About Surrey Heritage

Surrey Heritage looks after the county's history. Our collection includes old newspapers, photographs, illustrations, family history records and even letters signed by Henry VIII. We use these items to bring history to life for all communities and ages from early years to adult learners. Anyone can use the archive at Surrey History Centre, just bring along a library card or some ID.

We hold lots of exciting events and exhibitions throughout the year, including our Annual Lecture and Heritage Showcase events.

Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6ND

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Latest posts

Maps for Family Historians

Maps are an important but often overlooked resource for family historians. This talk explores how maps can enhance our understanding of a local area and also shed light on the places where our ancestors lived their daily lives. It will show what can be found in local libraries and record offices and also what is available online. It will also explore some practical aspects of using different sources alongside maps to explore where and how our ancestors lived and hopefully help us to walk in their footsteps

  • Tickets: £5.
  • Please book a place online. After payment has been received, attendees will be sent their unique Zoom link and password.
When
24 May 2023
until 24 May 2023
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Netherne, circa 1960: a Surrey mental hospital in focus

Netherne Mental Hospital, Coulsdon was opened by Surrey County Council in 1909. Initially accommodating 960 patients, by 1950 numbers had increased to 2,000. The hospital closed in 1994. The surviving archive, now preserved at Surrey History Centre, includes 19,500 patient case files and around 10,000 photographs taken circa 1955, exploring all aspects of the hospital's life. From the wards to the airing courts; the art therapy unit to the operating table, these vivid images provide a rare glimpse of daily life inside a Surrey psychiatric hospital, allowing us to take a tour of the hospital on a typical day at what was a turning point in its history.

  • Tickets: £5.
  • Please book a place online. After payment has been received, attendees will be sent their unique Zoom link and password.
When
17 May 2023
until 17 May 2023
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Planting Ideas: sources for the history of gardening in Surrey

This illustrated talk explores the wide range of sources held by Surrey History Centre that can be used to study the history of Surrey's gardens – ordnance survey maps, tithe and enclosure maps, charity records, deeds, estate plans, sale particulars, family papers, photograph albums, business and society records, watercolours and engravings can all be used to uncover the history of garden design, planting and the skills of Surrey's gardeners over some seven centuries.

  • Tickets: £5.
  • Please book a place online. After payment has been received, attendees will be sent their unique Zoom link and password.
When
03 May 2023
until 03 May 2023
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Surrey Local History Committee presents: Music in Surrey

Join Surrey Local History Committee for a day of talks on the theme of Music in Surrey.

  • 9.30am Registration
  • 9.55am Welcome, Gerry Moss, Chairman of Surrey Local History Committee
  • 10am Stephen Rose, (Royal Holloway, University of London) Music in the Surrey History Centre: Parish Church and Family Collections
  • 10.40am Coffee or tea
  • 11.10am Catherine Ferguson (Research Associate, University of Cambridge) 'Fight the Good Fight': Hymn Writing in Surrey
  • 11.30am David Taylor: Hubert Parry and his Surrey Connections
  • 11.50am Irene Shettle: The Valiant Lady: Lucy Broadwood - a Life in Song
  • 12.30pm Lunch (coffee or tea available)
  • 1.45pm Chris Wiley, (University of Surrey) Dame Ethel Smyth: Composer, Musician, and Surrey Resident
  • 2.30pm Ges Ray: Leith Hill Music Festival
  • 3.10pm Discussion and Closing remarks
  • 3.30 pm Close
  • Coffee or tea included. Please make your own arrangements for lunch. Tickets: £15.00 (£18.00 on the day).
  • For more details and to book a place, please visit the Surrey Archaeological Society website.

When
22 Apr 2023
until 22 Apr 2023
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Restaging The Past - The Story of Historical Pageants

A screening of a new film from King's College London and Windrose Rural Media Trust with talks and a question and answer session with the film makers.Wednesday 12 April, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

It was a movement that swept the country and was imitated abroad. Over more than a century it galvanised hundreds of thousands in great performances of costume and song. It involved ordinary people in some of the mightiest events of their lives. It was an experience that they never forgot.

In 1905 the extravagantly named Louis Napoleon Parker had an idea. A playwright and impresario, he devised an immense pageant in Sherborne, Dorset, performed by local people, re-enacting the history of the town in the place where it actually happened. The community was inspired. There were 900 actors, musicians, costume makers and organisers; not to mention 50 horses.

The performance took place in the open air, in the ruins of Sherborne Castle. Special trains carried visitors from London. Audiences of 30,000 people witnessed the performance.

Ever the publicist, Parker commissioned a film of a dress rehearsal and had it shown in London to attract major attention. Excerpts from that film, along with archive films of subsequent pageants appear in Restaging the Past which, for the first time, relates the story of the pageant movement.

Professor Paul Readman (King's College London), Professor Mark Freeman (UCL - University College London) and a team of colleagues, long fascinated by the development and impact of historical pageants, have completed a major research project which has uncovered the extent to which communities all over the UK took to pageantry as an expression of local pride and as an outlet for hidden performance talents.

Restaging the Past, made by Windrose Rural Media Trust, draws upon this research and reveals how towns and cities developed the pageant idea, both in style and scope, until some pageants had casts of many thousands, more recent history was re-enacted, and modern technology was engaged. The film looks at the pageants of Sherborne (1905), St. Albans (1907, 1948 and 1953), Carlisle (1928, 1951 and 1977), Birmingham (1938), Guildford (1977 and 1987) and Farnham (1950).

The film shows some of the amazing ephemera that was produced to commemorate pageants and features the experiences of people who were closely involved. The role of Pageant Masters, performers and costume makers are recounted first hand. Not everything was easy. Juliet Renny, wife of Surrey Pageant Master David Clarke, says "It was just an awful rush... for forty years to be honest!"

And pageantry is not dead. The film begins and ends with the preparation and performance of the 2022 Axbridge Pageant in Somerset; a pageant which is renewed every ten years.

  • Tickets £5
  • Please book a place online. After payment has been received, attendees will be sent their unique Zoom link and password.
When
12 Apr 2023
until 12 Apr 2023
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Wild Wildlife - free drop in family activities

Tuesday 4 to Thursday 6 April and Tuesday 11 to Thursday 13 April during normal opening hours at Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND

Come along to Surrey History Centre this Easter to discover British wildlife! Have a go at craft activities including make a badger, hedgehog and snail. Ages 3 to 10. Free parking onsite, buggy friendly and baby change facilities. Activities have been created by young people from The Halow Project.
When
04 Apr 2023
until 13 Apr 2023
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

LGBT+ History Month: The power of our stories

Surrey County Council's LGBTQ+ Staff Network is hosting an event for LGBT History Month, in collaboration with Surrey History Centre. Come along to browse LGBTQ+ treasures in the History Centre archive, network with the local community and engage with our fantastic guest speakers:

-SCC LGBTQ+ Staff Network

-LGBTQ+ archives at Surrey History Centre & ‘What’s Your Story?’

-GIRES ‘Legacy of Kindness’ Trans oral history project

-Blossom/Twister LGBTQ+ youth presentation

Refreshments included.Free event but please register your interest online.
When
23 Feb 2023 at 6:00pm
until 23 Feb 2023 at 8:30pm
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Christiana Herringham and Surrey by Dr Laura MacCulloch

The artist, campaigner and art collector Christiana Herringham (1852 to 1929) moved to Surrey with her family in 1878. Using examples from the Royal Holloway Art Collections this talk introduces Herringham and her work and explores her family's activities in the county.

Dr Laura MacCulloch is Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the Watts' Gallery Artist's Village. She co-curated the current exhibition 'Dreams and Stories: Modern Pre-Raphaelite Visionaries (until 26 February) featuring the work of Christiana Herringham, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Evelyn de Morgan among others. Prior to working at the Watts Gallery she was College Curator at Royal Holloway, University of London, working to raise the profile of its art collections and make them accessible to the public. It was at Royal Holloway that she looked after the largest collection of work by Herringham in the world and began to explore her links to Surrey.

  • Tickets: £5.
  • Please book a place online. After payment has been received, attendees will be sent their unique Zoom link and password.
When
22 Feb 2023 at 5:30pm
until 22 Feb 2023 at 6:45pm
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Love Hearts - Free half term family drop-in activities

Celebrate Valentine's Day with Surrey History Centre by discovering some of the love hearts found in our collection and have a go at our free craft activities. Ages 3 to10. Free parking onsite, buggy friendly and baby change facilities.
When
14 Feb 2023 at 9:30am
until 16 Feb 2023 at 5:00pm
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND

Colours - Free drop in family activities

Come along to Surrey History Centre and explore the colours in our collection. Make a suncatcher, create your own rainbow, colour in and other free craft activities. Parents/Guardians are responsible for supervising their children.

Buggy friendly and accessible building with free parking on site as well as baby change facilities.

Opening times

Monday: closed

Tuesday: 9.30am to 5pm

Wednesday: 10am to 5pm

Thursday: 9.30am to 5pm

Friday: 9.30am to 5pm

Saturday: Second and fourth Saturdays of the month, 9.30am to 4.15pm

Sunday: closed
When
16 Aug 2022 at 9:30am
until 26 Aug 2022 at 5:00pm
Where
Surrey History Centre
130 Goldsworth Road
Woking
GU21 6ND