The Chertsey Society’s monthly meeting on Monday 28th February 2011, held at Chertsey Museum, opened with a welcome from the Society’s Chairman, Malcolm Loveday to the members present, new members and visitors.
Emma Warren, Curator of the Museum, then introduced us to the Museum - although she was convinced we knew more about the Museum than she did! She spoke about the various projects she had planned which would encourage youngsters to visit the Museum. Already the Museum’s garden had a variety of ‘bug’ traps to persuade the insects inside and give the visitors a ‘close’ view of what had been caught. Emma said the schools are regular users of the Museum’s facilities. Continuing her ‘news’, she told us that Mr Ron Taylor had kindly donated the legal purchase transactions of his family’ greengrocers shop in London Street, now closed after over a century in business. The Museum had hoped to save the shop's ‘façade’ before it was converted into a hairdressers but the new owners sadly told them it was due to be ‘painted over’!! The meeting continued with a presentation from Victor Spink, who showed film footage from the television/film sets which had taken place in Chertsey over many years, including ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ and ‘Public Eye’, the latter being the eighth episode of the series featuring the town as its centre. Alfred Burke, the actor performing the main role, died on 16 February 2011. There were many reflections of the town in the 1970’s, even showing the site of the ‘old toilets’ which were below the old ‘Town Hall’, now the ‘Bar 163’ restaurant. Victor concluded the evening with his personal footage of the ‘Black Cherry Fair’ in 1978, covering glimpses of some well known people of the town. It was fascinating how the town had changed in over thirty years, especially the absence of traffic.
The members, visitors and guests then made a “walkabout” through the Museum before going home.
Stephanie M. Hunt
