From Liphook to Land Rover: events at the Rural Life Centre
By the time you read this the Rural Life Centre, Tilford's country
life museum, will, whatever the weather, have started its summer
season. As is now traditional much has been achieved over the
winter months by the army of volunteers to improve the scope of the
displays and present an ever changing programme of events. Among
the "new arrivals" is a 1920s holiday chalet formerly at Box Hill.
This little wooden building started life as a shed for camping
equipment by regular visitors to the Dorking site before one
thought the shed itself formed a suitable holiday home. Named
"Smudgers" the museum now thinks this event marked the birth of the
British holiday chalet and is pleased to announce that the restored
building is now fully open to visitors. On a smaller scale, the
centre's prefab home has now gained a garden shed in the form of a
'recycled' Stanton air-raid shelter recovered from a local garden
where it had previously served in both roles. Both these buildings
will be formally opened at the Countryside & Woodland Show in
April. However the season starts with a temporary exhibition
mounted by the Bramshott & Liphook Preservation Society on the
history of Liphook and its surroundings. Subtitled "The Coaching
Stop that Grew", the exhibition highlights the settlement's
importance as a hub on both early roads and the later railways.
Today the village has grown out of all recognition but the
exhibition will introduce newer residents to the earlier roots.
Among other event highlights which are new to the museum this year
are Days Gone By, a major new vintage rally organised by the
Central Southern Vintage Agricultural Club in co-operation with the
Countryside Restoration Trust at adjoining Pierrepont Farm, and
Romany Day, a very successful event, moving to Tilford from its
former venue at Ewell, where visitors can learn the heritage of
Romany Gypsies in Surrey. An international flavour pervades in
August, though, when it is hoped a representative from the Polish
embassy will be on hand to open the Tweedsmuir Barracks permanent
exhibition on the history of the Polish Resettlement Corps at
Thursley after the second world war. Titled "Tam Mieszkalismy"
(which means 'we lived there'), the Lottery funded project is the
brainchild of brothers Wies and Zen Rogalski who were brought up in
the former Canadian wooden barracks and still forming a home for
displaced families until the 1960s. The season's last event in
October will be the ever-popular Land Rover Rally but there is
something different going on at the museum almost every weekend and
visitors are advised to check the website for the latest
information. The Rural Life Centre, Reeds Road, Tilford, Surrey,
GU10 2DL, an accredited museum, is open from 10am to 5pm on
Wednesday to Sunday each week. A full diary of events can be
downloaded from the website at www.rural-life.org.uk or call 01252
795571 for further details. Rural Life Centre Old Kiln Museum Trust
Reeds Road, Tilford, Surrey, GU10 2DL www.rural-life.org.uk 01252
795571 Reg. charity 289150
2 Comments
we also went to evening hill, and friday street. dont they sound wonderful names.
they conjure up a lot of things.
i have fond memories and they were evoked this grey morning by reading your epistle.
so, thank you.
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