Marvels of the month

Every week, a wide assortment of archive documents and local studies material from a variety of sources passes through our doors to join the six miles of records in our strongrooms. Behind the scenes, we work closely with the records, diligently cataloguing, cleaning, conserving and packaging them so that they can be made available to the public. It's work that we thoroughly enjoy, and everyone here has a tale to tell: whether it's the story behind a favourite book, the background to an unusual collection, or how we repaired a very fragile document.

Each month, the Surrey Heritage teams showcase their own particular "Marvel of the Month".

For our March Marvel of the Month, we discover a wealth of early wax seals in the estate papers of a prominent Surrey family.

• Seals among the deeds of the Leigh-Bennett family

For LGBT+ History Month in February, we explored the little-known Surrey connections of Second World War codebreaker, Alan Turing.

• Alan Turing (1912-1954): mathematician, cryptanalyst and Guildford resident

2020 Marvels

December

• The Lost Manor of Preston Hawe

November

• The Laverty notebooks

October

• Black History Month: Abolitionists in Surrey

September

• An Eighteenth Century map of Surrey

August

• Milestones in the life of Surrey's historic road network

July

• William Gilpin's Painshill sketchbook

June

• The Witley Camp Spoon

May

• A visit to Mr Darwin

April

• More than dry parchment

March

• Surrey County Cricket Club celebrates 175 years

February

• Poetry, Prose and Plays: E M Forster and friends

2019 Marvels

December

• Guildford's High Street

November

• A Family at War: the Eaton Cottage Herald

October

• Lucean Arthur Headen - an African American inventor in Camberley

September

• Sir Barnes Wallis at Surrey History Centre

August

• What did the Normans do for us?

July

• The wartime bombing of County Hall, Kingston

June

• On 6 June 1944, it was announced: "D-Day has come..."

May

• Walt Whitman in the Lushington archive

April

• Vokes Engineering Ltd of Henley Park, Normandy, Guildford

March

• Romance and red tape: the Lovelace marriage settlement of 1835

February

• Nominal Roll of 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment

2018 Marvels

December

• The South West Prospect of Guildford in the county of Surrey

November

• After the Armistice – a Soldier's View

October

• Black History Month

September

• Suffragettes in Surrey: Walton-on-the-Hill's Explosive Past

August

• Decorated Neolithic Bowl from Hengrove Farm, Staines

July

• Sir Hubert Parry, the Lushingtons, and Surrey

June

• Machine Gun Sections of Territorial Force Battalions in the Great War

May

• Microcosm of a 17th century gentleman restored

April

• Cycling in Surrey

March

• An officer learns his trade

February

• The Workhouse

2017 Marvels

December

• A Surrey Christmas

November

• Surrey's Passchendaele, 31 July-10 November 1917

October

• Legacies of British slave ownership

September

• Studying the flora and fauna of Surrey

August

• A Medieval ampulla from the American School in Switzerland, Thorpe

July

• Conservation of court books from the Goulburn family archives

June

• Aircraftman Arthur Coombs (1900-1920), RAF, of Cobham

May

• A spoonful of sugar, 17th century style

April

• The Royal Philanthropic School at Redhill

March

• Words in Focus – landscape poetry and photography

February

• February is LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans) History Month

2016 Marvels

December

• It's Christmas!

November

• John Norden's 'Mirror of Britain'

October

• Sketches of African Americans in the Vaughan-Williams collection

September

• Preserving records for the future

August

• Bronze Age hoard at Esher

July

• The Battle of the Somme 100 years on: Captain Arthur Spooner, MC, of Knaphill

June

• Gypsies in early Surrey records

May

• A prince of many virtues and many great imperfections: a loyalist's relics of King Charles II in exile

April

• The Queen's Prisoner of War Relief Fund

March

• Recording the domestic and rural architecture of Limpsfield and Oxted

February

• The Lushington family: a photographic narrative

2015 Marvels

December

• Early road maps

November

• "All's Well" with Watney's Men in Gallipoli

October

• A Black Poppy: Pte Harold Brown, of the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment

September

• Surrey's private presses

August

• Inspector William Donaldson (1807-1855): the first Surrey policeman to be killed on duty

July

• Early Medieval linen smoother, Surrey

June

• The Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815

May

• Hunter-Gatherers in Guildford

April

• Alfred Wells and the Surrey Industrial School at Byfleet

March

• A Surrey village: the records of Albury History Society

February

• A Saxon coin brooch from Headley

2014 Marvels

December

• Good causes at Christmas, 1935
• "Some words of advice, young Reverend Mr Broderick...."

November

• Chertsey and Thorpe Volunteers
• Limp vellum binding

October

• Black History links in the Lushington Archive
• Witchcraft in Surrey

September

• Postcards of the First World War
• Letters of Major P H Mornement

August

• Broadwood customers and destinations
• Old cottages and farmhouses in Surrey
• Heavy losses to the 1st Queen's, 1914

July

• A marriage settlement, 1712
• Early parish registers

June

• Ernest James 'Gentleman Jim' Langley (7 February 1929 – 9 December 2007)
• Celebrating Volunteers' Week

May

• The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino
• Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month

April

• Surrey nursery records
• Hillfield in Reigate

March

• White and Sons of Dorking: 80 years of auction records
• 'Perdita': the extraordinary life of author and actress Mary Robinson

February

• 19th century Surrey church illustrations
• Born-digital archives and their challenges

2013 marvels

December

• Joseph Brooker, a Merrow farmer, and his 'Poor Robin Almanack' for 1689
• Yesterday's News

November

• The grand opening of County Hall, Kingston, 13 November 1893
• Farnham in the Civil War, November 1643
• Seeing the light: protection from light damage

October

• Cesar Picton
• The Military College at Farnham
• Making a heritage scrapbook

September

• Corporal Merrow-Smith's scrapbook
• How to repair a map
• Bookplates

August

• More Place, Betchworth: an 1827 nursery order
• A brief history of papermaking and paper conservation
• Charles Thomas Cracklow (1763-1826)

July

• George Sturt (1863-1927)
• 'Thumping plum puddings': the diaries of Elizabeth Davis of Gosden House, Shalford
• Bookbinding techniques

June

• Ockenden International: the remarkable story of a Surrey refugee charity
• Jean Carré and wealden glass
• Pins, clips and staples: damaging fasteners in archive collections

May

• The men behind the making of a map
• Caring for your photographs
• Just the ticket

April

• School dinners
• The repair of poor rate books
• A Hooper and Ashby catalogue

March

• Guildford, 1644: the 'Year of the Pestilence'
• Parchment manorial court rolls
• Jacob's law dictionary

February

• Your Paintings and the Lewis Carroll connection
• The history and conservation of seals
• Henry Goulburn's letters to his daughter

January

• Surrey and the discovery of sunspots
• The Franklin expedition
• Deacidification

2012 marvels

December

• Loseley Christmas and New Year gifts
• Wonderful winter weather
• Tracings

November

• Moor Park, Farnham
• The Queens Royal West Surreys and the Boer War
• Behind the scenes: the conservation studio

October

• Taxpayers in Tandridge in 1334
• R C Sherriff (1896-1975)
• Preserving documents at Surrey History Centre

September

• Spotlight on Surrey journals
• The Loseley swan roll
• Caring for your records

August

• The Duke of York marches on London, September 1450
• The development of iron gall ink
• Town and village guides

July

• The Centurions Walking Club
• Photographic Survey and Record of Surrey: reports and photographs, 1859-1954
• The Manor Hospital, Epsom: Conservation of a badly damaged casebook