LEATHERHEAD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Affiliated to Community Matters (Formerly NFCO)

NEWSLETTER NO 155 December 2009, January, February 2010

The Institute Registered Charity No 277404

67 High Street

Leatherhead Editor: Rita Dent

KT22 8AH 01372 372010

LCA Office 01372 360508 Mon - Fri 9.30 A.M. to 12.30 P.M.

John Henderson, LCA Administrator

www.leatherheadca.org.uk

LCA e-mail address: lca1@rocketmail.com

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Our Chairman is stepping down

The Chairman, Col. Joe Burnip, advised the committee members at the last committee meeting on Friday 23^rd October that he would be vacating the office of Chairman of the LCA at the end of the next Annual General Meeting, and would not be standing for re-election.

Will any member of the LCA who thinks that they know someone who would be prepared to fill this vacancy, male or female (they need not initially be a member) please advise our Administrator in writing or by telephone, who will pass the information to the appropriate quarter.

Your officers are exploring other avenues, and any advice on this matter would be appreciated.

Arthur Howard

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PRESS CUTTINGS

Diana Carr

For a couple of years now short articles have appeared in the local press about the activities of the LCA. These are put on the notice board in the Kirby Room for members to see when they drop in for a coffee.

We are now going to include some of them in the Newsletter so that they reach all our members.

Reproduced here is an account of the LCA's involvement in the Heritage Weekend which appeared in the Leatherhead Advertiser on 1^st October.

There is also an article which appeared in the November issue of the Ashtead and Leatherhead Local about the Institute winning the Mole Valley best building award (what an achievement), and also about the highly successful first Joan Kirby Lecture given by Benedict Allen.

LEATHERHEAD ADVERTISER OCTOBER 1, 2009

Iris Butler

The LCA is so delighted that their entry of the Letherhead Institute won first place in the Mole Valley District Council 'Buildings With Pride' campaign. A photograph of the building was on show at Pippbrook during Heritage Weekend in mid-September, along with other best buildings.

As with every Heritage Weekend in the past, the LCA gladly opened its rooms in the Institute to the public on Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13 from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., with the full agreement and support of the Institute Trustees, who own the building.

The theme this year was memories and mysteries, so aptly reflected in the stands, exhibits and presentations provided.

On the ground floor, the LCA offered complimentary refreshments to all, which were much appreciated, especially by those returning from guided walks and helpers spending many hours on duty.

The LCA library, also on the ground floor, housed a comprehensive exhibition covering the history of the Institute built in the late 1800s by Abraham Dixon, at the time living at Cherkely Court.

His aim was to provide for the people of Leatherhead a centre for education, leisure and recreational activities at an affordable cost.

The exhibition depicted the history of the Institute for over 100 years to the present day. The LCA exhibit in the entrance hall showed how the majority of the rooms are used today, illustrating that the aims of Abraham Dixon are now being fulfilled.

In the large hall on the first floor, the Abraham Dixon Hall, several exhibitions and displays were mounted on the chosen theme, visitors and helpers exchanging information and gleaning knowledge from each other.

On the blacked-out stage, there was an on-going projector show of historic and interesting buildings, some no longer standing, and many recognisable venues.

Twice each day, between the projector show, Edwina Vardey presented some hilarious taped snippets of conversations and question[sic] and answer sessions about places and events from days gone by, prompting the audience to join in with their own memories. Great fun.

The steady stream of visitors to the Institute over the two days was very rewarding. A great deal of knowledge was exchanged between visitors and helpers and new fields explored.

ASHTEAD AND LEATHERHEAD LOCAL NOVEMBER 2009

Diana Carr

The LCA will remember the autumn of 2009 with great pride for two reasons. Firstly, their home base, the Letherhead Institute, won the best building award in a competition sponsored by MVDC and the Leatherhead Advertiser to find the most popular building in the district as part of the Heritage Weekend celebrations. The Institute was a runaway winner.

The Institute was purpose-built, is delightfully Victorian and given by Abraham Dixon, a local benefactor, in 1892 to the people of Leatherhead so that they could meet there for social, educational and leisure pursuits. Today the LCA continues to use the Institute for these same purposes. It leases a major percentage of the rooms there, including a large hall, library and clubroom. It uses the accommodation for its own activities and also hires out the facilities to 70-odd local clubs, associations and groups on a regular or one-off basis thus fulfilling the aims of the founder, Abraham Dixon.

LCA members were truly delighted that the Institute won this competition and that a photograph of the beautiful building was on show at Pippbrook during Heritage Weekend. Perhaps some readers may have seen it.

The second reason for pride was the great success of the first Joan Kirby Lecture given in the Abraham Dixon Hall at the Letherhead Institute by Benedict Allen, the TV presenter, explorer and author. His talk was called 'Edge of Blue Heaven' and was about his five-month trek through Mongolia. The end of the journey being a 1,000-mile walk across the Gobi Desert alone with just his camels for company. He had a lot of trouble with these animals. Well into the walk one refused to go on, sat down and stubbornly refused to get up until he was allowed to head for home where he arrived safe and sound some time later.

Benedict Allen informed us that all camels have photographic memories and this is why they never get lost in the desert and can find their way home quite easily.

We learnt a lot about Mongolia, and the lives of the people, the yurts (tents) in which they live, their food, which seems to consist of fat and mutton, and their mode of transport, which is by camel or horse. After the lecture there was liquid refreshment for all, and the opportunity to speak with Benedict Allen personally.

Everyone enjoyed the evening and it is hoped that this is the first of a series commemorating our late Chairman and founder member, Joan Kirby, who did so much to enhance and enliven the lives of the people of Leatherhead and whose generous legacy to the LCA is funding these lectures.

JOAN KIRBY LECTURE

Diana Carr

The first Joan Kirby Lecture was an outstanding success, as all those who attended will testify. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of members who applied for tickets. The evening itself could not have gone better. There was a palpable feeling of anticipation and enjoyment in the Institute.

The lecture was first class, and the many people who stayed behind afterwards enjoyed refreshments, and the opportunity to speak to the lecturer Benedict Allen.

All this has set us wondering whether or not we should incorporate a monthly or bi-monthly lecture into the LCA activities. This would be an opportunity for members to meet up on a regular basis.

We would like to have your opinion on this. Also, if you think it is a good idea could you let us know which time of day you would prefer the lectures to take place - morning, afternoon or evening.

It would be very helpful if you could let us know by telephoning John Henderson at the Institute on 01372 360508, or by e-mail to lca1@rocketmail.com.

We should like to have as many views as possible, thank you.

LCA OUTING TO WATERPERRY GARDENS AND OXFORD AUGUST 3^RD

Alison Bentata

This summer morning we set out for Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire and a guided tour of some of Oxford City. Waterperry Gardens is a perfect coffee or lunch stop. It was historically the first horticultural college for women. The gardens are delightful, especially a wonderful herbaceous border, also several garden-centre type areas.

After a pleasant lunch, we left for Oxford and were deposited as arranged outside the theatre where we were met by Victoria and her colleague. There were two groups of 15 or so and we set off to our first talking point. We all learnt a great deal about Oxford in a short time. I, for one, had not realised quite how old the town is, or that it was the capital of the country in the time of King Athelstan c. 895-939 AD. (Athelstan was the first king of all England, and Alfred the Great's grandson. He reigned between 925 and 939 AD.) The university goes back to the 1400s. The architecture was pointed out to us and we had a crash course in appreciation of it. Romanesque windows have rounded tops and Gothic ones are pointed. We sat in the chapel of Jesus College for which we were very grateful, and had an interesting explanation on how the university works. It has a collegiate organization which means that all the colleges are independent entities like public (private) schools, but all the students are state-examined and mostly state-educated. Their wealth or lack of it depends on how they have been endowed, the money was usually in the form of parcels of land given in the fifteenth or sixteenth century or before. Later, rich and grateful alumni would give money to set up scholarships which various governments stole. St John's is the richest college, and at one time one could walk or ride from Oxford to Cambridge on land owned by St John's.

We then walked by the Bodleian Library, the Radcliffe Camera, and the Hertford College Bridge, which is a copy of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, and had a lot of their history and use nowadays explained. As we had shared Oxford with at least 1,000 other tourists, finding our way back was quite an achievement.

SCOTLAND and the ARTS-six lectures by Paul Pickering

In the course of these lectures I hope to throw a spotlight on some exciting aspects of the fine and decorative arts with a Scottish connection.

Scottish Artists is a particularly rich theme. (Weeks 1 and 3) The Aberdeen born John Phillip was nicknamed 'Spanish Phillip' so popular was his treatment of Spanish subjects, and in the late nineteenth century there is the emergence of a loosely associated group of artists known as the Glasgow Boys. Exploration of their work will take us to Scottish sites like Brig o'Turk in the Highlands and also to France. Like painters of the Newlyn School, the Glasgow Boys were attracted to the work of Millet, Bastien Lepage and members of the Barbizon School. (Week 5)

The Scottish Colourists were natural successors of the 'Boys' whose free brushwork formed the basis of the former's early styles. The four members of this group, Peploe, Hunter, Cadell and Fergusson, were active between 1910 and 1930. (Week 6)

The Scottish landscape and Scottish identity itself will loom large in these lectures. (Week 4)

In the eighteenth century Scotland's desolate mountains and braying stags were almost a source of embarrassment. William Gilpin, the influential proponent of the Picturesque, thought that if there had been more trees the land would have had more appeal! His contemporaries delighted in the beauty spots of the wooded banks of the Esk near Edinburgh, and the Falls of Clyde.

Unavoidably Balmoral is a springboard for exploring the Victorian love affair with Scotland. It was a spirit of romantic nationalism which contributed to Scottish Baronial, the leading architectural style in the mid-nineteenth century. Its extravagance contrasted with the cool sobriety of the work of the Adam brothers, particularly Robert, who grew up in eighteenth century Edinburgh surrounded by intellectuals. (Week 2)

The vigour and intellectural distinction of the Scottish capital in the Age of Enlightenment is captured so well in the work of Henry Raeburn, the first Scottish painter to earn an international reputation-one of several painters of that period we shall be studying. (Week 1)

Week 1 - Jan 20 Scottish Portrait Painters

Week 2 - Jan 27 The Architecture of Robert Adam

Week 3 - Feb 3 Scottish Painters abroad