will be speaking on Beverley Nichols, Ashtead’s Forgotten Celebrity, who lived at Merry Hall, the Georgian manor house in Agates Lane for ten years after World War 2. Between 1920 and 1982, Nichols (1898-1983) wrote more than 60 books and plays and regular magazine articles. His works included novels, short stories, essays, children's books, non-fiction on travel, politics, religion, cats, parapsychology, and autobiography. He also composed musicals. Among his best remembered works now are his gardening books. He lived at Merry Hall from 1946 until 1956 and wrote about its renovation. 

Don't Miss the Christmas Miscellany

You would be hard put to find two more contrasting characters than the subjects of 2017's last presentation. After the massive success of our November talk at Leatherhead Theatre, when the audience filled every seat to hear TV presenter Bamber Gascoigne, our final talk this year will be back in the Abraham Dixon Hall of the Letherhead Institute on Friday, 8 December.

Two local historic figures will be featured. One man, one woman. One poor, one rich. One who spent almost his entire life in the village of Bookham, near Leatherhead. One who lived in not one but two of the great local houses and whose legacy changed the lives of millions.

Tony Matthews will present the life of Turville Kille, the gardener who came to head local government and worked to preserve and enhance our precious allotments. And Fred Meynen will talk about Marie Stopes who lived in both Givons Grove and Norbury Park and revolutionised British attitudes towards birth control.

Completing the line-up and acting as Master of Ceremonies for our Christmas Miscellany, will be Brian Hennegan, lifelong Leatherhead resident and author of several works on our local history. He will talk about A Street with Colourful Characters

The evening starts at 7.30pm with the usual welcoming coffee, followed at 8pm by the presentations and at 9pm wine, soft drinks, nibbles and mince pies. Don't miss it.

Bamber Gascoigne Triumph for Society, Museum and Theatre

A full house of 500 gathered at Leatherhead Theatre on 17 November to hear Bamber Gascoigne, onetime presenter of TV's University Challenge, speaking about his inherited mansion, West Horsley Place, and how it became the new home of Grange Park Opera this summer. He told the extraordinary story of his late great aunt Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, and how the house came into the family possession. Following the talk came a performance by opera singer Kate Aitchison, accompanied by pianist Marion Lee, while the theatre foyer contained a special exhibition on the town’s historic operatic society, arranged by Leatherhead Museum.

The whole event marks a new era of cooperation between the Leatherhead & District Local History Society, which runs the Museum, and Leatherhead Theatre. Bamber Gascoigne, who spent part of his childhood in Ashtead, was also involved in the foundation of what was formerly called the Thorndike Theatre in the 1960s. He was introduced on stage by Museum curator Lorraine Spindler and after the evening's performances, was presented with a historic photograph of himself with Hazel Vincent Wallace whose fund-raising made the theatre a reality in 1969.

A brand new local repertory company will be launched at Leatherhead Theatre at 7pm on Monday, 11 December with free drinks, live jazz and information about its first season of three plays starting next spring. To learn more, go to www.leatherheadrep.com

Another Chance to Hear This Fascinating Story

Local historian Vivien White will be repeating her hugely successful talk about Fetcham Park House later this month, this time in Little Bookham. She gave the lecture during the summer to two packed sessions at the former manor house. If you missed it then, this is your opportunity to catch up. 

Edwardian Operetta Exhibition at Leatherhead Theatre

As part of their first co-operative project for many years, Leatherhead Museum and Leatherhead Theatre are hosting a fascinating new exhibition at the theatre covering the town's historic amateur operatic society and its remarkable productions more than a century ago.

The operatic society was founded in 1906 by Charles Grantham, a North Street carpenter and builder, and  its productions were of a very high standard  - mainly Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. They had a good orchestra of around 20 members and were directed by Cornelius Hooker, the parish church organist and choirmaster, and for many years later by his son Bernard. The operatic society would sometimes employ a professional producer from the D’Oly Carte Company. The sets were designed and painted by the multi-talented Charles Grantham, who was also the stage manager, singer and actor.

The show is based on a unique album of photographs, cuttings and other memorabilia donated by a direct descendant of the Hooker family. It also covers the involvement of the Neates, an especially musical local family with Percy, Reginald, Beatrice, Kate and Ella all featured. Beatrice and Ella in particular were also involved with the church choir as well as the operatic society.

The Museum closes on Saturday, 9 December and will reopen on Thursday, 5 April 2018 with the official opening on 7 April. A social evening for all stewards and Museum workers will be held  from 7 for 7.30pm on Monday, 4 December in Room G6 at the Letherhead Institute.

The Deepdene Trail invites you to attend two fascinating, evening talks at Fetcham Park House.

Introducing the intriguing  story of Thomas Hope (1769 – 1831), bringing his personality and vision for design to life; these two talks are set in the magnificent Fetcham Park House, Fetcham and will be preceded by drinks in the Great Hall.

Born into one of the richest banking dynasties in Europe, Thomas Hope used his great wealth to shape the arts in Regency England.  He amassed a remarkable art collection and installed it in the extraordinary interior of his London town house in Duchess Street and country estate at Deepdene, Dorking.  His interior decoration fostered what became known as the Regency style: a fascinating amalgam of decorative details, ornament and influences from Antiquity and British and Continental European art, architecture and design.  

Thomas Hope – His Life and Collection by Philip Hewat-Jaboor

10^th November 2017 6.30pm       

Philip Hewat-Jaboor is an independent art consultant advising private and institutional collectors on the purchase or sale of works of art.  Philip was the curator of the Thomas Hope Regency Designer exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  He has curated a number of other exhibitions including William Beckford (An eye for the Magnificent) at the Baird Centre New York and the Dulwich Picture Gallery.  Philip is also chairman of the highly successful annual Master Piece Fair.

Sir John Soane and Thomas Hope: Rival or Disciple? by Tim Knox

1^st February 2018  6.30pm           

Tim Knox is the Director and Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.  Prior to his appointment in 2013, Mr. Knox served as Director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London where he had been since 2005.  Tim studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art and was appointed Assistant Curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects Drawings Collection in 1989.  In 1995 Tim moved to the National Trust as its Architectural Historian, becoming Head Curator in 2002.

Talks bookable via Dorking Halls Box Office on 01306 881717 and www.dorkinghalls.co.uk.

Tickets priced at £12 per person including drinks.

A Century of Amateur Opera

As part of their first co-operative project for many years, Leatherhead Museum and Leatherhead Theatre will host a remarkable special exhibition from 6 November until the start of the December pantomime season. The show will cover the town's historic amateur operatic society, based on a unique album of photographs, cuttings and other memorabilia from the distant past. The album has been donated by a direct descendant of the Hooker family which helped to found the operatic society well over a century ago and held leading roles for decades afterwards.

The exhibition will also coincide with the talk on 17 November by TV personality Bamber Gascoigne on the restoration of his magnificent West Horsley Place house and estate. This now hosts the Grange Park Opera which opened this summer at the country's latest new opera house, modelled on La Scala, Milan. See Society News.

Leatherhead Museum itself marked this year's Mole Valley Heritage Open Days from 7-10 September with its own transport-related items including the story of Venthams Motor Cars. A highlight of the weekend was the restored open top horse-drawn bus which passed by on its way into Leatherhead from Dorking.

The Museum will continue to be open from now until mid-December. 1pm to 4pm on Thursday and Fridays and 10am to 4pm on Saturdays.