What's happening at Hampton Cottage, 64 Church Street, Leatherhead KT22 8DP

Monday, 30 April 2018

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 1st May – Friday 4th May – 7.30pm 
Saturday 5th May – 2.30pm and 7.30pm  
Full price £18 Concession £16 Friends of Leatherhead Theatre £15



Sunday, 29 April 2018

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


Sunday, 22 April 2018

LIFE IN MEDIEVAL SURREY BASED ON THE MANOR OF BETCHWORTH


Jane Le Cluse, Archivist at Dorking Museum, gave the April lecture on life in medieval Surrey. Covering 300 years of change, she covered the business of the manor courts; squabbles and misdeeds of the inhabitants; and the dreadful effects of the Black Death among other subjects. 


The manorial system of land holdings was Saxon in origin, pre-dating Domesday and even the institution of parish boundaries. Manors were not the same in different parts of England. This lecture concerned in particular the manors of Betchworth in Surrey.

There are two references to Betchworth in the Domesday Book. The second refers to Betchworth as a sub-holding of Thorncroft, ‘held of the King by De Warenne’. There were actually several original manors but they were gathered together as one, occupying most of the land between Dorking and Reigate. A charter of 1225 confirms the manor boundaries to tenants. These relate to streams, hedgerows and other markers that had prevailed since the times of Saxon rule more than 150 years earlier, preserved in local memory.

In 1216 Louis, son of King Louis VIII of France, came to England at the request of certain barons to drive out King John who was ignoring Magna Carta although he had signed it the previous year. Prince Louis landed at Dover, occupied Reigate, and set out for Guildford using the older road through Betchworth. The name of the Dolphin pub there is said to recall his visit, although Louis did not actually hold the title of Dauphin, traditional heir to the French throne. Despite this the pub sign shows a coronet on a dolphin’s head.

The period 1066-1300 was characterised by bad weather with poor harvests and there were 28 years of famine and many other disasters. The subsequent ‘little ice-age’ from 1303 lasted for several more centuries.

In 1200, England’s population is estimated to have been between three and 4.5 million, rising by 1300 to perhaps 6 million. However, during the Black Death of 1348 about half of the population perished and no account rolls were prepared for Betchworth manor after this time. At least seven tenancies were unclaimed while others went to questionable claimants. Youngest sons were inheriting property and even youngest daughters. In one case mentioned a widow inherited but this was land she had brought herself to the marriage.

After the Black Death catastrophe, labour was more limited and sheep rearing became more important. There was evidence that the sheep were milked as well as yielding wool and meat. Some of the milk would have been made into cheese.

Questions following the talk covered the limited value of the River Mole for transportation in summer and the length of time before serfdom ceased officially. Jane illustrated her lecture with outline maps of the area, copies of charters in Latin with their imposing seals, and simple illustrations of everyday work activities, many taken from the Luttrell Psalter.

Sunday, 8 April 2018

LEATHERHEAD MUSEUM RE-OPENS FOR 2018 SEASON





The battle for women's voting rights and the extraordinary story of Ashtead Pottery are the two main exhibitions at Leatherhead Museum, now open once more for the 2018 season. A local family's equally fascinating album of memorabilia from the First World War is also on show for the season, running until mid-December. 

Jim Fuller, a lifelong Ashtead resident, cut the ribbon formally re-opening the Museum at Hampton Cottage in Church Street, Leatherhead, on Saturday 7 April. His great uncle was one of the 40 disabled ex-servicemen who were given work at the short-lived Ashtead Pottery in the years after World War One. Jim gave a short tribute to him at the re-opening ceremony while standing beside a huge banner celebrating the Suffragettes' struggle which ended a century ago.

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 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. 

Ashtead Pottery had a short life, operating in Ashtead village for just 12 years from 1923 to 1935. It provided jobs for ex-servicemen disabled during the First World War. Its main driving force was Sir Lawrence Weaver (1876-1930), 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. The potters showed off their skills and wares at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924-25, an event organised by Weaver and for which he was knighted.

Pearl Kew, who died recently, lived her whole life in Leatherhead where she was one of the first women to own a car. She drove it to work as a teacher in Guildford. When she died she left the Museum her father’s scrap-book from the First World War. Fascinating entries can now be seen at the Museum. In at least one incident his horse saved his life and he was allowed to bring it back home to England after the war.

Staffed entirely by volunteers, Leatherhead Museum is based at Hampton Cottage in Church Street. It is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 1pm-4pm and Saturdays 10am-4pm.





Saturday, 7 April 2018

CATHY BRETT STARS AT FRIENDS AGM THIS MONTH



Cathy Brett, the Leatherhead-based arts designer who created last year's exhibition theme at Hampton Cottage, will be guest speaker at this year's annual general meeting of the Friends of Leatherhead Museum on Monday, 30 April in the Letherhead Institute. The event starts at 7.30pm for 8pm. Wine and juices will be served.

Author of five teen novels and illustrator of around 40 more by other writers, Cathy grew-up in Leatherhead, her youth shaped by Therfield School, juice bar discos and roller-skating at the leisure centre. She also sold ice-cream at the former Thorndike Theatre - now Leatherhead Theatre, of course - and enjoyed night time walks to and from the William IV pub. After a 30-year absence pursuing careers in art, design, publishing and academia, she’s moved back to the town, building her own studio in her parents’ garden.

She is co-creator of the award-winning ELECTRIGIRL Series for Oxford University Press and her current project, a graphic novel set in Surrey, was a finalist in the Laydeez Do Comics Prize 2018. Since returning to the town she’s thrown herself in to local projects and community collaborations.

In 2018 she is artist-in-residence at Rye Meadows Wetland, Ashtead; visiting lecturer at UCA, Farnham; and will be delivering workshops at the Big Draw, Epsom in October. She will also be opening her studio to the public during the Surrey Artists’ Open Studios event in June and running a series of creative workshops there throughout the summer. She and Lorraine Spindler, curator  at Hampton Cottage, are also planning future artistic collaborations.