Woking Centre
Trinity Church, Brewery Road, Woking, GU21 4LH
For map click hereCo-ordinator Chris Leech
Email: woking@wsfhs.orgSecond Thursday in month
The doors will open at 7.30pm and the meeting will start at 7.50pm.
2023
| Date | Time | Title | Speaker | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu | 14 Dec | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | Woking in Pictures - Old and New | Steve Welch |
2024
| Date | Time | Title | Speaker | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu | 11 Jan | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | Find it, File it and Find it again | Jane Lewis |
| Thu | 8 Feb | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | Alan Turing - Guildford's Best Kept Secret | Paul Backhouse |
| Thu | 14 Mar | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | Victorian Life - Upstairs and Downstairs | Judy Hill |
| Thu | 11 Apr | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | Who were your Great Grandparents or Grandparents? | Informal Meeting |
| Thu | 9 May | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | A History and the Mystery of Funerals | Sue Flipping |
| Thu | 13 Jun | 7.30 pm for 7.50 pm | Family History from Education Records | Colin Chapman |
Forthcoming Meetings
December 14 2023
Steve Welch - Woking in Pictures - Old and NewOver the last 150 years Woking has changed almost beyond recognition. The speaker has revisited the location of a large selection of old photos and postcrds of the town taken over this period and photographed the site as it is now. The comparisons re often startling. How good is your memory?
January 11 2024
Jane Lewis - Find it, File it and Find it againJane has been working in an archive (Surrey History Centre) for over 25 years and, inevitably, some of the archive practices have "rubbed off". Also, in a previous life she was a secretary and office manager and with these skill sets in mind, she's spent quite a lot of her time in exploring and learning how best to organise and arrange her own family history research. She hasn't always got it right but she's taken lots of advice from her colleagues and other archive professionals, so she's gained quite a lot of experience in storing and organising her research, which she would like to shre with fellow family historians.
February 8
Paul Backhouse - Alan Turing - Guildford's Best Kept SecretPaul Backhouse is one of Guildford's Town Guides and has written a biography of Alan Turing. (Copies will be available at the meeting.)Alan turing is probably besst know for his contribution, at Bletchley Park, to the breaking of the Enigma, the encoder used by the Germans to encrypt secret messages during the Second World War. His parents lived in Guildford, following his father’s retirement in 1927. Although away at school for long periods, Guildford gave Alan his first proper home and the family would go for long walks in Stoke Park and on the North Downs.
Turing was also a keen athlete and was known to run in Guildford, Westcott and Leith Hill. He often ran the 18 miles between his home in Hampton and his mother’s house in Guildford. He was a world-class marathon runner, coming fifth in the trials for the 1948 Olympics.
March 14
Judy Hill - Victorian Life - Upstairs and DownstairsIn Britain throughout the nineteenth century and until the First World War domestic service was the largest single occupation of women. Large domestic staffs had of course characterised the great houses of the nobilit for centuries. What was new in the nineteenth century was the growth of domestic service which paralleled the growth of middle classes. In addition the view was held that the employment of domestic staff was in itself a sign of respectability and an indicator of social status. A large family, the large over-furnished house, lavish dinner parties and the economic ability to keep one's wife in genteel idleness, were essential attributes of the institution of the Victorian middle class family. As a result there was the need to employ domestic servants on a large scale and there was a very strict hierarchy of servants and their duties.
April 11
Informal Meeting - Who were your Great Grandparents or Grandparents?Introduce us to your ancestors. Bring them along on a memory stick, in a folder of papers and pictures or come and talk to us about them.
May 9
Sue Flipping - A History and the Mystery of FuneralsSue's talk brings together her professional and personal experience. "The History and Mystery of Funerals" holds surprises about the background to many of the funeral traditions we consider 'normal' in the UK and also looks at why those traditions would be considered bizarre by other cultures and at other times.
June 13
Colin Chapman - Family History from Education Recordstba