MEMORIES OF ASHTEAD IN WORLD WAR TWO - BOOK REVIEW BY ANNE FRASER

'Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.' ¹ This is the story of the small Surrey village of Ashtead during World War II. Oral histories, letters, photographs and documentary evidence flesh out the effects of conflict during this dark period of history. 

Time marches on, and the recording of first-hand accounts through the eyes of those who were children at the time is invaluable. Thankfully, the authors have painstakingly collected interviews and documentation over the last five years to ensure that these memories don’t stay silent. The book is thoughtfully collated and clearly divided into sections for different aspects of life at the time.  The first section concerns the start of the war and the narrative  moves on through areas such as food, military service and visiting Canadian troops, before coming  to the end of the war and … bananas!

Our senses are invoked. One witness recalls the terror of an eerie silence when the roaring engine of a V1 Flying Bomb would suddenly cut out. You soon learned what that meant. Later, there are photographs of homes in Gaywood Road after a direct hit from a landmine. The fronts of the houses give no clue but if you look beyond at the next image, you will see the terrible destruction that would devastate lives and change families forever.

What comes across is the resilience and resourcefulness of the inhabitants.  A recipe for a pie using economical ingredients is detailed. I can almost believe it tasted delicious! Entertainment took minds from troubles. This included sporting activities such as cricket at the City of London and Freemen’s School and never mind the small matter of sheep droppings on the pitch! While times were often harrowing, there is a lovely current of humour running through the book as people recall friendships and family life with great fondness.

The chapter on war brides is poignant but life-affirming. The young bride, Marjorie Ashwood aged 19 and a barmaid at the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower, married her Canadian sweetheart, Andy Stewart in 1942. They set up home in Montreal before returning to Ashtead in 1947. The wedding photo shows a happy couple with the bride in white and carrying a beautiful bouquet.

Documentary evidence is fascinating and gives further figures and statistics to accompany the stories. The appendices at the end of the book list categories such as military service as well as air raid warnings, of which there were 30 in the first week of October 1940 alone. There is also a long list of contributors, and it must have been a real joy to listen as they recalled the events of over 70 years ago.

The authors have successfully managed to pull all of these resources into a coherent, lively, comprehensive testament to the lives of people concerned, their sense of community and their bravery at this most challenging of times.

Copies of Memories of Ashtead in World War 2 are currently available from Barton's Bookshop, Leatherhead and the following outlets in Ashtead: Michael Everett Estate Agents, The Street; Bumbles, The Street; Post Office, The Street and Post Office, Barnett Wood Lane. Also from the Wishing Well in Great Bookham. Additional copies can also be supplied by directly contacting John Rowley, chairman of the L&DLHS, and will be among the many publications on sale at the Leatherhead Museum in Hampton Cottage when it reopens next spring after refurbishment.

¹Lucy Montgomery The Story Girl (Quiet Vision Pub. 2000. First published 1911)

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FOUR NEW HISTORY SOCIETY BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS 2018

No fewer than four new book titles covering dramatic 20th century history events in the local area will be available for Christmas presents in association with the Leatherhead & District Local History Society.

First to appear in the autumn was Little Bookham in World War 1 by Vivien White. This is based on research for the 2014 Heritage Weekend exhibition that marked the centenary of the start of the Great War and was restaged in  September 2018 to cover the end. It tells the story of this tiny community, lists all those local men known to have fought in the war, and focuses in particular on a few of those individuals who lost their lives. 

Second to appear was Struggle and Suffrage – Women’s Lives in Leatherhead 1850-1950 by Lorraine Spindler, published to mark the centenary of the first Parliamentary votes for women in 1918. How did the women of Leatherhead help to achieve the vote that year and how closely had the suffrage movement touched the lives of local women up to that point? The book looks at the daily struggles of local women over a century, considering how education, war, romance, household responsibilities, religion and entertainment all evolved, enabling women to come out from the shadows.

Also marking the centenary of the Armistice, the third new book is A Salute to Fetcham by Lyn Rozier and Janice Steele of the Fetcham U3A. This is a tribute both to the villagers who stayed at home in what was also then a tiny rural community and those who were engaged in the forces. It outlines the sacrifices made by local volunteers, some of whom served as nursing orderlies in the military hospitals and to a young woman who enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.

Finally about to appear is Memories of Ashtead, based on interviews with surviving residents who recall childhood there during World War 2. This has a personal foreword written by TV personality Bamber Gascoigne who was among the youngsters concerned. 

The three books about wartime in local villages will be available for purchase at Barton’s Bookshop in Leatherhead and the Wishing Well in Bookham. A Salute to Fetcham is also available at The Kitshop in Fetcham.  Struggle and Suffrage, published by Pen & Sword, is available both in shops and via Amazon. They will all also be available at Leatherhead Museum when it reopens after refurbishment next year. 

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN. WAS LEATHERHEAD REALLY SAFER THAN LONDON?

Under the pseudonym Alice Graysharp, writer Rowena Tompkins has written a novel entitled The Keeping of Secrets inspired by her family’s reminiscences of the Second World War. The main character was based on the real life experiences of her mother Edith as a wartime evacuee from south London to Leatherhead. Edith's memoirs provided the basis of Rowena's presentation to the L&DHLS on Friday 16 November. She is shown above during her evacuation period.

The talk, entitled Out of the Frying Pan, began by describing her childhood as the daughter of a baker living in a series of rented houses in south London. Born in 1924 she won a scholarship to St Martin-in-the-Fields High School in 1935 but her parents were poor and her mother took on cleaning work to pay for her school uniform. Edith was cared for by her grandmother.

In September 1938 all schoolchildren were issued with gas masks and had a mock evacuation day. They had to carry gas masks to school every day knowing  a war was coming. In August 1939 they returned to school much earlier than usual as the pupils were all about to be evacuated. On Saturday 2 September 1939 Edith left home at 5.30am for school by 6am. Her mother made her a packed lunch and her father walked home to say goodbye to her. No one knew where the children would be staying and her parents only found out days later by postcard.

Despite a heat wave the children wore their winter uniforms and carried only small cases. They eventually arrived by train at Leatherhead Station where they were swiftly marched in pairs to the Kingston Road evacuee distribution centre. There they were all matched with local homes and given a paper bag containing tins of corned beef, baked beans and evaporated milk. Edith was driven with two other girls to a large house in Givons Grove. It was quite a contrast with the cramped accommodation she was used to.

They were shown to a sitting room where their host was painting a nude woman. This was where they slept. Edith was given a divan with no sheet and a scratchy blanket. Her companions were given a double bed. During the first night they were awoken by their hostess who complained that they had locked the door and occupied the bathroom for too long. Instead they were to use the bath in her bedroom.

The next day was Sunday and the evacuees filed into Leatherhead Church. Instead of the organ they heard their first air raid warning and the vicar said England was now at war. Breakfast consisted of leftover crusts from the night before and burnt jam. All meals were leftovers, supplemented by the tins they had been given on arrival. Lunch costing 4d was provided at the evacuation centre but it was never enough. Their hostess kept the girls busy weeding her garden, removing clover from her lawn.

They started lessons from Monday at St John’s School. Daily assembly was held by St Martin’s School on the upper floor of the building and they moved between  classrooms and the gym. The St John’s School pupils attended in the mornings and those from St Martin’s in the afternoons. Edith's mornings were spent in buildings elsewhere in Leatherhead and she attended the Methodist church hall for French and art lessons. Games and PE were held at a local sports club.

Everyone had to help the war effort and Edith was sent with fellow evacuees to the Royal School for the Blind, which was turned into an emergency hospital, to help dig and fill canvas sandbags with earth. When her first week ended her parents visited her and her mother was concerned about the lack of laundry arrangements. After two weeks the three girls were all moved to other accommodation.

Edith was driven to a house in Pachesham Park and greeted by the owner and two  new fellow evacuees. She shared a room on the first floor where they slept on camp beds. The house seemed palatial: the main bedroom had an en suite bathroom and there was a separate flat for the servant. Her new hostess fed them properly, sharing out portions of golden syrup from a big glass jar. 

But this pleasant time was also short-lived as the owner's family arrived from London and they had to move out again. Edith was found a third home in Cobham Road at a semi-detached house near the millpond. The owner's husband had just retired as a butcher. They had several daughters, two living at home of whom one worked at the local telephone exchange, the other had a hairdressing business in Thornton Heath.

Edith shared a bedroom with the former. The bed was too short for her. She went back to her parents for Christmas but returned to yet another location in January above a butcher’s shop at the far end of Fetcham. From there they all moved to a rented bungalow in Warenne Road. Edith's hostess took the single room and, doubling her income, took in another evacuee too. Edith shared with the girl she had known at Givons Grove.

Edith celebrated her 16th birthday in June 1940 and matriculated. One day in autumn 1940 she and a friend were cycling back into Warenne Road when they heard a falling bomb. They threw themselves onto the side of the road and it exploded in a field nearby. When she was away at Christmas a bomb landed on the house next door in Warenne Road. Both houses were empty at the time but she had to move again to a council house off Poplar Road.

Leatherhead was no safer than south London. Most evacuees tended to remain at one place for the duration but Edith stayed in six places within 18 months with five  different families. She left both school and Leatherhead in 1942 and was evacuated again to Doncaster with her teacher's training school. After the war she married and worked as an art teacher for many years. She died in 2014. 

A STUDY OF COUNTRY HOUSE SERVICES AT POLESDEN LACEY, GREAT BOOKHAM

Hugh Baker and Michael Herbert of Fetcham U3A Industrial Heritage Group will outline their research on the house’s utility services in Mrs Greville’s day. Together these helped to make ‘Polesden Lacey fit for a maharajah’.

They will be describing how  reliable sources of water and electricity were produced and the internal communication system installed which culminated in telephones connecting to the outside world.

Talk 8pm, Friday 19 October 2018

Letherhead Institute, High Street

Leatherhead

Coffee at 7.30pm. Entrance £2

Non-members welcome

FIRE & IRON AT ROWHURST - 'THIS BLESSED PLOT'

A large audience heard the September talk by Lucy Quinnell of Fire and Iron Gallery on what had been her family’s house since 1932. Lucy’s own story is a fascinating one while the mysterious origins of her house have led to much speculation. BILL WHITMAN reports.

Lucy told us she was born at the northern tip of Leatherhead, opposite the Star pub. She later lived close to what is now SeeAbility, while her father ran Rowhurst Forge. She went to Therfield School, Epsom Art School and Exeter University where she read English Literature, including a module entitled Land, Landscape and Literature.

She returned at a time of major change. The M25 now bisected the family farm and had taken many acres. Her mother died that year and then too her grandmother - the first family owner of Rowhurst - so Lucy found herself living at Rowhurst with her three-year-old son while her father still ran the forge.

She founded Fire & Iron Gallery to showcase and sell metal artefacts. The business grew and after assisting with London’s Globe Theatre gates she designed and produced a sculpture at Ironbridge, the Amesbury Archer at Stonehenge, and a gold medal-winning garden at the Hampton Court Flower Show. Fire & Iron’s work in Leatherhead includes the sign for Neate’s Alley, ‘hand’ archways for a local park, the cyclists on the wall of the Letherhead Institute and the bridge-themed installation at the Church Street/High Street crossroads, not to mention the Dorking Cockerel down the A24.

Fire & Iron’s site is also a nature reserve and more recently Lucy led the successful campaign to protect the adjacent 57-acre Teazle Wood, now a major local conservation project.

Rowhurst house is located on a spur at the highest point in the area, 60 metres above sea level between two tributaries of the River Mole. The house was evidently built in three phases: a first building, represented now only by the semi-basement; a second timber framed building dated by dendrochronology to 1346; and the newest part dating from 1632. The tower-like semi-basement is a 25 feet square room with flint walls 2.5 feet thick. There are five cupboard niches in the walls, suggesting storage of important items, and arches similar to those in a large dovecote in France. Two dovecotes appear in local records, yet a dovecote would surely not have required such substantial foundations. Comparison with traces of a similar structure near Tyrwhitt House across the valley might suggest alternative function.

Lucy referred to Edwina Vardey’s A History of Leatherhead which describes Leatherhead as “a key place in local government; a centre of royal authority and the site of a minster church”. Leodridan, thought to be Leatherhead, is a royal vill in King Alfred’s will (800s) and later records for Pachenesham (North Leatherhead) feature a prison, pound, courthouse, gatehouse and church.

Might Rowhurst’s origins date back to that time - or even earlier? The semi-basement has been suggested as the missing Anglo-Saxon minster church which lay at the north end of present Leatherhead. Buildings on The Mounts dated from the 1200s, so the earlier minster church may still be found somewhere else in the area. It may be unlikely that Rowhurst itself was the church, but it is possible that Teazle Wood might one day reveal new evidence.

Rowhurst appears as a name from 1418 to 1543 in connection with some fields, followed by a long gap to 1712 where it appears as a ‘messuage’ with 40 acres. A series of very short tenures followed and the buildings became ruinous. The major development of 1632 is not documented, which is puzzling. Exactly three centuries later, Lucy’s family moved in and the modern story began.

NEW LECTURE PROGRAMME UNDER WAY FOR AUTUMN/WINTER 2018

21 September, 7.30pm: Lucy Quinnell (shown above) gave the new season’s first monthly talk on Rowhurst, Leatherhead’s ‘Blessed Plot’ - the house that has been in her family since 1932 (top). Full report due shortly.

19 October, 7.30pm:  A Study of Country House Services at Polesden Lacey. Fetcham U3A Industrial Heritage Group will outline their research on the house’s utility services in Mrs Greville’s day. Together these helped to make ‘Polesden Lacey fit for a maharajah’.

16 November, 7.30pm: Authoress Alice Graysharp on her mother’s youth in Out of the Frying Pan: The Wartime Experiences of a Leatherhead Evacuee.

7 December, 7.30pm:  Christmas Miscellany. Seasonal celebratory wine, accompanied by three short talks on local history topics.

 18 January 2019, 7.30pm: Tony Matthews uses L&DLHS and other sources to tell The Story of Cherkley Court, covering Leatherhead’s contrasting experiences of the Dixon and Beaverbrook periods and consideration of what has happened since then.

GOFF POWELL, ONE OF LEATHERHEAD'S BEST LOVED HISTORIANS, DIES AGED 79

OBITUARY:

Goff Powell

 (1939-2018)

Goff Powell, lifelong Leatherhead resident and one of the town's best known historians, died on Monday, 20 August aged 79 at the Princess Alice Hospice. He leaves behind his widow Maureen and their two sons, David and Brian. His close friend and fellow historian Brian Hennegan writes this tribute.

                                                                   

Godfrey David Powell was one of life's gentlemen, softly spoken, of generous spirit and caring. He was born in Ashtead but by the outbreak of the Second World War the family had moved to Ryebrook Road, Leatherhead.  His parents and his elder brother Tom came from the valleys of South Wales where their father had been a miner.

Goff’s formative years were spent in a community that looked out for each other and the friendships that were forged there were to last a lifetime. He was educated at All Saints School and Leatherhead County Secondary School (long before Therfield was established.)  Goff had an artistic gift and attended Epsom Art College. His first job was working for a commercial art studio in London and he hoped to establish a career in the art world. However, being a certain age he ‘took the Queen’s shilling’, or to be more accurate had the Queen’s shilling thrust upon him! He spent his national service in the Royal Army Medical corps and found himself involved in book-keeping and accounting. 

Returning to ‘civvy street’ Goff worked for a number of well known local firms in a financial capacity. He studied and gained book-keeping and accountancy qualifications and his last appointment was that of an instructor in this field at Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation Training college.

Goff had many hobbies and interests. The Scout movement was always  close to his heart and as well as being a young scout himself he became a cub and scout-master, later serving as an assistant district commissioner for the Leatherhead District. He was made an Honorary Scouter and awarded the Silver Acorn for Distinguished Service. In all, he gave over 40 years of service to the movement. Football was also a passion and he followed ‘The Tanners’ for over 65 years, not just as a spectator but also playing competitively for many years. Popular music was another interest.

Goff’s involvement with the Leatherhead & District Local History Society was well known. He served on the executive committee and was at one time sales secretary. For many years he was also a steward and member of the Friends of Leatherhead Museum.

Over the years he amassed a comprehensive collection of postcards, not only of local interest but of a more general nature. His generosity in providing  access to them for other authors was always gratefully appreciated and he was a member of the Surrey Postcard Collectors Club. 

Goff was always in demand as a speaker for many local clubs and societies.  He was a prolific writer of books and articles for various publications numbering well over 100. His books included Up The Tanners,  a personal history of Leatherhead Football Club;  The Inns and Public Houses of Leatherhead & District;  Over the Bridge the Southern Side; and Over the Other Bridge.

We are all the poorer for Goff’s passing.

SURREY WITH A FRINGE ON TOP!

Visitor John Morris enjoys his appointment with a hair-brushing machine at Hampton Cottage, one of Surrey's most enduring 17th century houses.

OK, things aren't quite what they seem! Hilda and Frank Hollis, last private residents of the cottage, are played by actors and John is actually a Friend of Leatherhead Museum, now located at the cottage in Church Street, Leatherhead. 

The hair brushing machine was one of many attractions during this summer's Craft Days in August.  

A HAIR BRUSHING MACHINE AND WASHING DUTIES - ALL PART OF VICTORIAN LIFE

A hair brushing machine features among the curious attractions on show this month at Leatherhead Museum for the three annual craft days. Visitors on Friday 3 August enjoyed a public demonstration of the machine as well as seeing Anna, "the Victorian maid" set about her washing and other duties at Hampton Cottage.

The hair brushing machine was invented in 1856 and was still in use in Leatherhead in 1909. The barber in his salon would hold a roller with soft brushes against the head of his client moving the roller about until all the hair had been brushed. It was said to have been a very pleasant experience.

A new machine, built on the same principle, is on display and will also be demonstrated at the Letherhead Institute as part of the Heritage Days on 15 and 16 September.

The exhibition there is called Lovely Leatherhead, also the title of a guide book full of pictures, articles and advertisements for local traders. Copies of the book with additional pictures will be on sale on CDs, including notes and pictures from the Leatherhead & District Local History Society’s archives.

The proceeds from the exhibition will be given to the Friends of the Leatherhead Museum. Contact John Morris 01372 362524 for further information.

MARY CHRYSTIE: BENEFACTOR, PROPERTY DEVELOPER AND TEMPERANCE ACTIVIST

Local historian Judith Witter will be telling the tale of one of the district's most remarkable women on Saturday, 15 September as part of the Heritage Week programme.

Mrs Mary Chrystie (1838-1911), shown above, of Fife Lodge, Church Road, Bookham, was a wealthy widow whose activities and development of property made a massive and lasting contribution to the appearance of the villages of Great and Little Bookham that we still know today. Speaking at the Pastoral Centre, St Nicolas Parish Church, Lower Road, Great Bookham, KT23 3PN, Judith will look at her life and the family background that influenced her decisions.

Judith's biography Mary Chrystie and her Family was published by the Leatherhead & District Local History Society in 2013. It revealed how Mrs Chrystie came by her fortune, how her family dealt with various crises and were involved in both Jamaican sugar plantations and the East India Company. However Judith's forthcoming talk will include very recent research not previously published.

The 45-minute talk starts at 2pm on 15 September and pre-booking is required as there will be a maximum of 50 people per session. Tickets will be available for purchase from 10am on 13 August until 5pm on 10 September by email from boxoffice@molevalley.gov.uk or by writing to Dorking Halls Box Office, Reigate Road, Dorking RH4 1SG.

The Pastoral Centre is attached to Great Bookham's parish church, located at the crossroads where Lower Road meets High Street and Church Road. Parking is available in the nearby pay and display car park off Lower Road.

Refreshments will be served after the talk. Contact for the day: Bronwen Mills 07979 556639

 

AUTUMN REPERTORY RETURNS TO LEATHERHEAD THEATRE

Leatherhead Theatre's first repertory season in more than 30 years will continue this autumn after its successful launch in spring. Three more great productions by Hordern Ciani are scheduled between 6 and 24 November with a similar format of comedy and musical charm for all the family.

A spokesperson said: "The audience numbers grew for each successive production in the spring as more and more people heard about us. We are now really looking forward to the follow-up season and plans are under way for more productions next year too."

The new series kicks off at 7.30pm on Tuesday 6 November with Michael Aitkens' stage adaptation of his TV sitcom Waiting for God, set in a care home. He got the title from a retirement village near his home in Australia which some staff members called "God’s waiting room". The show relocates the place to Bournemouth and focuses on the relationship between a cynical, cantankerous spinster and a jovial former accountant.

Second in the series from Thursday 15 November will be Dave Simpson's stage musical adaptation of E Nesbit's The Railway Children,  a compelling Edwardian period story about youngsters who leave their privileged London life for a very different existence in the Yorkshirecountryside.

Finally, from 20 November will be Alan Ayckbourn's Seasons Greetings. As friends and relatives gather to celebrate the festive period, relationships strain and nerves run high. An unexpected guest, a grumpy uncle with a shotgun and a host determined to perform a puppet show all entertain the gathering in ways they were not anticipating.

​

​Other treats at Leatherhead Theatre before the repertory season include a production of The Goon Show on Tuesday 16 October. Marking Spike Milligan's centenary year, the Apollo Theatre Company will present this comedy classic at theatres around the country so it is a one-off opportunity for the Leatherhead audience.

CELEBRATING VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: FOR THE LOVE OF WORDS

Leith Hill Place, 6pm Saturday, 14 July

Literature that fired the imagination of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). With help from his poet/musician sister Rosie, broadcaster, writer and oral historian Andrew Green introduces poetry and prose set to music by the great English composer. This is one of a series of talks exploring the life, times and music of Vaughan Williams and his inspiration from the local Surrey landscape.

Vaughan Williams' works over some 60 years include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces, and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies. He spent part of his life at Leith Hill Place, the family home.

For further details and to book tickets, go to 

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/leith-hill-place/events .

REPERTORY SEASON RETURNS THIS AUTUMN AFTER SPRING SUCCESS

Leatherhead Theatre's first repertory season in more than 30 years will continue this autumn after its successful launch in spring. Three more great productions by Hordern Ciani are scheduled between 6 and 24 November with a similar format of comedy and musical charm for all the family.

A spokesperson said: "The audience numbers grew for each successive production in the spring as more and more people heard about us. We are now really looking forward to the follow-up season and plans are under way for more productions next year too."

The new series kicks off at 7.30pm on Tuesday 6 November with Michael Aitkens' stage adaptation of his TV sitcom Waiting for God, set in a care home. He got the title from a retirement village near his home in Australia which some staff members called "God’s waiting room". The show relocates the place to Bournemouth and focuses on the relationship between a cynical, cantankerous spinster and a jovial former accountant.

Second in the series from Thursday 15 November will be Dave Simpson's stage musical adaptation of E Nesbit's The Railway Children,  a compelling Edwardian period story about youngsters who leave their privileged London life for a very different existence in the Yorkshire countryside.

Finally, from 20 November will be Alan Ayckbourn's Seasons Greetings. As friends and relatives gather to celebrate the festive period, relationships strain and nerves run high. An unexpected guest, a grumpy uncle with a shotgun and a host determined to perform a puppet show all entertain the gathering in ways they were not anticipating.

​

​Other treats at Leatherhead Theatre before the repertory season include a production of The Goon Show on Tuesday 16 October. Marking Spike Milligan's centenary year, the Apollo Theatre Company will present this comedy classic at theatres around the country so it is a one-off opportunity for the Leatherhead audience.

LATEST NEWSLETTER FROM THE HISTORY SOCIETY

Parade in The Street, Fetcham, for the homecoming of
Lieutenant George Barnard Hankey, probably on 5 July 1900.
Led by Bookham Brass Band, seen here in front, the carriage was
being pulled by villagers rather than horses.

* The June 2019 Newsletter should now be with every member of the L&DLHS and all stewards who volunteer to help at the Leatherhead Museum. The Newsletter is now much more than just a communication with members. It provides a vital window on our subject and helps encourage membership growth. We now print more copies at marginal cost for public consumption as well as ensuring all members receive them in return for their subscriptions.

* This edition complements the current Museum exhibition celebrating the centenary of the first votes for women in Britain.

*  Other items covered include the special exhibition on Ashtead Potters.

*  The edition pays tribute to leading figures of the Society who have had to step back for health reasons.

*  The edition also welcomes the new joint Museum managers, Peter Humphreys and Duncan Macfarlane.

*  All members have been notified of the effects of the new General Data Protection Regulation which protects their personal information.

HOW THE RAF BREACHED GERMANY'S DAMS

75th Anniversary of the Dambusters

7.30pm, Friday 1 June

St Lawrence Church, Effingham

A talk given by the official historian of RAF 617 squadron

Free entry -

Retiring Collection in aid of the

 St Lawrence Church Lighting Appeal

TALK ON A LEATHERHEAD STREET REPLACES SCHEDULED LECTURE

Lifelong Leatherhead resident and authority Brian Hennegan will give this month's talk at the Letherhead Institute on Interesting Activities in a Leatherhead Street. Brian has written several books about the town's local history and is a longstanding stalwart of the Local History Society.

For health reasons Professor Pat Wiltshire has been obliged to postpone her scheduled talk on The British Hedgerow - Past and Present to a future date. This will outline how the hedgerow came to be and how its management and exploitation have influenced the nature of the local landscape.

As usual, Brian's talk will start at 8pm on Friday, 18 May. Coffee will be served from 7.30pm. Entrance £2. Non-members welcome.

REPERTORY STARS DROP IN AT HAMPTON COTTAGE

The cast of The Secret Garden, second of this year's brand new repertory productions at Leatherhead Theatre, called into Hampton Cottage between performances. They are seen here outside the Museum with Katherine Mount, producer and co-founder of Leatherhead Rep. Photo by Robin Christian.

The first repertory season at the theatre in almost 30 years kicked off in April with a first class production of  Yes, Prime Minister  by TV writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic children's story, has been adapted as a musical by Dave Simpson. The third production is the comedy Communicating Doors  by Alan Ayckbourn.

Katherine said: 'The beautiful Leatherhead Theatre has such a rich history of repertory and deserves to be a thriving creative resource again in the centre of its community. In 1969 people came out in huge numbers to fund-raise for this theatrical centrepiece to the town. We want the artistic programme to do those efforts justice once again.'

Tickets can be purchased from the theatre box office and the company websites. Leatherhead Rep Tel: 01372 365141 http://www.leatherheadrep.com

Communicating Doors

Tuesday 1^st May – Friday 4^th May – 7.30pm 

Saturday 5^th May – 2.30pm and 7.30pm  

Full price £18 Concession £16 Friends of Leatherhead Theatre £15

THE BRITISH HEDGEROW - PAST AND PRESENT

Professor Pat Wiltshire will outline how the hedgerow came to be and how its management and exploitation have influenced the nature of the local landscape. The natural history of hedges and their importance for biodiversity will also be discussed.

Talk 8pm, Friday, 18 May 2018

Letherhead Institute, High Street, Leatherhead

Coffee at 7.30pm. Entrance £2

Non-members welcome