Summer 2015
We have enjoyed two major events in Bagshot so far this year. The first was a VE Day Celebration with a street party in the High Street - a display of vintage and period cars, live period music and quite a few stalls. And good weather which made a very welcome change.
The second was our Village Day held on the playing fields at the far end of College Ride. I suspect that Village Day is the new name for a fete as there were lots of stalls, games, tombolas and so on, and dancing demonstrations of various types. Two videos of the event have been put online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTjW7LW-5TA and www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RhfPcsmGkY. St Anne's coconut shy, which I was drumming up custom for, doesn't get seen so there is no point asking where I feature in the video.
Roadworks : Last year we had the A30 down to a single lane controlled by stop-go boards to lay a new water main - with inevitable delays and a huge loss to the local shops as people diverted elsewhere. I must, though, complement the stop-go board crew on doing a very good job, in all weathers, keeping congestion down to a minimum. Then more recently we had the same stretch of road dug up again, this time to lay an electricity cable, though by restricting traffic to narrow lanes they were able to maintain two-way traffic for most of the work. You can imagine how non-plussed we are to learn that its is going to happen again, this time to lay a fibre optic communication cable all the way from Blackwater through Camberley to Bagshot.
Contributions to the website since the
last newsletter include 
- Bob Weller recalls helping in Bagshot Park boiler room.
- Bernard once rode in the Bagshot Scramble and John Mitchell recounts his memories of attending scrambles.
- Michael Mancy has written adding his voice to the many who have confirmed that the former nursing home was the red brick building described here. However that still leaves unresolved why a small number of corresdondents have said it was a grey building nearer the village. As discussed here it seems to me that this grey building is likely to be Belleview House that stood at the end of what became Lambourne Drive until the 1970's. Do you know what it was used for? Might it have been used for some form of nursing or care accommodation?
- Carol Strong
(nee Baker) and Janet
Roberts (nee Cook) add their memories of living in the former
POW camp
on Chobham Common.
Locally some doubt has been cast on whether this was actually a PoW camp. While most contributors have recounted stories second-hand (typically from what their parents told them), Janet has confirmed from her own memories walking past fences that enclosed foreign soldiers. In an earlier contribution Frank had retold his father's experience of being a prisoner at the camp after the war ended - I wonder if this was its roll? - Still with the Chobham Common camp, Ian offers an potential explanation for the issues raised by Sarah.
Can you help with any of these enquiries?
- Joyce adds more names to the Clements family and seeks further contacts, and James has asked about the Clements family and others working at Bagshot Park.
- Patrick askes about the Ravenshire family who lived in Bagshot during WW2
- I have had two enquiries seeking contact with Anne and/or Lesley Roberts.
- Writing from the Edith Cowan University, Australia, Kristina Lemson has written "I am looking for information about a Mr Toward who was reputedly a horticulturalist at Bagshot Park in the 1830s/1840s. He is credited with collecting plants for Prof John Lindley at the Swan River Colony, however little is known of his movements." Can you help, or suggest where any recordsmay be kept (if other than the Surrey History Centre)?
- Lindsay seeks information about Brook Cottage, 2 Higgs lane.
- Swiss author Ilse Carlen is writing a biography of poet Richard Donovan who lived in Switzerland in the 1930. She is seeking information about his half sister Lennox Becher (or more precisely Mary Evelin Lennox Napier Becher born in London in 1909, died 1979), and his mother Maria Victoria Vincenta de Pereda, Countess de Rivas (1864 - 1934) and his step-father Charles Frederick Becher (born in Ireland about 1863 died 1940) and in particular is seeking a photograph of Charles. In the 1930s Lennox lived with her parents Maria and Charles in Hope Cottage in Church Road, Bagshot (noted elsewhere as later being the location of the school run by the Monger sisters). Mable Monger had been Lennox's nurse. Maria is understood to have played for services at Bagshot's Gospel Mission Church (now The Brook Church), and to have composed songs.
-
Can
you
help identify why a small monogrammed match safe
inscribed Bagshot Park 20 May 1918 and which may have been given out,
perhaps as a prize?
Woodland : In recent years the Crown Estates have carried out extensive tree clearance in the woods to the north of the village. The trees in question are not ancient woodland but firs presumably originally planted as a cash crop. In all fairness they had passed their "best before" date and many had fallen during bad weather. The felled trunks were all cleared, I assume for use as biomass fuel as the pit prop use for which they would originally have been planted had long since ceased to exist. The clearance resulted in the area looking decimated as opposed to its prior attractive character. During the past winter the felled areas have been cleaned up and thousands of sapling trees planted. I am pleased to report that the planting is not pine but of mixed deciduous trees. It will probably take over a decade for the trees to get established but I guess that that is not long in the life of an English wood. As a result of the changes I have rewritten my Rapley Lake walk details.
The above two images are of the same location, the first was taken
January
2015 and the second was taken in 2005.
The first of these photos was taken in January 2015 and the
second in July, showing the bracken that has already grown up.
You may recall that last time I discussed a change in style to restrict the width of a page on wide-screen displays and the size of images on a small screen, and asked for reactions. I only had one reply which was "I don't care, no problem. It is the content I am interested in.". As you will see, I have not bothered this time!
With best wishes to you and
those you hold dear.
Neil
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