This delightfully named cottage was probably built between 1730-50. It was known as Pit Dairy before being renamed as Gnome Cottage by the National Trust. © Copyright Colin Smith It is a two-storey stone cottage with a half-hipped roof. It is thought to have been a farm and we have seen an old photo showing it as "Punchbowl Dairy Farm". The outlying farm buildings were demolished many years ago. The cottage has a large hearth and it has several early Georgian features, such as the brick in the quoins and in the jambs of the windows. It is a wonderful place to live. We moved into Gnome Cottage in 1991. Andrew works for the National Trust as Head Warden for Hindhead commons and I am an Infant Teacher. Andrew moved to the area in 1988 from Whitley Bay in Northumberland and I am originally from Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. We were married in Thursley Church on the 31st July 1993. Jilly Storey, 1996 Jilly and Andrew Storey, 1996

This article, written by Mary Bennett, first appeared in the Parish Magazine in July 1978 and was published by the History of Thursley Society in a loose-leaf book. THURSLEY IN THE 'TWENTIES When I was a child in the ‘twenties, Miss Aileen Lutyens, Sir Edwin Lutyens’ youngest sister, dominated the Thursley scene. She lived in the large house by the Clump, now Charringtons (the present vicarage stands in what was then her meadow) and looked exactly like her photograph in the village hall - brisk, capable and benevolent. There were close links between her and the Rapleys at Hill Farm, since Mrs.Rapley - already an old lady in my memory - had taught the little Lutyenses before her marriage. Both families were musical and, in retrospect, I think it was rather bold of my mother, as a newcomer, to start a choral society in the face of this entrenched interest. But she did, and all was well; Miss Lutyens’ penetrating alto was safely absorbed into the new choir, which proceeded to do well in a couple of Dorking festivals but did not survive our partial migration to Oxford in 1925. Miss Lutyens was one of those who got Thursley its first Village Hall, the large army hut that stood on the crest of the hill by the ‘Shoes and was to be the scene of all major social events for some forty years; she was also a founder member of the local W.I. I suspect that she had a hand in most of the local events of the time. The School was a real school then, presided over by Mr. Swallow, and beyond the playground where the Thorfield flats now are, was the Vicarage, now Thorcroft. This was then a much larger house (the upper storey was later destroyed by fire) and the garden seemed to me infinitely romantic, with winding paths leading through the belts of trees and shrubs that encircled the two lawns. On one occasion there was a fairy play, in which we dressed up with butter-muslin wings and flitted in and out of the laurels - this must really have been rather awful, but remains magical in my memory. Angela Smith, the Vicar’s daughter, also ran a pack of Brownies, whose meetings were the high spot of my week. We met in the Vicarage stable loft, which meant climbing up one of those ladders that are no more than hand-and-foot-holes against the wall, and stepping sideways off it through the loft door, an adventurous exercise when one’s legs were short. One of the things Brownies had to learn was (oddly enough) how to make a rice pudding. This was impossible for one of us, since her home had no oven, a fact that made a deep impression on me at the time and is a fair measure of the change in standards of living since. Angela Smith must have had a considerable gift with children since she kept a dozen or so little girls from a variety of homes happy and out of mischief on Saturday mornings for some years. Beyond the Vicarage, at Foldsdown, (which they had themselves built) lived the Parkers. Mrs. Parker was very pretty and very fragile - everyone liked and respected her, but she was not strong enough to play as active a part in village affairs as Mr. Parker, to whose drive and devotion Thursley owed the installation of its first district nurse, Nurse Collins. It is hard nowadays to realise that there was a time when the nurse’s salary and expenses were wholly provided from private subscriptions, but so it was, and a very great deal of work was needed to keep the nursing fund solvent and in good order. Of course I did not realise this until much later: I thought of Mr. Parker as a kindly grown-up, with whom my father used to go for walks, and Foldsdown as the scene of very splendid children’s parties at Christmas. My mother’s chief friend in those days was Miss Stevenson, who lived at The Lodge, now the O’Briens. She was a retired headmistress, a formidable and rather fascinating Scot, who still gave violin lessons and was very occasionally persuaded to play at village concerts. Among her pupils was Bob Goble from across the road, soon to join the Dolmetsches at Haslemere and eventually to become the leading English maker of harpsichords. A musician of a very different sort was Mr. Pecskai, who taught at the Royal Academy and played in a well-known London quartet. Hungarian by birth and breeding, though passionately English in sentiment, he looked like a rather stouter Napoleon: my father enjoyed the verve of his conversation and we saw a good deal of him. He and his elderly rather cross-grained accompanist, Miss Lebel, lodged at Heathview, the house now owned by Wendy and Graham Jones, until he suddenly married one of his pupils, when Miss Lebel went off and took lodgings with Mrs. Harbutt in Vine Cottage. Poor Mrs. Harbutt must have had a time of it with my old cousin, Mrs. Woods* in her front room and Miss Lebel in her back - neither old lady at all easy, and the two of them on far from friendly terms. Louis and Bertha Pecskai eventually built themselves Rack Close and they lived in Thursley until his death in the 40’s. But that takes us far beyond the days of these childhood memories of a Thursley that now seems very remote indeed. MARY BENNETT * Margaret L. Woods, a well-known poet and popular novelist at the turn of the century.

Pax Cottage was built in 1500/1550 as a single hall house standing free of the now attached Oak Cottage built in the 17th century, and Shrike Cottage and Rose Cottage were attached in the 18th century. It was purchased by Peter and Leslie Huish on 20th July, 1957 The roof construction has no ridge pole and has rafters attached in pairs supporting the handmade tiled roof which was first thatched with heather. The small sitting room was originally open to the roof void and an open fire on the floor allowed the smoke to escape through a smoke vent now covered by the the tiled roof. Pax Cottage also showing Oak Cottage Timber frame construction in bedroom We have opened the original large fireplace after removing three smaller fireplaces, and exposed the beamed walls and ceilings. The relatively large garden at the rear has been featured in the "Gardeners World" of August 1992 and "Which" magazine and has ironstone paths and patio constructed by Pat and Leslie Huish. We spent two years moving earth to level the garden which sloped downhill in two directionss. The garden includes Himalayan Pine and hybrid Catalpa trees Leslie grew from seed.

This small 20 page booklet is available from the Godalming Museum and the Lutyens Trust. It contains a circular car trail that allows you to see about 24 of Lutyens's designs in a fairly compact area. In Thursley it identifies The Corner , Lutyens's first executed work, Street House which was his boyhood home, Prospect Cottage which was formerly the Thursley Institute and Thursley Churchyard where there is a simple cross to his father and a memorial to his nephew killed in the first World War.

The first newsletter driven by articles from the website was delivered to subscribers on 1st September 2024. If you want to receive these updates, please sign up on the home page. We have also added newsletters from the beginning of the society when it was known as the History of Thursley Society. https://shoutout.wix.com/so/14Oz8EPSe?languageTag=en&cid=bceff40b-12d7-4ab7-879e-2fc25b2b4a42

This article was sent to the History of Thursley Society by Francis Haveron of the Surrey Industrial History Group on 18th August 1996. It mentions Silk Mill Cottage, Hammer Pond, Pudmore Pond, Ockley Common and other familiar locations. For further reading on the Wealden Iron industry, we are grateful to David Streeter for these comments, "The Wealden iron industry is extremely well-researched. The classic work is Ernest Straker's Wealden Iron (1931) which Francis Haveron refers to but the current standard work is Henry Cleere's The Iron Industry of the Weald (1985). It includes several references to Thursley including an establishment date of1608 which accords with the lease date of 1610 quoted in the article as 'lately erected and built'. However, by far the best recent general account of the industry is Jeremy Hodginson's The Wealden Iron Industry (2008). It's a less academic book than Cleere, designed to appeal to the general reader as well as the archaeological minded." When did the Wealden Iron industry finally stop in Surrey? Straker, in his classic book “Wealden Iron” (1931), states that although Ashburnham Forge in Sussex worked till 1820, The last Surrey site seems to be that of Thursley which was working in 1767. Most writers follow Straker in quoting Thursley as the one but usually say it closed down round about 1800. A number of leases and legal documents in the Percy Woods Collection* in Godalming library tell us more about the change of ownership of the site in the early 19th C and explain the perhaps surprising name of the house at the site – “Silkmill Cottage”. (SU 918408). The following is a summary from Straker of the known early history of the Thursley furnace and forge. “It commences in a lease on May 14th, 1610 as ‘lately erected and built”, probably the last to be set up in Surrey. There is a mortgage of December 17th 1617 and a deed of March 19th 1623 in which Sir George More of Losely demises the mill to Henry Bell of Milford and in 1641 a suit in Chancery largely concerned with fishing rights in the ponds. In 1666 the works were leased for two years, at £10 per annum, to Willian Yalden of Blackdown, a considerable ironmaster, with a very detailed inventory which shows there was a furnace as well as a forge. Roque’s map of Surrey 1762 shows the Portsmouth Road as running between the two large ponds with awkward bends. Apparently when the road was straightened, it was taken across another pond, not now in existence.” Deed 129 of the Percy Woods Collection is dated September 24th 1812 and in it Mary Webb of Milford house leased to Robert Brettell Bale, rather surprisingly described as a mathematical instrument maker of the Poultry in the City of London, “the Forge lately converted into and used as a Mill for the manufactory of Crape plus the four ponds plus the Upper Hammers or Hammer Alehouse”. The words ‘lately converted’ might well be significant though they do not give us the date when the iron working ceased. Of some minor interest is another concession in the least to Bale – the right to cut ‘thirty two thousand of peat from the Pudmore, being part of the Waste or Common Lands within the Manor of Witley.” Pudmore Pond is on Ockley Common at approximately SU 907416. In 1918 Bale gave up his lease which was reassigned to Archibald, John and Hugh Herron, described as merchants, of Mitre Court, Milk Street, Cheapside. When that lease’s term of years expired in 1824, Philip Barker Webb leased for 21 years to John and Hugh Herron, “Warren Lodge that building previously called the Forge but now converted int a Mill or Mills for the Manufactory of crapes … together with the four ponds called the Upper Hammer Pond, The Foul Pond, the Lower Hammer Pond and the New Pond”. One wonders whether the ‘Foul’ meant polluted or inhabited especially by birds. Could it refer to what is now called ‘Forked Pond’? Straker’s reference to the straightening of the Turnpike Road affecting the Thursley site is illuminated by another agreement, No 132 of the Percy Woods Collection, dated April 16th 1828 between the Trustees of the Turnpike from Kingston to Sheetbridge near Petersfield and John Herron, “Silk manufacturer of Thursley”, to buy land called Pen Mead so that the road could go from the foot of Rodborough to the public house at the end of Road Lane. Pen Mead Copse is marked on my 2 1/2” OS map as lying south of the A3 at SU919401, and it was probably here that the road went across the pond which Straker mentions. The Trustees also agreed to take down the existing pub call the Half Moon which , rather oddly, was in the occupation of Mrs Frances Moon and rebuild it by the new road, together with stabling for 14 horses. They also agreed to dig a well and instal a pump, fuelhouse and privy. No doubt many people still remember the Half Moon beside the road at Thursley which ironically was demolished a few years ago for the widening of the Portsmouth Road, though the actual site of the pub has not been built upon. I wonder if the well is still there? Certainly “Silkmill Cottage” still occupies a key site between the Hammer Ponds and enshrines the memory of the Herrons who fished in these waters. Some Questions still remain, however. Why choose Thursley as a place to make crape and how was it made? Why such a remote location for silk making, an exotic fabric which presumably was imported from the East? Even though the main road from Portsmouth to London ran beside the mill, it still seems an odd location. But what was the ’crape’ referred to in the deed of 1812? The American Fabrics Encyclopedia of Textiles (1972)defines it as “a lightweight fabric of silk, rayon, cotton, wool, synthetic or a combination of fibers. Characterised by a wrinkling surface obtained either by us of 1) hard twist yarns, 2) chemical treatment, 3) weave, 4) embossing.” The Handbook; of Textile Fibres by J Gordon Cllo (1963, Merrow Publishing Co., Watford) defies crape as yards with a very high twist, as many as 30 – 70 to the inch. “They are used for crepe fabrics and chiffon and for knitting into hosiery.” The first definition, therefore, points the search in the direction of the hosiery trade, a speciality of the Godalming area during the late 118th and 19th centuries. There is a yet third possibility – “the process of crowding a sheet of paper in a roll by means of a doctor”. A doctor, you will be relieved to hear , is a “thin plane or scraper of wood, metal or other hard substance placed along the entire length of a roll or cylinder to keep it free from paper, pulp, size, etc., and thus maintain a smooth, clean surface.” (‘The Dictionary of Paper’, American Pulp and Paper Association, 1965). This aspect of the manufacture of crepe puts the usage of Thursley Mill within the context of the paper industry of the Surry and Hants areas. Thursley Mill in its early 19th century phase could be seen as an interesting half-way house bridging two local industries, the hosiery trade and the making of paper. Francis Haveron Surrey Industrial History Group 18th August 1996 The Percy Woods Collection: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/dd74bcc6-72ce-4521-a92b-0337f84e322c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealden_iron_industry From the WEALDEN IRON RESEARCH GROUPDATABASE: http://www.wirgdata.org/searchsites2.cgi?siteid=664 This website provides more information on the Wealden Iron Industry beyond Thursley: http://www.hammerpond.org.uk/index.htm The Wealdon Iron Industry: https://www.wealdeniron.org.uk/history/ The Historical Metallurgy Society: 15th Annual Conference - The Weald-Sussex 1979 The full contents are in the pdf below: THE WEALDEN IRON INDUSTRY: A leaflet of The Wealden Iron Research Group

Having already found an Elizabethan sixpence, Olly Lynes has also discovered a pocket watch belonging to Lt. Leslie Richmond. He must have lost it before he went to the front in WW1. This article was written by John Lynes. Discovering the watch It was with some surprise that local lad Olly Lynes came across a rather interesting artefact whilst searching  Punch Bowl Farm, owned by Sally Scheffers. Olly had been searching the farm for the past few years with many interesting items being discovered. On this occasion, as Olly removed the find from the soil he realised it was a silver military pocket watch. On getting home, and after a little research, it transpired that the watch had in fact belonged to a special Australian soldier, who was identifiable for rather sad reasons. The pocket watch belonged to Leslie Richmond of the 1st Gordon Highlanders. Thanks to an Australian article written about Leslie Richmond, Olly was able to learn a great deal about the history of the person behind the watch. Lt . Leslie Richmond, an officer in the 1st Gordon Highlanders, was the first Australian-born casualty of World War I. Born in Armadale, Victoria, in June 1888, Richmond was killed at the Battle of Mons on August 23, 1914. This battle marked the first major engagement of the British Expeditionary Force in the war. Despite his service in a British regiment, new research has revealed that Richmond's Australian roots merit his inclusion on the Australian War Memorial's (AWM) Commemorative Roll. From Australia to Scotland Richmond's family history is a tale of migration and success. His father, James Richmond, left Scotland for Australia in 1863, becoming a prosperous pastoralist. The Richmond family later returned to Scotland, renting the 17th-century Monzie Castle in Crieff, Perthshire. Census records from the time show the family lived a life of relative affluence, employing several household staff. The Battle of Mons and Richmond's Service The Battle of Mons, where Lt. Richmond lost his life, was a critical early conflict in WWI. On August 23, 1914, British forces faced a superior German army and were forced to withdraw, suffering approximately 1,600 casualties. The battle is also notable for the legend of the Angel of Mons, which purportedly appeared in the sky to protect retreating British troops. Lt. Richmond's military career began with his commission in the Gordon Highlanders in 1906. By 1909, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant. He married Ruth Greenwood in April 1914, and she was pregnant with their only child when he died. Their son, also named Leslie, was born in January 1915. Recognition and Family Legacy For many years, Seaman William "Billy" Williams and Captain Brian Pockley were believed to be the first Australians to fall in World War I, having died on September 11, 1914, in the Battle of Bita Paka in Papua New Guinea. However, recent findings by Toni Munday, curator of the HMAS Cerberus museum, and Diane Morris, the AWM's centenary communications officer, have brought Lt. Richmond's sacrifice to light. Munday discovered a notice about Richmond in The Argus newspaper from October 1914, prompting further investigation. Richmond's descendants, Jeannie Furphy of Shepparton, Victoria, and Alexandra Ramsay of Warren, NSW, were aware of his military history but had not considered him a candidate for recognition in Australia due to his service with a British regiment. The AWM's criteria allow for Australians who served in foreign armies to be included on the Commemorative Roll, provided they meet specific criteria. A Family's War Tragedy The Richmond family's history is marked by the tragic loss of both Lt. Richmond and his son. The younger Leslie was killed at Dunkirk in May 1940, shortly after his marriage, while serving with the 10th Royal Hussars. Ruth Richmond, Leslie's widow, never remarried, enduring the profound loss of both her husband and son. Lt. Richmond is buried at St. Symphorien Military Cemetery in Belgium. From ABC News Australia: WWI Scottish regiment soldier 'may have been first Australian-born casualty' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-23/leslie-richmond-first-aust-born-soldier-killed/5685774 A portrait of Lieutenant Leslie Richmond of the Gordon Highlanders who died at the Battle of Mons. (Supplied: Richmond family) Lt Leslie Richmond From Obituaries Australia: https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/richmond-leslie-18261 From Newscorp Austalia: https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/how-leslie-richmond-and-william-chisholm-became-the-first-aussie-casualties-of-world-war-i/news-story/ecbc8f42f454a3de46c96ebb4907f715

With thanks to Sean Edwards. *aka The Sailor's Murder, see links below.

The Guardian article shows how writers have been drawn to The Sailor's Murder, one of two historic murders to have taken place in Thursley (see links at the bottom of this article). Gibbet Hill by Bram Stoker is published by The Rotunda Foundation on 26 October, 2024. Paul McKinley’s exhibition Péisteanna is now on at Casino Marino, Dublin. More information on the Dublin City Council Bram Stoker festival can be found at bramstokerfestival.com https://rotundafoundation.ie/gibbet-hill/ Guardian article: Reader stumbles on Dracula’s ancestors in a Dublin library The unknown Bram Stoker story Gibbet Hill, published soon before the author began working on Dracula, has eerie echoes of his vampire classic by Ella Creamer, Sat 19 Oct 2024 In a Dublin library once frequented by James Joyce and WB Yeats, beneath a turquoise and white domed ceiling and surrounded by oak shelving, Brian Cleary stumbled across something by Dracula author Bram Stoker he believed no living person had ever read. Cleary, who had taken time off from his job at a maternity hospital after suffering sudden hearing loss, was looking through the Stoker archives at the National Library of Ireland when he came across something strange. In a Dublin Daily Express advert from New Year’s Day 1891 promoting a supplement, one of the items listed was “Gibbett Hill, By Bram Stoker”. He had never heard of it, and went searching for a trace. “It wasn’t something that was Google-able or was in any of the bibliographies,” he said. Cleary tracked down the supplement and found Gibbet Hill. “This is a lost story,” he realised. “I don’t think anyone knows about this.” The story follows an unnamed narrator who runs into three children standing by the memorial of a murdered sailor on Gibbet Hill, Surrey, which is also referred to in Dickens’ 1839 novel Nicholas Nickleby. Together, the four walk to the top of Gibbet Hill. Distracted by the view, the narrator loses sight of the children. He takes a nap among some trees, and wakes to see the children a short distance away, before a snake passes over his feet towards the children, who appear able to communicate with and control the snake. Later, the children attack the narrator. The story culminates with the snake wriggling out of the narrator’s chest, gliding away down the hillside. Cleary approached Stoker biographer Paul Murray to authenticate the story. Though Murray was excited by the finding, he wasn’t surprised – he had already discovered three similar stories, so he knew there was more Stoker material out there. But “as I learned more about the story I became more and more intrigued, because it was published – and almost certainly written – in 1890,” he said. “That’s the year that Bram Stoker begins working on Dracula”. The quintessential gothic horror novel “didn’t come out of nowhere”, said Murray, who has been researching Stoker’s development from the mid-1870s to Dracula’s publication in 1897. “To me, Gibbet Hill was a very exciting new piece of that jigsaw. It fitted very well into my theory of the long gestation of Dracula. And so this seemed to me to be a kind of waystation on that journey of over 20 years that Stoker spent evolving his fiction.” Gibbet Hill has parallels with Dracula. There is the gothic imagery, a trinity of malevolent characters, and a description of eyes that “gleamed with a dark unholy light” – anticipating the eyes that “blazed with an unholy light” in Dracula. Another thematic parallel is that of “reverse colonisation”, said Murray. In Gibbet Hill, two of the children are Indian. In Dracula, you have “the Count coming from Transylvania, which is on the borders of the known world at that time, coming back to threaten England”. While Dracula might be read as a critique of British imperialism, it is also a “reverse colonisation fantasy inviting the British to see themselves as potential victims”, wrote David Higgins in his book Reverse Colonization. A book featuring the story, commentary and artwork by Paul McKinley is now being published by the Rotunda Foundation, the official fundraising arm of the Rotunda hospital where Cleary works. All proceeds will go to the newly established Charlotte Stoker Fund – named after Bram’s mother, who was a campaigner for deaf people – to fund research on risk factors for acquired deafness in newborn babies. An accompanying exhibition is showing at Casino Marino in Dublin, and the first public reading of the story will take place at the Dublin city council Bram Stoker festival. It is “not very often” that a discovery of such magnitude is made, NLI director Audrey Whitty said. Yet she emphasises that “anybody’s capable” of a find like Cleary’s. “Who knows what lies undiscovered in any national library in the world?” The story has also appeared in The New York Times: A Fan Discovers a New Story by the Author of ‘Dracula’ The work by Bram Stoker, previously unknown to scholars, will be read and included in a book launched during Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival. By Sarah Lyall Published Oct. 19, 2024 Updated Oct. 20, 2024 The discovery left Brian Cleary “gobsmacked,” he said. “I wanted to turn around and shout, ‘Guess what I found?’” Ellius Grace for The New York Times Brian Cleary, a clinical pharmacist in Dublin, was trawling through the archives at the National Library of Ireland a few years ago when he stumbled across something extraordinary: a virtually unknown short story by Bram Stoker, author of the Gothic masterpiece “Dracula.” The story, a creepy tale of the supernatural called “Gibbet Hill,” had been published in a now-defunct Irish newspaper in 1890, but had not appeared in print or, it seemed, been mentioned anywhere since. “I was just gobsmacked,” said Cleary, who works as the chief pharmacist at the Rotunda maternity hospital and has long been fascinated by Stoker. “I went and checked all the bibliographies, and it was nowhere. I wanted to turn around and shout, ‘Guess what I found?’ but there were proper researchers and academics there, and I was just an amateur.” Indeed, the story wasn’t included in Stoker’s archival papers, and was unknown to scholars, said Audrey Whitty, the director of the national library. While it isn’t unusual for something unexpected to turn up in the library’s archives — a collection of 12 million items — Cleary’s discovery stands out for the way he made it, she said. Cleary first saw a reference to “Gibbet Hill in a copy of the Dublin Daily Express published on New Year’s Day, 1891. Brian Cleary He first spotted a reference to “Gibbet Hill” in a promotional advertisement in the Dublin Daily Express on New Year’s Day, 1891. Then he tracked down the special section in which the story actually had appeared — two weeks earlier, on Dec. 17, 1890 — and where it had been “hidden in plain sight,” he said. The story takes place in Surrey, England, at a spot that became infamous when three men who had killed a sailor were hanged there in the 18th century. (A gibbet is a gallows.) In it, a young man goes for a stroll and comes upon a trio of eerie children — a boy “with hair of spun gold” and a wriggling mass of earthworms concealed in his clothes, and two pretty, dark-haired Indian girls. The trio perform a strange ritual involving music and a snake (for starters), tie the man up and menace him with a sharp dagger. Though he passes out and isn’t sure what happens next — they are gone when he wakes up — the unsettling experience has repercussions that do not bode well for his future. “Gibbet Hill” is a creepy little tale. It is also, according to Paul Murray, author of the biography “From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker,” and an expert on Stoker, “very significant” and “an important new addition to the canon.” He then found the special section in which the story had appeared, published on Dec. 17, 1890. Brian Cleary The story, and the book it will be included in, are to be unveiled to the public during Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival, held this year on Oct. 25-28. (Ireland, a supremely literary nation, commemorates many of its writers with special festivals.) Cleary said he hoped the book would draw attention to the breadth of Stoker’s work — in addition to “Dracula,” Stoker wrote more than a dozen other novels and several short story collections, and worked for many years as the manager of the Lyceum Theater in London. “Gibbet Hill” was published at a pivotal moment in Stoker’s career, when the author was beginning work on “Dracula.” Many of the novel’s thematic preoccupations — the thin line between normalcy and horror; the shadowy transactions between the living and the dead; the elements of Gothic weirdness — show up in the story. And in common with “Dracula,” Stoker presents the events of “Gibbet Hill” so naturally that he makes “the incredible seem credible,” Murray said. “It’s a story you can’t explain rationally, and yet it’s so well presented that it carries you along.” Finally, it has a theme of colonial unease also expressed in other books from that era, like Wilkie Collins’s “The Moonstone," published some 20 years earlier: “the English fear of the threat coming from the periphery of the empire to exert revenge and disrupt English life,” Murray said. “It’s the idea that there would be this invasion of foreigners into England.” For Cleary, there’s a more personal dimension to his interest in the story. In 2021, he woke up one morning to find that he had gone deaf in one ear. The discovery of “Gibbet Hill” was made after he got a cochlear implant and undertook a grueling program of auditory therapy, including listening to music in the library as he did his research for what he hopes will eventually be a novel with Stoker as a character. “I was like a baby learning to hear again,” he said. The story will be read in public during Dublin’s annual Bram Stoker Festival, held this year on Oct. 25-28. Along with its back story, it will be included in a book as well. Ellius Grace for The New York Times Cleary lives not far from the street where Stoker was born, Marino Crescent on the north side of Dublin, and passes Stoker’s old house frequently. But there are other connections between him and the author. By an odd confluence of events, “a thread of deafness” runs through the history of the Stoker family as well as his own story, Cleary said. Stoker’s mother, Charlotte, was a social reformer and campaigner for the deaf. In 1863, she became the first woman to present a paper to the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, arguing that the state should pay for housing and education for deaf people. (Using the now-jarring language of the time, her paper was called “On the Necessity of a State Provision for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb of Ireland.”) In the small world of 19th-century Dublin, she had the support of Sir William Wilde, Oscar Wilde’s father, a renowned eye surgeon and polymath who had initiated a special census of the deaf in Ireland in 1851. Deafness touched the lives of the Stokers in other ways. One of Bram’s brothers, George, published a paper on deafness in The Lancet medical journal; the wife of another of his brothers lost her hearing after taking malaria medication. Though he was omitted from the novel itself, a deaf character featured in the original notes Stoker kept for “Dracula.” Proceeds from the sales of the book, Cleary said, will go to the newly founded Charlotte Stoker Fund at the Rotunda Foundation, which is associated with the hospital where he works. The money will finance research into risk factors for acquired deafness in newborn babies. In the preface, Cleary writes about listening to lullabies from the library’s collection — streamed directly to his cochlear implant — while reading Stoker’s descriptions of the “eerie musical ensemble” in “Gibbet Hill” for the first time. “A lot of things wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t suffered from hearing loss,” he said. Sarah Lyall is a writer at large for The Times, writing news, features and analysis across a wide range of sections. The story provoked wide interest and it has been covered by the news media at home and abroad. This from the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9119l64qo

This article by Jackie Rickenberg was published in the Parish Magazine, December 2023 You will forgive me if I make this month’s article all about me! Well, not really. In fact, it is all about us i.e., Thursley History Society. We are at a very pivotal time as we work to complete a task that has been years in the making, and has involved many, many volunteers. It is currently being driven by our very own David Young, with his extensive and invaluable experience in the world of publishing. The task I speak of is (drum roll) the launch of our beautiful updated and incredibly fascinating website. Firstly, a little about us. The Society was inaugurated at a public meeting in April 1991, so fairly recently by village standards. In those days it was known as History of Thursley Society but it was changed to Thursley History Society in order to extend its remit. In its constitution it states: “The object of the Society shall be to discover, record, discuss, collect, purchase and display artefacts, written materials and records and other matters relating to the history of the village of Thursley, for the interest of local people and to undertake anything which shall be deemed by the committee to be desirable in order to achieve the objectives of the Society”. With the change in name, it allows us to include the whole parish, including Pitch Place, Warren Park, High Button and Bowlhead Green, and to also include research into other matters relating to but perhaps not restricted within the boundaries of the parish. Our first chairman was the Rev Edmund Haviland and others have included Michael O’Brien and Anthony Langdale. Today it is Leon Flavell. In 2007, when the archives were stored in a cupboard in the village hall, there was a flood from the upstairs flat. The result was, according to the chairman at the time “the grievous and total loss of much irreplaceable material put together by the original founders of the Society”. It was at this time that the decision was made to move the archive to a more secure location within the village. Until now! As so much of this archive is extremely precious and unique, the current committee have been keen to finish the complete digitisation process – begun many years ago – in order to be in a position to hand the entire archive over to the Surrey History Centre, where it will be indexed and most importantly, safe and secure. At the same time, the records are being uploaded onto the new Thursley History Society website, as alluded to by James Mendelssohn in his PC column in last month’s magazine. There have been many villagers through the years who have contributed to this enormous effort, including but not exclusively: Alie Hanbury, Sukey Langdale, Sally Scheffers, Lisa Woods, Simon Treadwell, Peter Rickenberg, Leon Flavell and of course the project leader, David Young. Our thanks go to everyone who has helped through the years and indeed all previous and current members for keeping our history so alive and available. However, a special mention must go to Tim Walsh, who has been our efficient and steadfast archivist over many years. Had it not been for the tireless and thankless task of studiously scanning, recording and filing these priceless archives, the current task of uploading them onto the website would be a far more laborious and time consuming one. The village owes him a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you, Tim, from all of us. We are so excited by the new site, brilliantly built by Helena Traill’s company Nooh Studio, and managed by the committee. It will allow each and every villager, and indeed, any interested party, to have the archives at their fingertips. This will allow everyone access to research their family, their house or many other matters relating to the village, using the new linking systems which allows for much richer and extensive results. The absolute wealth of information will be incredible, but it will always be a work in progress, as material will be added both current and from the archives. As extensive as our records are, we are very happy to take copies of any documents that you may have access to, in order to save them for posterity and future generations to enjoy. Finally, Happy Christmas from the Society and watch this space for details of an exciting launch event. If you can’t wait until next Spring, here is an example of a photograph from the archives, showing two Edwardian ladies standing in a spot that will be familiar to many of us. Can you identify where it is? Answer and article next month. The first meeting of the History of Thursley Society, 14th May 1991 :

The Vestry Screen for Thursley's Church was designed by Tracey Sheppard FGE, was unveiled by the Dean of Guildford on 26th November 2024 The photographs above were taken by Sean Edwards Before these beautiful doors were made and installed, the work had to be specified, funds had to be raised and a designer found: Fund raising : The Designer : Programme of Work and Techniques Use d: The construction : The Design : The artisan at work : The Dedication : Press comment and appreciation :

Thursley History Society was delighted to receive this cookbook: many thanks, Lisa Woods. It contains recipes from villagers including Hilary Barr, Sue Ranson, Marion O'Brien, Patricia Coles, Sandy Hanauer, Sukey Langdale and Anne Wakeley. Featured recipes : The complete recipe book, which begins with an index, can be found in this pdf: