HOW WE RESEARCHED MEMORIES OF ASHTEAD IN WORLD WAR 2

Chairman John Rowley and Ashtead school archivist Patricia Jenkins gave a presentation after this year's Annual General Meeting on the story of their book Memories of Ashtead in World War 2, published in December.

They explained how it gradually took shape as a result of research and interviews over several years beginning in May 2012. At that time John contacted Meredith Worsfold, son of a well-known builder of homes in Ashtead before and after the war. The initial enquiry was specifically about flat concrete Edwardian house roofs in Albert Road but from August 2013 he and Patricia began framing ideas for the book.

They began collecting available local resources such as the Ashtead Residents Association's own on-line record A Village; school logs and memoirs, and wartime marriages from the St Giles Church Marriage Register. They investigated the Ashtead War Memorial page on the L&DLHS website, the L&DLHS map of local bombings, other contemporary maps and aerial photographs, and official war diaries of the Royal Norfolk Regiment and the Canadian Signals Corps, the two primary military units billeted in Ashtead during World War 2.

In November 2013 they contacted Ann Williams, née Astridge, daughter of a well-known Ashtead family, in Calgary, Canada, and she helped with extensive research and interviews of veterans and the British girls who had married them and emigrated after the war. From July 2014, John was busy transcribing details of some 40 such weddings of local women and the following year he and Patricia hit the jackpot when they secured typed records of the Canadian War Diaries.

From then on it was a matter of continuous interviews and contacts with anyone and everyone with a story to tell about wartime in Ashtead. Eventually the book emerged from this long process at the end of 2018 and went on sale just in time for Christmas. Copies available from local bookshops and Leatherhead Museum when it reopens next month.