Tuesday 30 September 2014

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be on Monday 6th October at Mayford Village Hall, when Stephen Humphrey will be talking about Surrey Prisons. Visitors welcome for a fee of £3.

Friday 12 September 2014

Lives of the First World War

The Imperial War Museum's The Lives of the First World War campaign is asking members of the public to contribute time, data, and historical artifacts to help construct a massive database from existing records and historical archives of those who served in the British and Commonwealth forces. For more information, please consult https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org.uk

Last chance to sign up for the visit to Woking Palace excavations on September 20th

Friends of Woking Palace are arranging special site tours of the Palace while this year's dig is in progress and we have been offered the chance to see the excavations on Saturday 20th September at 2pm.


We must make you aware that it will be a working site and that the ground is rough. There will be no seating and no refreshments available, but there are portaloos! Cars must be parked in Old Woking, and this means a walk of about half an hour to the site and back again afterwards.

If you would like to join the tour, please phone Jan Mihell on 01483 772556 by September 13th.

Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers - Project Update

I am very pleased to tell you that our bid for the second stage of the First World War Project - 'Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers' - has been delivered to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

We expect to have a decision very early in 2015 and will then be able to start on this ambitious and exciting project.

Over the last few months our consultant has been engaged in consultations with a wide range of different groups. We are really pleased to say that the reaction has been almost unanimous; the proposed project is a great idea and an appropriate way to reflect on and commemorate the Great War. This support from communities across the County is hugely encouraging and we have already been receiving requests to register as a volunteer and other offers of support.

We have developed a structure for the planned website and have a working model for the searchable database which will contain all the information about the people who have a Great War connection with Surrey. The database is linked in to the county's Historic Environment Record so war memorials will be flagged up on any planning applications taking place in the local area. We have been working closely with colleagues in East and West Sussex to develop systems that use the same underlying principles so that data can be exchanged quickly and easily. We have also continued discussions with the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War team and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission with a view to creating automated links with their data.

A new element in the planned project is the digitisation and indexing of a range of Surrey newspapers from the 1914-22 period. A great resource for anyone researching Surrey in the Great War period.

We will continue to keep you informed about project developments. If you know of anyone doing research about Surrey in the Great War and you think they may not be on our mailing list please ask them to contact the Surrey Heritage team at Surrey History Centre. We will then ensure that they are contacted and consulted once the project starts.

Many thanks to all of you who have already contributed ideas, research material and comments on the planned project.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to e-mail, call or write to us.

Regards

Phil Cooper
Exploring Surrey's Past Officer

phil.cooper@surreycc.gov.uk

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Visit to Woking Palace excavations on Saturday 20th September at 2pm

Friends of Woking Palace are arranging special site tours of the Palace while this year's dig is in progress and we have been offered the chance to see the excavations on Saturday 20th September.

We must make you aware that it will be a working site and that the ground is rough. There will be no seating and no refreshments available, but there are portaloos! Cars must be parked in Old Woking, and this means a walk of about half an hour to the site and back again afterwards.

If you would like to join the tour, please phone Jan Mihell on 01483 772556 by September 13th.