Milestones & Boundary Stones
Moira MacQuaide’s history of Burpham
Turnpike roads were established by law from the 17th century, to allow the collection of tolls in order to maintain the roads. The first one through Guildford was in 1749, forming part of the London to Portsmouth route.
All Turnpike Trusts had to erect mile-stones every mile, to inform travellers how far they had to go. Tollgates were built so that Tollkeepers could collect the money.
In Burpham there was the Green Man Gate Tollhouse, located between New Inn Farm and the Anchor & Horseshoes pub on London Road, but it seems to have been demolished in the early 20th century.
The only surviving milestone near Burpham seems to be the one on the corner of London Road and Boxgrove Road, showing 1 mile to Guildford and 26 miles to Hyde Park Corner. But there was one between Orchard Road and Winterhill Way, showing 2 miles to Guildford and 27 to London – it was either lost during the building of houses, or is hidden under vegetation.
Boundary stones were used to mark town, or parliamentary, boundaries for tax and bye-law purposes. As boundaries changed over the years, so new boundary stones were put in place. The oldest stones in Guildford date back to the 18th century. In 1933 the Borough was made much larger, taking in what had been rural areas, and there is a stone outside Dillon Cottages, off Merrow Lane, that reads G.B.B. 1933.
Boundary stones were used to mark town, or parliamentary, boundaries for tax and bye-law purposes.
On London Road there is an early 19th century stone just after the Abbotswood estate, with a very helpful explanation attached to the fence behind it. This says that it marks the boundary between Guildford and Burpham, has been there since at least the 19th century and is shown on old maps as B.S. Pre-1920 it was the boundary between the Parishes of Stoke and Worplesdon, as the Parish of Burpham wasn’t created until 1922 (Parish of Burpham with Sutton Green). Looking very closely the words Stoke and Worplesdon can just be seen on either side of the stone.
The 1912 map shows the Parliamentary and Municipal Boundary lines, almost opposite the Primitive Methodist Church (now The Old Chapel) on London Road. It also shows boundary stones on either side of the road, but there’s only the one left now, at the end of Abbotswood.
Finally, a question. On the corner of the old London Road and Merrow Lane, by what is now a footpath but used to be the old London Road, a white stone can be found in amongst the vegetation. Is this another boundary stone? One day I’ll find out and let you know!
If you are willing to share your memories and/or photos to tell us more about Burpham then please contact Moira MacQuaide, either by e-mail (moira.macquaide@gmail.com) or by phone or text (07963 756543). My two books (‘The History of Burpham Primary School’ and ‘Burpham – A Gateway to Guildford’) are still available from me for £10 (free delivery locally) or on Amazon.
A Hope Space in Burpham
If your questions or thoughts are of a more personal nature and you are wondering how to process the last eighteen months, share your own story and move on with hope, perhaps you might like to engage with our local Autumn project: A Hope Space in Burpham.
Burpham Church will be providing a Hope Space, coming to a location near you during the Autumn with the opportunity to tell your story, process your loss and look forward with hope. There will be a Wall of Loss for you to contribute to, as we stand with one another and corporately recognise all that has been lost over the last eighteen months, and a Tree of Hope where we can expectantly look forward to the future. Full details of times and locations will be circulated throughout Burpham – so look out for a leaflet through your door to see when you can engage. It is our desire that this Hope Space might be for all of us, whether of faith, little faith or no faith at all – together we make up this local community and together we need to move forward into the unknown of what lies ahead.
Church Office: 01483 825533
www.burphamchurch.org.uk
Burpham needs to protect itself with kerbside planting.
Take a look at the hedges along your road and what lies between them and the passing cars. Most residents will find that they will have garden bushes on one side and a kerb on the other. If you’re lucky, you will have a grassy patch between you and the garden, but nothing much between you and the road. If you’re very lucky, trees – private or public – will shade your walk on a sunny day.
Greenery is not the only thing that accompanies you when you walk and cycle down your street. You also have toxic particulates that rise up from passing tyres, especially where vehicles tend to brake, shredding small particulates of rubber that can reach the lungs and are known carcinogens. This makes junctions and roundabouts dangerous places. Also present are CO2 emissions from passing exhausts, with the honourable exception of electric vehicles. Some of us on busy roads are also subject to noise and house vibration when heavy goods vehicles thunder by at speed.
Amazingly, there is a simple solution to toxic kerbside dangers and they are the brainchild of Professor Kumar who works at the University of Surrey. His solution is cheap, lovely to look at and simple: you plant shrubs, bushes and trees as a barrier and an air purifier. According to Professor Kumar’s research, low-level bushes on the kerb between you and the traffic captures those dangerous particulates and stops most of it rising up into the lungs of cyclist and pedestrians.
…low-level bushes on the kerb between you and the traffic captures those dangerous particulates and stops most of it rising up into the lungs.
Moreover, bushes and then tall trees on your other side (the garden side) will act as a barrier and as an air purifier by absorbing the CO2 and giving it back out as fresh oxygen. This is a part of Nature’s own air conditioning system. Interestingly, some leaves work better than other. Broad leaves are good if you are choosing a new hedge, but prickly rambling ‘open’ stems are not so effective.
How safe are Burpham’s kerbsides?
At first sight, this is a green area rich in trees, but frankly, they are in the wrong places for this kind of protection. Take London Road, for example, as our busiest road: there is no kerbside planting, and the hedges, whilst plentiful, are past their best and in poor condition. There are stretches of grass which look good but, sadly, grass doesn’t deal with emissions. As you move towards town, there is not even grass and the cycle lanes are downright dangerous. Here, houses sit hard against the road and therefore subject to higher levels of CO2 emissions, noise and vibration. I count a dozen houses on London Road (where I live, incidentally) in which I would be fearful to live because of the air quality.
Or take Weylea and Weybrook estates: with garden-city style landscaping, open green spaces and lots of grass. But their development preceded Kumar’s research so it is largely confined to small (but beautiful) green packets of land. In truth, it needs to be dispersed more widely along roadsides.
However, there are mitigations: develop- ers built in short-cuts for pedestrians between houses to link roads and avoid traffic. Weybrook estate is outstanding in this respect. That ‘avoiding’ strategy started in Merrow Park which has an outstanding pedestrian network to avoid the traffic. That was due to the involvement of the Merrow Residents’ Association at the time.
There’s more we can do in Burpham to create pedestrian green shortcuts, the simplest of which is a path around the inside perimeter of the Sutherland Park so we don’t have to walk or cycle alongside heavy traffic in that area. And thank goodness the Burpham Community Association curbed Sainsburys’ plan to dock more vehicles here.
The council has, to my mind, done a great job of maintaining the parks, but it needs to re-plant and renovate the hedges for safety and plant low-level protective shrubs along the kerbsides of our busiest roads. It needs to advise residents who have no protective planting on their road-facing sides to put some in.
Sue Hackman
Prostate PSA blood test event: Calling all men over 40 years old
Register online for our PSA testing. A simple 5 minute blood test.
Every 45 minutes a man dies from prostate cancer – that’s more than 11,000 deaths per year.
Our qualified phlebotomists will ensure your safety by following our Covid19 hygiene policy and wearing appropriate PPE.
Saturday 17th July 2021
10.30 am – 2.00 pm
Guildford Fire Station
Ladymead, Guildford, GU1 1DL
Parking onsite is limited, please park at the sports centre or Ladymead Retail Park.
No queues. Online booking only, instructions on our website cancertestingsouth.org or scan the QR code above and follow the instructions.
Our PSA testing is always available
May we serve your community, your club, factory or store?
May we visit your village or town and work with you to find indications of prostate cancer in those who have failed to take advantage of the government’s scheme to test men over 50? The test is a simple blood test taken by a professional phlebotomist.
Many younger men are refused tests to their detriment or are simply unaware that prostate cancer can have few symptoms. That is why we promote testing from age 40.
90% of men who have their prostate cancer detected early are cured.
Black men are particularly at risk at the earlier age as well as men with a known family history of cancer.
We are always keen to improve our service. Your suggestions will be taken seriously and if we agree then they may be included in our developing work. Please arrange to book yourself a test. Check on the state of your prostate health. Do it now – don’t wait!
How to register & book for this event
Please log into:
cts.mypsatests.org.uk
- Click on ‘Register’ and input personal information including email address and password.
- After your registration has been confirmed, choose ‘Event’ and select the appropriate venue that you wish to visit.
- Click on ‘Log On’ and select ‘Book My Place’ and follow the instructions.
Important: it is essential that you then proceed through this stage and finish up with an instruction (in red) asking you to print-off an A4 appointment page.
Your registration will mean that you can login directly to future events.
Please bring your appointment page with you to the event. It is needed to accompany your actual blood sample to the laboratory.
Problem booking a slot? Email HELP via info@cancertestingsouth.org
Our Mission Statement
The detection work of Cancer Testing South is driven by a passion to find early indications of prostate cancer and to also lead to the uncovering of other frequently overlooked cancers through testing and awareness.
We aim to learn, educate and use knowledge, to reduce death from prostate and other diseases and cancers that regularly respond to early intervention.
CTS Registered Charity number 1191738
Winning Schools Announced in Guildford’s Schools in Bloom.
Guildford in Bloom, in their 40th year, have been busy working with schools in the borough on their very own gardening competition and are delighted to announce that from some very high standard entries, Glenesk Pre-Prep and Nursery school have been crowned the overall winners of the competition.
Judges Shirley West and Caroline Coleman visited 11 schools in total in the space of a week ranging from nursery and pre-prep through to senior schools. The aim of Schools in Bloom is to get young children involved in gardening for both education and wellbeing. The children have grown flowers and food and shown a care for wildlife with some extremely imaginative bug hotels and bee friendly plants. During the pandemic it has also been a great advantage for the schools to have a purpose to teach outdoors, and in many cases, the garden has been used in many other lessons including maths, art, woodwork and more.
Judge Shirley West says: “The schools we have judged have been amazing considering the pandemic they have had to deal with. We also had to give the schools an extra week to get themselves ready because of half term being so wet and we know that the schools were incredibly grateful that’s why we judged 11 schools in one week.
We found just how hard the children had worked on their gardens with the help of their teachers because no parents where aloud to help or volunteers.
The aim of Schools in Bloom is to get young children involved in gardening for both education and wellbeing.
But we were so surprised to see beautiful healthy flowers and vegetables and strawberry plants being attended by the children. They were proud to be watering and weeding and showing us how they made the bug hotels for the creepy crawlies and welly boots filled with flowers. The children were proud to show us their journals of their plans for getting ready for Guildford Schools in Bloom. And they took in the theme of Guildford in Bloom 40th Anniversary with cakes made of flowers and bunting wishing us happy birthday and banners highly decorated.
We chose Glenesk School as the overall winner because of the work and dedication the teacher had put in with the children was outstanding. Their flower and vegetable plots were so healthy mainly by making their own stinky manure from nettles and the children’s knowledge of wildlife was superb. The whole idea of teaching gardening to such young children could not be ignored. The children were so happy working outside where they knew they were safe and could escape from being indoors.”
Sarah Bradley, Head Teacher at Glenesk School was as delighted as the children were with the Award, presented by Mayor of Guildford, Cllr Marsha Moseley who wowed the children arriving in full mayoral regalia. She said: “What an absolute honour it was to welcome the Mayor and her fellow Counsellors to our school Assembly this week when they came to announce the results of the Guildford in Bloom Gardening Competition. The children were incredibly excited about our ‘special guests’ and it brought our whole school community together. It was a wonderful surprise to find out that Glenesk had won! How exciting it was for our gardening club children to meet the Mayor and receive their certificates, trophy and vouchers. This has certainly put gardening and all its health benefits in the spotlight, and I am pretty sure that it will remain a popular activity at our school again next year. This competition has given us something positive to focus on and we will display our trophy with pride.”
Cllr Paul Spooner, Chairman of Guildford in Bloom said: “I am very pleased that we have been able to run a successful Schools in Bloom competition this year in the 40th anniversary year of Guildford in Bloom. Our thanks to all schools that have taken part and the judges feedback recognises the enthusiasm and efforts of all involved at every school. I would like to thank all involved with GiB and particularly the judges for visiting each school. GiB would not be as successful as it is without the support of sponsors and we would like to thank Guildford BC, Silverback Studios and Chapters Financial, our Platinum Sponsors, who along with all of our sponsors allow us to run the School Competition.”
The Schools in Bloom Award is an integral part of Guildford in Bloom and ensures that the love of gardening and caring for wildlife is firmly planted in the future generation.
The main Guildford in Bloom competition has now closed for entries, and from this week, judges will be out and about judging everything from front gardens to nature projects – winners of the main competition will be announced in September.
Further information on Guildford in Bloom can be found at www.guildford.gov.uk/guildfordinbloom Other schools who participated, with their scores are:
Boxgrove Primary School
Gold
Burpham Foundation Primary School
Gold
Christopher Robin Day Nursery
Silver gilt
Glenesk School
Gold and competition winners
Guildford Grove Primary School
Gold
Jigsaw School (Cranleigh)
Gold
Kings College Guildford
Silver gilt
Lanesborough Pre-Prep
Silver gilt
Puttenham C of E Infant School
Gold
Wonersh & Shamley Green Primary School
Gold
Worplesdon Primary School
Silver gilt
Booking is now open for Surrey’s annual multi-arts festival
Guildford Fringe Festival will return from 2 – 25 July 2021 with a jam-packed line-up of cultural delights after last year’s event was sadly cancelled due to Covid-related restrictions. Booking is now open at GuildfordFringeFestival.com for more than 60 arts events, with further acts to be added to the programme.
Set up by Managing Director Nick Wyschna in 2013, Guildford’s largest independent multi-arts festival is an open-access celebration featuring theatre, comedy, poetry, music, visual arts, family-friendly shows, talks and free events.
Festival venues this year include Clandon Wood Nature Reserve, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, The Back Room of the Star Inn, The Keep Pub, The Guildhall and the historic town centre of Guildford.
Gag House Comedy Superstars kick off the Festival at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on 2 July delivering some of the UK’s best stand-up comedy, with headliner Rich Hall. The weeks to follow offer the chance for audiences to catch familiar faces, local talent, new writing and perennial classics.
Booking is now open at GuildfordFringeFestival.com for more than 60 arts events, with further acts to be added to the programme.
Highlights of this year’s Free Fringe include an al fresco performance of Opera on the Balcony outside the Guildhall, Guildford’s Rock Choir, Surrey Fringe Chorus and Colour with Guildford in Bloom.
Nick Wyschna, Managing Director of Guildford Fringe Festival, said: “It feels great to be talking about Guildford Fringe Festival once again after having to cancel it in 2020. It’s been a tough year but let’s focus on the positives. We were fortunate enough to be awarded a Cultural Recovery Grant from Arts Council England which gives us a blanket of security when it comes to planning. Throughout July, audiences can be immersed in theatrical energy whatever events they choose to come and see. The participating artists, producers and venues have had a tough year – come and celebrate with them and support the arts at the same time. As well as ACE, I would like to thank Chapters Financial, Guildford Borough Council, Experience Guildford, Guildford Arts and Churchmill Accountants for sponsoring this year’s Guildford Fringe Festival and for helping us put Guildford back on the map as a cultural hub.”
Visit GuildfordFringeFestival.com for the full line-up and to book tickets. The Box Office phone number is 01483 361101. During the Festival, the Fringe Team will be at The Star Inn, Quarry Street, 7 days a week, from 6-7pm, where they will run a Box Office for all Festival events and be happy to have a chat.
Alan Turing: The New Face of the £50 Note
By Alex Rose
Many people know Alan Turing’s story, but did you know that he lived in Guildford? As the new £50 notes featuring Turing begin to roll out, let’s take a look at his life and ties to the Guildford area.
On the 23rd of June, Alan Turing’s birthday, the new polymer £50 note entered circulation. The design on the note honours Turing’s revolutionary work at Bletchley Park in the second world war in decrypting Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine and pioneering the field of study that would eventually develop computers. So, how and why has his life been celebrated in the newest banknote?
Born in 1912 in London, English mathematician Alan Turing grew up in Guildford and later attended King’s College, Cambridge and earned a degree in mathematics. He also attended Princeton University, USA, where he obtained his PhD. Aside from his remarkable talents in mathematics, science and cryptography, he was an Olympic level runner, completing a number of marathons and running great distances every day. He grew up very self-reliant and didn’t fit in with fellow students, although he was greatly affected by the death of his close friend Christopher Morcom, with whom he worked together on scientific ideas. This was his first close friendship, and the sudden loss was devastating.
The design on the new £50 note honours Turing’s revolutionary work at Bletchley Park in the second world war in decrypting Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine and pioneering the field of study that would eventually develop computers.
Alan wanted to believe that Christopher’s spirit lived on, which inspired the foundation of Turing’s later work involving a strong interest in the mind. This later manifested in his concept of the universal machine, which could solve any mathematical problem, much like the human brain. This idea eventually evolved into modern day computers.
Bletchley Park was shrouded in the highest levels of secrecy during World War II and beyond, as it housed those whose job it was to intercept enemy radio signals, decode them and deliver the intelligence to the military and government. They recruited those with the strongest problem-solving skills by attracting candidates using cryptic crossword puzzles. On the 4th of September 1939, Turing and a handful of other mathematicians, linguists and chess champions were recruited into Bletchley park and he soon became the head of the Naval Enigma Team, working in Hut 8. Their job was to decipher the daily communications intercepted from Nazi Germany and their allies encrypted through the use of the Enigma machine. This device allowed complex message encoding which changed on a daily basis. Although the ever-changing code was initially thought impossible to crack, Turing led the team responsible for analysing the enciphered messages, which held critical information of secret Nazi military operations.
While others in his team attempted to break the code using traditional means, Turing soon realised that only a machine would be able to compute the vast number of possible combinations in the time required. He and his colleague Gordon Welchman designed and built the Bombe, an electro-mechanical device used to successfully break the enigma codes. Vast amounts of priceless information about enemy operations were gained through the use of this machine, which shortened the war by an estimated two years, saving countless lives.
The reverse of the new £50 note, released on the 23rd of June 2021 features a design composed of a picture of Alan Turing – based on the photo owned by the National Portrait Gallery – as well as images of a matrix table, binary code, Bombe technical drawings and a mathematical formula. It also features Turing’s signature, taken from the signature book on display at Bletchley Park Trust. The note itself retains its deep red colour and, as ever, the queen’s face.
The quote on the new £50 note was taken from an interview, where Turing said, “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”
His life in Guildford is attested to by the blue plaque at 22 Ennismore Avenue (although it was number eight when he lived there), where his parents moved from London to raise him and his brother in 1927. His family would regularly visit the nearby Stoke Park, which they lived next to, by going on long walks there, and at the North Downs. Alan would also go on to use Stoke Park as a frequent running spot. Astronomy interested him when he lived here, and he found that the Guildford skies were excellent for stargazing. John Turing, Alan’s brother, even married at St John’s Stoke Church. After his parents separated, his father relocated to London, whilst his mother stayed in Guildford, moving to Epsom Road and then South Hill, where Alan would visit, going on long walks with her, where they discussed his work. A statue of Turing was raised on the Surrey University campus to memorialise him in 2004.
Needless to say, without Turing, we wouldn’t have modern computers. He founded an entire field of study and saved the lives of many thousands in the war. Turing died in 1954 by suicide, after being sentenced to hormone therapy – by the same government he helped to win a war – to ‘cure’ his homosexuality. He was cremated at Woking Crematorium, and his ashes were spread where his father’s had been. In 2013, the queen signed a royal pardon for Turing’s conviction. The quote on the new £50 note was taken from an interview, where he said, “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”
Alan Turing was shaped, in part, by his life in Guildford, and went on to achieve great things, which have impacted all of us. I believe this is something that we can all feel connected to and proud of.
What is it that you feel you need right now?
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions, are you looking forward to putting 2020 behind you and getting on with life as ‘normal’? Perhaps this year it’s going to be a little more challenging than usual.
The New Year is often an opportunity to start fresh and never have we needed that more than after the year of 2020!
What a difficult year, in so many ways, it has been for so many of us! There lies the problem, that most of us are tired and in need of a good rest. Our aim for 2021 might be simply to be able to keep going in our relationships, keep going mentally or keep going financially.
If we can find that elusive thing, ‘courage’, there is an opportunity ahead of us to build something better in 2021 than what we had before.
I don’t know how you feel about heights, but for those who feel a little cautious, imagine a narrow bridge across a deep valley. You need to cross to the other side, but the bridge is long, it’s a very long way down and you do not feel safe! Somehow you need to find the courage to cross over.
If we can find that elusive thing, ‘courage’, there is an opportunity ahead of us to build something better in 2021 than what we had before. One dictionary definition of courage is: strength in the face of pain or grief. So, the first place we discover courage is in acknowledging our own pain and grief for whatever 2020 brought. We need to be willing to face our troubles and realities, however unfair they might seem.
Very few of us can do that on our own, we need help from those who love us or those professionals who understand how to get people through problems. But asking for help can be difficult! Perhaps that’s the thing we most need courage for in 2021.
As a Christian, I live with the knowledge that God promises to be with me at all times, which brings me extraordinary courage to face whatever life brings. Here is one of God’s promises I am holding onto for 2021:
“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
With every blessing
Rev
James
Levasier
james@burphamchurch.org.uk
Church Office: 01483 825533
www.burphamchurch.org.uk
Generosity – What’s not to like!
Everyone loves a bit of generosity when it’s given to them. Who doesn’t love that kind person who gives you their car parking ticket they’ve hardly used, or the store owner who gives you an extra something free just because, or the tradesperson who waives their fee or whatever it is!
We all love it when people are generous towards us. Generosity puts a smile on your face and a lightness in your spirit, it warms our hearts and helps us to look on others in a different way.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.” How true, generosity is something most of us can agree on – it’s a great thing to experience and a wonderful thing to encourage in one another. I may not always agree with Richard Dawkins, but he was definitely on the right track when he said: “Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.”
As I write this at the end of October, we at Burpham church have just been taking part in a week of Generosity. We’ve shared reflections and challenges to help us think about how to grow a more generous spirit, because the truth is, many of us find it easier to receive generosity than to give it! But generosity breeds generosity. I have found that I am more likely to be generous to others when I have experienced it myself. Perhaps that is true for you too.
Sometimes the needs of the world can seem overwhelming, and it feels like the little you can do is a mere drop in the ocean, but that’s when Mother Teresa’s words ring in my ears, “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
Many people have been immensely generous over the last 18 months as they have seen others in need and reached out to help – and we all salute those who have given above and beyond. May you experience the truth of Jesus’ words for yourself:
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Luke 6:38
Here’s to a new and ongoing generosity among us all here in Burpham!
With every blessing
Rev’d James & Jo Levasier
james@burphamchurch.org.uk
jo@burphamchurch.org.uk
Church Office: 01483 825533
www.burphamchurch.org.uk
The arts are staged for a big comeback
Arts and entertainment have taken a big hit over the past year with performers, artists and audiences all being locked down, socially distanced and whilst observing measures put in place to combat the global pandemic they have had to stay away.
Fortunately, it seems, these measures have started to pay-off and venues are beginning to look forwards with more positivity.
Burpham Pages spoke to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford (a charity which relies on box office income for its day-to-day operation) to see how they have coped through lockdown and what they now have in place to welcome back their audiences.
Throughout 2020 the Yvonne Arnaud, like theatres up and down the country, were forced to close and open again multiple times. They’ve stood up and stood down their front of house team; they’ve welcomed back audiences and then sent them home again.
“We know how much people have been missing live entertainment, and the Yvonne Arnaud can’t wait to welcome you back!”
With a huge loss of income from cancelled shows, the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre’s leadership team have had to make some tough artistic choices and painful business decisions in order to keep the theatre in the best shape for survival. Having been running the theatre from their kitchens and living rooms, they are now back in the building and busy behind the scenes preparing to open the theatre’s doors again this summer. We know how much people have been missing live entertainment, and the Yvonne Arnaud can’t wait to welcome you back! They have a jam-packed season planned which, they hope, offers something
for everyone.
Having been running the theatre from their kitchens and living rooms, they are now back in the building and busy behind the scenes preparing to open the theatre’s doors again this summer.
They’re proud to be reopening on 3 June with their own production of new comedy, Siobhan Basset’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, written by and starring much-loved Surrey resident Sara Crowe. Aside from their beloved annual panto, this will be their first piece of home-produced theatre in a number of years. With lighting designed by Yvonne Arnaud Lighting Technician, Hannah Walker, and directed by the theatre’s Director and Chief Executive Joanna Read, this is an Yvonne Arnaud production through and through. And what better way to celebrate the return of theatre in Guildford than with something that’s been made in Guildford!
…what better way to celebrate the return of theatre in Guildford than with something that’s been made in Guildford!
Another highlight of the Arnaud’s summer season is socially-distanced sound installation, Blindness, from the Donmar Warehouse (21 to 26 June). They’re especially excited to be welcoming the Donmar to Guildford for the first time with this boundary-pushing, innovative production by award-winning playwright Simon Stephens. Audience members sit on the stage, under glowing bars of criss-crossing, colour-changing light, listening on headphones to Juliet Stevenson’s narration, fully immersed in the experience. It’s a very different Arnaud experience, but one to remember. There’s plenty in the diary for drama lovers too in the shape of espionage thriller A Splinter of Ice (15 to 19 June), Alan Ayckbourn’s black comedy Absurd Person Singular (6 to 10 July) and West End favourite The Woman in Black (12 to 17 July).
The Yvonne Arnaud team would like to say a huge thank you to the generous volunteers that have been helping throughout the last year, including working as ushers for The Snow Queen over Christmas and tidying up the garden in preparation for a number of outdoor live music events throughout the summer. They’re pleased to once again be partnering with their friends at Guildford Jazz for another special evening of Jazz in the Garden (31 July) with vocalist Zoe Francis, multi-award winning guitar legend Jim Mullen, pianist Gareth Williams, and Marianne Windham on double bass. They’re also thrilled to welcome dynamic duos Jacob and Drinkwater and India Electric Co. for two emotionally-charged evenings of contemporary folk music on 20 June and 8 August respectively.
They have filled the summer holidays with family theatre and events for children of all ages. The Snail and the Whale and Pippi Longstocking are perfect for little ones aged four and above; older children will enjoy interactive treasure hunt show This Noisy Isle, and those aged three and above will love CBeebies favourites Sarah and Duck. The theatre will also be hosting two Guildford Fringe Festival events for the first time this year: an evening of stand-up comedy with Gag House Comedy Superstars, and music from The Surrey Police Band.
Whilst the theatre has been closed the team rummaged through the archives and shared a series of videos looking back at the history of the Arnaud, from how it was built, the history of the buildings, and some of the dramatic events taking place at the theatre in the last 56 years! They’re all available to view on the website (Yvonne-Arnaud.co.uk).
Yvonne Arnaud staff members also recorded videos about their job roles and careers that we made available to schools and colleges. If you’d like to watch them, please email marketing@yvonne-arnaud.co.uk.
The Yvonne Arnaud is taking safety measures very seriously including clear signage and one-way systems, hand sanitiser stations, mask wearing and thorough cleaning. The team are grateful to have received a grant from Theatres Trust to purchase specialised fogging equipment, enabling them to maintain high standards of decontamination and keep audiences, performers and staff safe when they return.
The Yvonne Arnaud is taking safety measures very seriously including clear signage and one-way systems, hand sanitiser stations, mask wearing and thorough cleaning.
Finally the theatre would like to say a huge thank you for your support throughout last year. The cheery messages, kind donations and offers of help and letting them know how much you were missing live theatre, have kept them going through this extraordinary time.
Be sure to sign up to the theatre’s emails at Yvonne-Arnaud.co.uk and follow them on Facebook (@YvonneArnaudTheatre), Twitter and Instagram (@YvonneArnaud) to keep updated.
