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Talks and events

Olympics: Free Drop-in Family Activities

Tuesday 20 August to Thursday 22 August and Tuesday 27 August to Thursday 29 August 2024, 9.30am to 5pm at Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6ND

Come along to Surrey History Centre to find out about past Olympics. Have fun with some craft activities including designing your own medal, Olympic torch and plenty more. Buggy friendly and baby change facilities available. Donations welcome.

Researching in Archives. A talk by Sarah Pettyfer

Wednesday 18 September 2024, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Taking that first step into an archive can be daunting, so this talk offers an introduction to visiting an archive, offering tips and advice to prepare for that first visit and explores some of the records you can find which can help you take your research beyond the limits of online resources.

Sarah Pettyfer is originally from Yorkshire but is now based in Surrey. She is a professional family and house historian and holds the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS) Diploma in Genealogy. She is the current Vice Chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). She is also a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG). Sarah's background is in law. Her previous occupation was a family law solicitor, and although no longer practising she remains a member of the Law Society. Drawing on her legal background, Sarah's particular areas of interest are legal records, in particular deeds, Manorial court and Chancery court records.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

From Patient to Professor. A talk by Dr. Dan Jacobson

Wednesday 9 October 2024, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Dan Jacobson was a teenage inpatient at Long Grove Psychiatric Hospital for four months in the years just before its closure in the 1990s. This talk will explore the geography and history of the Epsom Cluster of psychiatric hospitals, weaving together his personal and professional journey – from a patient to becoming a professor. What was it like on the wards of the hospital? Dan is going to discuss negotiation and treatment for mental illness. These experiences will be used to reflect on his ongoing research into the changes to the landscape within and surrounding the former hospital sites.

Dan Jacobson, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Calgary, Canada.

East Surrey Family History Society and Surrey Heritage present Preserving the Past for the Future: The Work of Surrey Heritage

Thursday 10 October 2024, 2pm to 4.30pm at Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6ND

A Tea and Talk with Julian Pooley and Jane Lewis. Surrey History Centre holds over a million manuscripts, maps, engravings and drawings recording Surrey's history from the middle ages to the digital age. This talk describes the work we do in locating, preserving and making this wonderful range of information accessible to anyone interested in the history of our county. After the talk there will be an opportunity to see a display of some of our most iconic archives in our searchroom.

Medieval Surrey. Autumn meeting of Surrey Local History Committee

Saturday 12 October 2024, 9.55am to 4.15pm at Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6ND.

Join Surrey Local History Committee for a day of talks on Medieval Surrey.

Speakers include:

  • Rob Briggs (Chair Surrey Archaeological Society Medieval Studies Forum)
    • Insights from Early Medieval Charters: Farnham as a Case Study
  • Dr. Michael Shapland (University College London/Archaeology South-East)
    • The Dragon's Hill: A Medieval Rock-Cut Shrine and Regional Assembly Site near Guildford
  • Mike Page (Surrey County Archivist)
    • Conflicted loyalties: researching Surrey's gentry in the Wars of the Roses
  • Dr. David Stone (Head of History and Politics, Torquay Boys' Grammar School)
    • Medieval Surrey through the lens of manorial accounts
  • Madeline Hutchins (Chaldon History Group)
    • Chaldon Court 1366: a Medieval Mystery
  • Lucy Quinnell (Independent)
    • The Steward's Tale: Resolving Rowhurst

Full programme details are available on the Surrey Archaeological Society website.

Coffee or tea are included. Please make your own arrangements for lunch. It is recommended to bring a packed lunch as there are few cafes near Surrey History Centre.

  • Tickets: £15.00.
  • Please book a ticket on the Surrey Archaeological Society website. Payment can be made by credit card as a guest. Confirmation will be sent by e-mail and your name added to the register of attendees. It is advisable to book early as places are limited.
  • Tickets on the day will be £18.00 payable in cash only.

Highclere Castle and its archive. A talk by David Rymill

Wednesday 23 October 2024, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Highclere Castle, on the Hampshire-Berkshire border, has been home to the Earls and Countesses of Carnarvon and their ancestors since 1678, and it has a varied and fascinating history. A substantial archive remains in situ at the Castle, giving insights into the Castle, the family, the indoor and outdoor staff who have kept the Castle and its estate functioning, and the officers who were treated there when it became a First World War hospital and children evacuated there in the Second World War.

David Rymill grew up in Surrey and back in 1991-2 was an Archives Assistant at the then Surrey Record Office in Kingston. He has been an archivist at Hampshire Record Office since 1993, and has also been the part-time archivist at the Castle since 2009. He will share with us a little of the story of the Castle and the people who have lived there, and some of the gems within the archive.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

Behind the Scenes in Conservation

Wednesday 30 October 2024, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Join our Conservator, Rachel Marsh, as she talks through the conservation of a Tithe Map, which has proved a lengthy and challenging map repair.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

Surrey Writers

Wednesday 13 November 2024, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Did you know that some of the best loved and most influential books of recent centuries have come from writers with links to Surrey? Daniel Defoe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Lewis Carroll, to name but a few, have all been inspired by Surrey to write some of the most enduring literature of all time. To find out more, why not join us as we take a look at the lives and inspirations of some of these writers and explore the themes and topics that put them on the map.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

The afterlives of executed bodies from Kennington Common. A talk by Dr. Anna Cusack

Wednesday 27 November 2024, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

The Surrey Gallows stood on Kennington Common, not far from where Oval Tube Station is today. It was the south London equivalent of Tyburn and a place where, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many individuals were put to death. This talk uncovers some of the stories of these individuals and follows them past the point of execution. Who was buried where, who was sent for anatomy, and who was subjected to further exhibition in the form of being displayed in gibbets or having body parts placed at strategic points across the county as a grisly warning against a life of crime? Join Dr Anna Cusack as she uncovers the afterlife of the criminal corpse.

Anna is a historian of crime, execution, death, and burial in the wider London area. She lectures at Canterbury Christ Church University, the University of Oxford, and Birkbeck, University of London. As an early modern social historian Anna seeks out the untold human stories of every day people in her research and is currently involved with a project about the History of Smallpox run out of Australia National University alongside her teaching.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

Oliver House: The story of a 16th century cottage. A talk by Sarah Pettyfer

Wednesday 15 January 2025, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Oliver House, High Street, Cranleigh, was built in the winter of 1559/60. Through a series of deeds and other documents, the history of this 16th century cottage is uncovered, providing details of its owners and occupiers from within 70 years of it being built to the property being converted to a coffee shop in the 1960's.

Sarah Pettyfer is originally from Yorkshire but is now based in Surrey. She is a professional family and house historian and holds the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS) Diploma in Genealogy. She is the current Vice Chair of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). She is also a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG). Sarah's background is in law. Her previous occupation was a family law solicitor, and although no longer practising she remains a member of the Law Society. Drawing on her legal background, Sarah's particular areas of interest are legal records, in particular deeds, Manorial court and Chancery court records.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

Finding Ivy: A Life Worthy of Life. The story of the British-born victims of the Nazi war on disabled people. A talk by Dr. Helen Atherton and Dr. Simon Jarrett

Wednesday 29 January 2025, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

From 1940 to 1941 around 70,000 adults with mental and physical disabilities living in institutions across Germany and Austria were systematically killed under a Nazi state-led programme called Aktion T4. The victims were deemed to have 'lives unworthy of life'.

'Finding Ivy: A Life Worthy of Life' tells the previously unknown story of the 13 British-born victims of this murderous assault on disabled people. Most of them were from the families of German and Austrian immigrants who moved to Britain to work in the early twentieth century before fatefully returning to Germany before the Second World War. Others were from mixed marriages between British and German or Austrian nationals.

This online event will feature presentations from Dr Helen Atherton (University of Leeds) and Dr Simon Jarrett (Open University) the curators of the exhibition. Both speakers will discuss the T4 programme and the meticulous research that has unearthed these 13 life stories.

This online event accompanies the exhibition 'Finding Ivy – A Life Worthy of Life' which is on display at Surrey History Centre throughout January 2025.

Helen Atherton is a lecturer in nursing in the School of Healthcare at Leeds University. She initiated the Finding Ivy project after a chance discovery 14 years ago and has been working on it, in her own time, ever since. She now leads the international team of researchers who have put the exhibition together.

Simon Jarrett is a visiting Fellow at the Open University and a member of the Finding Ivy research team. He is the author of two books on the history of disabled people.

The talk will take place on Zoom. Once payment has been received, the Zoom link will be sent shortly (next working day if booked in the evening or weekend).

Exhibitions and displays

South Asian Heritage Month 2024

British Ugandan Asians at 50: a free touring exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the Ugandan evacuation, 1972-2022

Tuesday 16 July to Thursday 15 August 2024 during normal opening hours at Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND.

On 4th August 1972, the Ugandan dictator, General Idi Amin, served 90 days' notice on around 70,000 Asians to leave the country. The first evacuation flight of Asians fleeing from Uganda landed at London's Stansted Airport on 18 September 1972. Each family was permitted to take only £55 and one suitcase per individual. 28,200 of these who held British passports were admitted to the UK. In total 28,606 came to the UK in the autumn of 1972, around half of whom were accommodated for up to six months at 16 resettlement centres around England and Wales. This touring exhibition tells the traumatic story of the expulsion, evacuation, life in the camps, and the challenges of making a new life in the UK.

Hobbs Barracks, near Lingfield, was one of the camps and to accompany this display Surrey History Centre has used material from the collections to research the story of how Ugandan Asians came to the county.

The exhibition has been kindly loaned by the 'British Ugandan Asians at 50' project which recorded the memories of those involved in the exodus of Ugandan Asian refugees to Britain in 1972/73, as refugees, volunteers or officials.

We regularly showcase free exhibitions and displays inspired by our collection in our foyer. We also host external displays by groups and organisations and would welcome any displays with a Surrey history connection. If you would like to exhibit at Surrey History Centre please contact us.

Recorded talks to purchase

If you missed one of our online talks, why not purchase the talk recording to view in your own time?

The talks available are:

  • A Burden on the Parish: sources for the history of Poor Relief in Surrey
  • A 'Great' amongst Victorian Architects? Royal Holloway's W H Crossland
  • A Snark Celebration: celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's poem 'The Hunting of the Snark'
  • Aladdin's Cave: Some Major Family and Estate Archives in Surrey History Centre
  • Artists, Antiquaries and Collectors: illustrations of Georgian Surrey collected by Robert Barclay of Bury Hill, Dorking, circa.1800 to 1825
  • Bananas: How a Surrey Garden Played a Pivotal Role in the History of the World's Favourite Fruit
  • Behind the Scenes in Conservation - repairing posters, maps and plans
  • Corsets and Cameras
  • Fashion and Folly
  • From Punishment to Pride: LGBTQ+ archives at Surrey History Centre
  • Gertrude Jekyll, Gardener and Craftswoman
  • In the Shadow of the Great War: Surrey 1914 to 1918
  • James Henry Pullen (1835 to 1916) and the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots, Redhill
  • John Evelyn in Surrey
  • Land of my Father's Fathers: Tracing your Welsh ancestors
  • Let the Road Rise to Meet You: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors
  • Life and Labour in a County Village - or learn to love your Ag Labs!
  • Magna Carta, Runnymede and all that
  • Maps for Family Historians
  • Netherne circa 1955: A Surrey Psychiatric Hospital in Focus
  • Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Sources for the History of Surrey's Mental Hospitals, 1700 to circa.1990
  • Planting Ideas: Sources for the History of Gardening in Surrey.
  • Portrait of a Surrey Town between the Wars: the photographic archive of Sidney Francis
  • Reflections on the Lewis Carroll archives, on the 150th anniversary of 'Alice through the Looking Glass'
  • Richard III: A Drama in Three Acts
  • Sir William More of Loseley
  • Terror from the sky: mapping air raids on Surrey in World War Two
  • The Book That Changed My Life
  • The Changing Face of Nursing: Black Nurses in Surrey Hospitals
  • The Gentleman's Magazine: A Panorama of Georgian Surrey for Family and Local Historians
  • The Most Wretched Man in the World: The Life and Loves of the 5th Viscount Midleton
  • The Portable Antiquities Scheme in Surrey
  • To the Manor Born: An Introduction to Manorial Records for Family Historians
  • What did you do after the war, Grandad? – 1918 to 1925: de-mob, jobs, pensions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the British Legion
  • Where There's a Will
  • Who Do You Think They Were? Discovering the lives and experiences of our ancestors

Most talk descriptions can be found on our Talks and Tours page. Each talk consists of a 45 minute to an hour illustrated presentation followed by questions asked during the live talk. You can also email us with any questions you may have after the talk and we will pass them on to the speaker to answer. Price £6. To purchase a recording please visit the Surrey Heritage Shop. Please note talks may contain references to historical legal terminology, sexual practices and crimes, used in the historical context but which some viewers may find offensive.

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