Plaque Unveiling at the Vanished Bluesette Club

A big crowd gathered as a plaque marking the site of the 1960s rock music scene, the Bluesette Club, was formally unveiled outside 22 Bridge Street, Leatherhead, on Saturday 20 January. The site, now a car park, is behind The Black Dog Gallery, which celebrated the event with a special window display on Marc Bolan of T Rex, perhaps Leatherhead's most iconic rock star.

Councillor Simon Ling, chairman of Mole Valley District Council, unveiled the plaque alongside Chris Stagg of Surrey Hills Radio, who masterminded the event, and Andy Ellison, last surviving member of Marc Bolan's original Leatherhead-based band, John's Children. Refreshments were served afterwards at Leatherhead Theatre where Andy performed alongside guitarist Boz Borrer who plays with the singer Morrissey.

Among the excited crowd of fans was Marina Dorey of north Leatherhead. Aged only 50, she was a small child in the days of the Bluesette Club but said: "My family used to dance in the TV show 'Ready, Steady Go' and my mum always liked Marc Bolan and the others. I get my love of fashion from her."

Also there to show Councillor Ling and his wife exactly where the old stage and club entrance once stood was Mick Hughes of the Sabres, the motor bike group which acted as bodyguards for the rock musicians. He claimed to have spotted Jimi Hendrix there on one occasion. In its day the Bluesette Club, formerly the Chuck Wagon but renamed in 1965, hosted many stars including Desmond Dekker, Cat Stevens, Alan Price, Zoot Money, Jethro Tull, and Dusty Springfield.  It was taken over by band manager Simon Napier-Bell who eventually renamed it again as John's Children Club in honour of the band that kicked off Marc Bolan's career in 1967.

The band broke up the following year and Bolan became one half of the two-man band Tyrannosaurus Rex, later T Rex. The club was later destroyed by a mysterious fire. The site was used by an upholstery firm but the building was eventually demolished. Chris Stagg arranged the plaque's installation as part of the Leatherhead Heritage Trail.

For more on the club, email chris@surreyhillsradio.co.uk or post to Chris Stagg, c/o Surrey Hills Radio, 32 North Street, Leatherhead. KT22 7AT. Telephone: 0777 555 5407.

Three brand new exhibitions opening in April 2018

The Museum will feature three very different topics in its new exhibitions opening in April. These will be:

• The Suffragettes' struggle in Leatherhead
• One family's album of memorabilia from the First World War
• The short-lived but highly successful Ashtead Pottery

The road to suffrage for the women of Leatherhead was often bumpy. When the Women’s Suffrage Caravan rolled into town on Saturday, 16 May 1908, it produced riots among many menfolk. In December the local Unionist Club  passed a motion that it was ‘unpropitious’ for legislation on the question of women’s suffrage. Yet from her home in Belmont Road, women’s rights campaigner Marie Stopes had begun to pen Married Love, campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett would later fascinate her audience at Victoria Hall in 1910, and Emmeline Pankhurst’s arrest and detention at Leatherhead police station would capture the interest of the nation. Leatherhead secured centre stage in the push for women’s rights. 

A notable local figure was Pearl Kew, one of the first women in Leatherhead to own a car which allowed her to drive to work as a teacher in Guildford. When Pearl died recently she left the Museum her father’s scrap-book from the First World War. In at least one incident his horse saved his life and he was allowed to bring it back home to England after the war. Pearl lived her whole life in Leatherhead. Her mother died relatively young when she fell from a bus.

The Ashtead Pottery had a short life, operating in Ashtead village for just 12 years from 1923 to 1935. It was set up to provide jobs for disabled ex-servicemen after the First World War and employed up to 40 men. Its main driving force was Sir Lawrence Weaver, backed by the architect Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) who built the extraordinary village of Portmeirion in Wales, and Richard Stafford Cripps (1889-1952), the prominent Labour politician and later government minister.  The company's vast array of wares ranged from figurines and commemoratives designed by leading artists of the day, through to everyday crockery in bold bright designs.

Leatherhead Museum set to reopen in April

Leatherhead Museum at Hampton Cottage in Church Street will reopen on Thursday, 5 April 2018 with the official opening on 7 April.

Beverley or Bookham? Your choice for 19 January.

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.