A real quacker in Godalming

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The great Godalming duck race and fair takes place along the river Wey on Saturday, 7th September, one of the traditional ways the Rotary clubs in Godalming raise funds for Rotary causes

Don’t worry, your eyes aren’t deceiving you if you see 300 yellow plastic ducks floating along the Wey, it’s just the annual Rotary duck race down the river.

Each ticket sold buys a duck for one race, provides entertainment for the ticket folder, money for charity and may even win you some money!

Rotary members are selling tickets in local pubs now and they will also be available at the Richmond Arms and the Sun Inn in Godalming town centre and at Daisy Sandwiches at Godalming Station.

There will be a fun fair, a bar and stalls and food outlets from 11am until 3.30pm and the first duck race will start at noon, with heats every 20 minutes from then until the Grand Final for all the heat winners. Heat winners will win £20 with prizes of £250, £100 and £50 for the first three places in the Grand Final.

Following the Duck Races, there is a musical evening of Proms In The Park between 5pm and 7pm. The fun fair together with the bar and many of the stalls and food outlets will remain onsite until the end of the Proms In The Park.

We are very grateful to the directors of Seymours estate agents for their continued support of Rotary’s events this year.

Rotary has flourished in Godalming for more than 80 years and the community work of the Rotary Clubs is an integral part of life in the town. Rotary in Godalming welcome men and women who share the same common desire to do something worthwhile in the community, with a priority being community service and the support of local charities.

During the past few years Rotary in Godalming have raised and donated over £125,000 / £150,000 most notable locally to Godalming foodbank; the Godalming Community store; Phyllis Tuckwell; Skillway; ShelterBox and Broadwater Youth Centre’s wellbeing garden project.

More recently, Rotary clubs across Surrey and Sussex have partnered with Royal Surrey hospital to transform cancer care across Surrey, Sussex and beyond. The Cut Out Cancer campaign aims to raise funds for crucial high-tech equipment to allow more accurate surgeries to take place and improve recovery times for patients.

Rotary in Godalming also supports vital humanitarian work including Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign. Thanks to Rotary’s eradication work there are only 34 new cases of Polio reported this year, and we are ‘this close’ to total eradication.

For more information on the above and other Rotary activities, please visit their website Rotary Club of Godalming – welcome. (rotary-ribi.org)


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Chiltern Sky Flowers blooming lovely farm

Liz Nicholls

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Fiona & Chris McLeod own & run Chiltern Sky Flowers in Bledlow Ridge, working with the seasons & Mother Nature to show younger generations the power of flowers

There is no age limit to growing flowers, as long as you keep fit and healthy. In fact, can there be any more wonderful way to connect with nature and spend your life outside?

That’s the message from Fiona & Chris who set up their own small-scale flower farm in their late fifties. “We’ve lived in Bledlow Ridge for 29 years,” says Fiona, “but we only set up the flower farm in 2018, with a view to having a retirement project for our future.

“We don’t have children, but we do support our local primary school in Bledlow Ridge, who visit us as part of their nature studies, learning about the four seasons… Shout-out to the best primary school in Bucks!”

The couple are passionate about conserving our ecological environment in The Chiltern Hills. The chalk grassland and meadows are rich habitats for wildflowers and wildlife. Owls, bats, red kites, grass snakes, bees, moths and butterflies are some of their companions.

Their flower beds are constructed using the “no dig” method. They also use peat-free compost and are committed to reducing single-use plastic and recycling. They harvest rainwater from their cottage roof, storing it in deep, brick-built Victorian wells.

Right now the summer flowers (including a dazzling display of achillea, ammi, cornflowers, cosmos, dahlias, phlox, snapdragons and fragrant sweet peas) are blooming, before autumn-flowering highlights such as dahlias take centre stage, along with anemones, asters, helianthus, verbena and zinnias.

Fiona and Chris have nothing but love for their village. “Bledlow Ridge is small but full of local talent,” says Fiona. “There’s a fabulous café run by Martina up at the cricket club. Martina bakes our cakes when we host workshops.

“Bledlow Ridge is a small, friendly community and there are plenty of groups you can join”

“It’s a small, friendly community here and there are plenty of groups you can join to meet and make friends. Bledlow Ridge sits high up in the Chiltern Hills with beautiful views. It’s a fabulous area for walking and hiking, and brilliant wildlife with unspoilt countryside.

“We have a wonderful pub, The Boot. Down the road is the great pub, The Sir Charles Napier, then you have The Lions of Bledlow, the wonderful West Wycombe Walled Garden café and – our favourite venue for buying presents for family and friends – The Apple Orchard at West Wycombe.”

The duo can provide flowers for weddings & other special events. The farm will host a floristry workshop on Saturday, 7th September.


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Wooburn Festival 2024

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The 57th Wooburn Festival opens on 23rd September 2024 with an exciting programme of music, film, visual arts and high-quality performances and entertainment at venues in and around Wooburn Green.

Three Classical Concerts commence on Friday 4th October with the welcome return of the internationally renowned Heath Quartet, much enjoyed by Festival audiences, this time joined by the leading horn player Ben Goldsheider. Red Priest are playing on Wednesday 9th October for a ‘Truly, Madly Baroque’ evening promising their trademark energy, virtuosity and creativity. On Friday 11th October one of today’s foremost violists, Lawrence Power, and the celebrated pianist Simon Crawford Philips are certain to delight.

Barefoot Opera return with La Traviata on Saturday 5th October once again bringing a magical evening of opera with brilliant young opera talents from across the country. Jazz Dynamos make their Festival debut with world class vocalist Lucy Randell at the very popular Jazz Supper on Saturday 28th September.

Other Festival highlights include Film Night showing Red Island, a visually exquisite, tender film about a boy growing up in a military air base on an former colony released in 2023 and a stunning week long Visual Arts Exhibition. The Literary Events include a talk by Roger Askew on the fascinating life of Gustav Holst in his 150th Anniversary year and Jeffrey Courtney talking about the much loved Johannes Vermeer. There will also be more guided tours to the magnificent Tudor Dorney Court in response to many requests after last year’s very successful visits.

More Festival details, including additional events, and the Box Office can be found at https://wooburn.com/

We always welcome new Committee members to help organize the prestigious Wooburn Festival. This would appeal to those with an interest in the Arts, in contributing to a long-standing and successful local community event, and/or those with innovative new ideas as to how we might expand and improve the Festival and its appeal to a wider audience year-on-year. We would particularly welcome someone with accounting and finance skills and expertise to assist in maintaining our accounts and submitting annual returns for audit. For more information, please contact the Committee Chairman, Brian Johnson, on [email protected]. We would be delighted to hear from you.


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Hogs Back’s 10 years of hop

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Image: Local hop farmer Mr Tice inspects hop bines, recreated by Hogs Back Brewery owner Rupert Thompson (right) and estate manager Matthew King

Historic images recreated for Farnham brewery milestone as it looks ahead to Hop Harvest celebrations in September

As Surrey-based Hogs Back Brewery approaches its 10th hop harvest, it has recreated historic hop farming photographs lining the walls of its Tap room, with local residents helping to update the images during a Hop Garden Open Evening.

Two original images were recreated, one showing a group of hop pickers reading the local newspaper, while in the other, Matthew King, Hogs Back’s estate manager, is shown with brewery owner Rupert Thompson inspecting the ripening hop plants, replace Mr Tice, a member of a renowned local hop growing family, in the original photograph.

The Hop Garden Open Evening drew 120 guests, who enjoyed a tour of the hop garden next to the brewery, followed by a pint or two in the Brewery Tap. Guests made a £5 donation to British Heart Foundation, Hogs Back’s chosen charity this year.

Image: Museum of Farnham

Rupert said: “We’re immensely proud to mark 10 years of hop growing. We planted our first hop garden, across the road from the brewery, to help us become a more sustainable brewery, to bring hop farming back to the Farnham region, and to build ties with the local community.

“A decade on, we have relocated to a larger hop garden even closer to the brewery, meaning the hops travel ‘from field to firkin in a furlong’ as we say! We capture them at optimum freshness and create a carbon footprint that’s close to zero! We are producing around 60% of our hop requirement and growing three varieties; Fuggles, English Cascade and Farnham White Bine.”

He added: “Hop growing is not for the faint hearted! Hops are a delicate, high-maintenance crop, much impacted by climate; this year’s heavy rain has delayed growth and therefore our harvest.

“However, it has been enormously rewarding, not least because of the support from the local community, in particular our loyal band of volunteers. Not only do they help us tend our hops during the growing season and bring in the harvest in September, but some of them are now immortalised in our recreations of classic hop farming photographs.”

This year’s hop harvest will culminate in the traditional Hop Harvest celebrations, from 13th-15th September. This year, Hogs Back is expecting more than 3,500 people to join the festivities, which include:

Roots Festival, Friday 13th from 6pm: featuring original music, headlined by Newton Faulkner.

Hop Harvest Festival, Saturday 14th, 2pm-11pm: Beer, street food and music, this year including indie folk to electropop and headlined by Britpop tribute band Blurasis.

TEA party, Sunday 15th, midday-5pm: family-friendly day with children’s entertainment including dray rides around the Hop Garden, face painting, magic show, and music including a Taylor Swift tribute act.

For full line ups of musicians and other entertainment, https://hogsback.co.uk/pages/festival-beer-and-music-party

Hop growing and Farnham are inextricably linked. At its peak in the late 19th century, hop fields covered around 40% of all available farmland in the area, and hops from Farnham were highly-prized for their quality. Although hop cultivation dwindled over the next 100 years, it still takes place in pockets across the region.

Hogs Back planted its first hop garden in 2014, relocating in 2019 to the current 8.5-acre site next to the brewery. The current garden contains 6,000 hop plants supported by 100 large posts and 10 miles of high tensile steel wire, strung 18ft above the plants. A small number of bines are crafted into hop garlands for local weddings and parties, and petals from the hop flowers are also being sold this year as aromatic, 100% biodegradable confetti.


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Join charity Plantathon for Squire’s

Karen Neville

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Support garden centres’ charity of the year programme and get involved in fundraising for local causes

Squire’s Garden Centres is inviting customers to come along to its centres on Friday, 6th September to join its charity Plantathon and help support Squire’s year of fundraising for its local charity organisations, marking the start of its Charity of the Year programme.

Taking place from 10am-3pm, at 15 of Squire’s garden centres**, the Squire’s teams at each centre – as well as charity volunteer helpers – are looking forward to welcoming customers for a fun and rewarding day planting up containers. The completed pots will be available for customers to purchase on the day, between 10am-3pm, with profits from the sale of each container going to each centre’s Charity of the Year (see list below).

Customers are encouraged to come along and support – to chat, ask questions – and are very welcome to pitch-in and plant-up pots too, in aid of some brilliant community causes close to each centre.

Each container will include a selection of autumn bedding plants, a centre piece feature plant, plus some daffodil bulbs to bring added cheer in spring (early September is the perfect time to plant spring flowering bulbs), all planted in peat free compost. The planted containers will be available to purchase for £12 each, representing fantastic value for money, while also helping local charities.

Sarah Squire, Chairman of Squire’s Garden Centres, comments: “We are looking forward to hosting our Plantathon initiative once again this year! It’s a wonderful way to welcome the autumn planting season, while marking the start of our work with our local charity partners for the next 12 months.

“We would be delighted to welcome visitors to our centres to get involved and help plant their own pot up – or just pop along and show their support for our colleagues and charity, which is local to the centre and often close to the hearts of many colleagues. Each centre works with their chosen charity to support their activities in the local community, as well as raising awareness and much needed funds at special evens throughout the year.

Charity of the Year – 2024/25

Charities chosen for the coming year are:

Badshot Leaspace2grow  Farnham’s community wellbeing garden, connecting local people in nature. space2grow.space
ChertseyLittle Roo Neonatal Fund  The Little Roo Neonatal Fund raises money to provide support for St. Peter’s Neonatal Unit, enabling it to continue providing the highest standards of intensive care for babies. ashfordstpeters.nhs.uk/littleroo
CobhamCobham Area Foodbank  A project founded by local churches and community groups, working together towards stopping hunger in the local area.  cobhamarea.foodbank.org.uk
CrawleyAge UK Crawley Branch  Offering services for older people, their families and their carers ageuk.org.uk/westsussexbrightonhove/activities-and-events/crawley/
FrenshamThe Green Hub Project for TeensThe Green Hub Project for Teens is a local community project serving Surrey and Hampshire and surrounding areas, supporting teenagers facing social, emotional and mental health challenges. greenhub.org.uk/
HershamHome-Start ElmbridgeWorking alongside families to give compassionate and confidential support for parents and their children. homestartelmbridge.org.uk
Long DittonWalton CharityA local charitable foundation, working with the community and local partners, aiming to build an Elmbridge community free from poverty and that thrives waltoncharity.org.uk
MilfordThe Fountain CentreA small independent cancer charity within St Luke’s Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey Hospital, providing holistic and emotional support and information to as many patients as possible. fountaincentre.org/
ReigateSASH Charity (East Surrey Hospital)The charity for East Surrey Hospital and services provided by Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. Raising funds for to create great experiences for patients and staff. sashcharity.org/
SheppertonSpelthorne Dementia SupportA small group of local volunteers who make a positive difference to the quality of life of people living with dementia, their carers and families. spelthorne-dementia-support.org.uk/
StanmoreSt Luke’s HospiceSt Luke’s is a charity providing specialist end of life and palliative care to people in Harrow and Brent, enabling them to achieve the best possible quality of life. stlukes-hospice.org/
TwickenhamHomeLinkA local charity dedicated to the wellbeing of older people and their unpaid carers. homelinkdaycare.co.uk/
WashingtonRockinghorse Children’s CharityThe official fundraising arm of the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton. Raising money for life-saving equipment, projects and services for sick babies, children and young people. rockinghorse.org.uk/
West HorsleyOakleaf EnterpriseOakleaf is based in Guildford offering a range of services to its clients to empower them to gain the skills, training and confidence needed to manage their mental health and return to work. oakleaf-enterprise.org
WokingWoking & Sam Beare HospiceA charity that cares for thousands of patients and their carers and families each year, specialising in holistic care for patients with life-limiting and terminal illness. wsbh.org.uk/
WokinghamCLASPSupporting people with learning disabilities in the Wokingham Borough and run by its members.  CLASP employs people with learning disabilities and offers voluntary opportunities. claspwokingham.org/

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Henry Moore exhibition at the Lightbox

Karen Neville

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Big names and innovative artists are at the heart of The Lightbox’s latest exhibitions

Visitors to The Lightbox can enjoy two special exhibitions into autumn giving greater opportunities to “experience the best contemporary and modern art”.

Material Thinking, until October 13th, brings together for the first-time selected work by major artists from The Ingram Collection with work by contemporary artists associated with the Fine Art programme at the University of Gloucestershire (UoG), recognised as one of the country’s most innovative art schools.

Focusing on artists who use varied, unusual or unexpected ways of making, the exhibition will explore The Ingram Collection – one of the most significantly publicly accessible collections of modern British art in the UK – as a historic context for artists working today, prompting conversations about what it is to make things, between disciplines and across generations.

Curated by Professor Angus Pryor (UoG), selections from The Ingram Collection have been chosen in response to painters, sculptors and film makers working on the UoG Fine Art programme. He said: “Material Thinking will highlight how artists across generations incorporate observation, action, reaction, accident, impulse and instinct into their artistic practice, moving step-by-step to their final artwork.”

Henry Moore in Colour is organised in partnership with The Henry Moore Foundation and runs until November 3rd offering a rare opportunity to see colourful drawings by Moore spanning the artist’s career.

Best-known as one of the most influential and innovative sculptors of the modern era, Moore (1898-1986) was also a remarkably talented and prolific draughtsman, producing nearly 7,500 drawings over seven decades. These works from The Henry Moore Foundation include examples of his best-known works such as the large ‘presentation’ works from the 1930s and the Shelter drawings – commissioned by War Artists’ Advisory Committee during WW2, the Shelter drawings were influential in achieving widespread popular recognition for the artist following their display at London’s National Gallery.

Sebastiano Barassi, Head of Henry Moore Collections & Programmes said: “Henry Moore in Colour reveals his profound love and appreciation of the unique characteristics and possibilities of drawing, for its own ends and as a tool to inform his work in other media. Moore continued to draw until the end of his life. This exhibition attempts to reveal the numerous ways in which it enabled him to study, express, and experiment.”

Sarah Brown, Director of The Lightbox, added: “Our collaboration with The Ingram Collection and The Henry Moore Foundation is at the heart of both exhibitions and we are grateful to all our partners for making our season so exciting.”

A programme of events accompanies and the exhibitions, including the Material Thinking Symposium on September 13th.

For further information about both exhibitions visit The Lightbox


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Single Sex or co-ed?

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Read more articles in our 2024 Education Guide

View the Interactive Education Map

There are many questions to ask when considering which school is right for your child. Headmaster Tom Dawson examines the options to help you make an informed decision

As independent schools face ever increasing challenges; a fall in birth rate, higher cost of living, increase in mortgage rates and now VAT on school fees; the necessity to evolve and adapt has never been greater.

Schools must listen to the needs and desires of parents in order to survive and thrive. They should also, however, be very clear about what they offer and maintain an individuality that provides choice for parents. Some schools, faced with this existential question have chosen to extend down or up, to adapt their boarding model or in the case of a number of independent schools recently, go from single-sex to co-ed. This is a huge shift in policy for some schools with a very long history of educating just boys or girls. These changes have not been made on the spur of the moment but after long consideration of the advantages of both models; so what exactly are they?

Looking at the latest Independent Schools Council (ISC) census, 18% of schools are now single-sex (not including nursery), with more girls being educated in single-sex schools than boys. Interestingly, between years 7 and 10 (ages 11 to 14) 30% of ISC schools have year groups of either all boys or all girls.

Learning styles

Single-sex schools will argue that boys and girls learn in very different ways. This is certainly a generalisation but it does have a strong element of truth in it. This is particularly when the pupils are younger. Girls mature more quickly and approach learning in a more disciplined and determined way than the majority of boys. You only have to look at two pieces of work side by side and more often than not, it will be obvious which was produced by a boy and which by a girl. In order, therefore, to get the most out of the different learning styles, the teaching needs to be adapted to suit. Personalised teaching is a mark of a good independent school and that can be easier in a single sex environment.

It is also true that in single-sex settings, boys and girls can feel more able to be themselves and involve themselves in activities they might otherwise not. Children often feel pressure to conform to traditional gender roles, and this can be a barrier to learning. In single-sex schools, pupils are free to express themselves without fear of judgement or ridicule. This can lead to increased confidence and self-esteem, which can have a positive impact on academic performance and in participation in other activities. It is sometimes precisely because there are no girls that some boys will be happier to sing in the choir or play a female role in a play. The same can be said of girls who might have interests that may be seen by the more traditionally minded (some might say ignorant!) as more male pursuits.

The flip side is that co-ed schools can be seen as much more representative of the society that all school leavers will emerge into. Why separate children when that is not what the future holds for them? Many will say that children need to be in co-educational environments in order to learn that everybody is equal regardless of gender or any of the other protected characteristics. The need for mutual respect and understanding of both sexes is of paramount importance and a co-educational environment can facilitate this in a natural way.

All single-sex schools create situations with other schools where boys and girls are able to mix with each other but these events are often excruciating in their awkwardness. Thankfully, they are often more imaginative than the discos with boys on one side and girls on the other but it is rarely natural and it is always fleeting. There is the rush at the end of the event with a frantic swapping of numbers or ‘snaps’ but this can lead to all sorts of problems if the children are not properly guided in how to use these appropriately. Co-education can improve these social skills and help boys and girls to be more natural in each other’s company.

Whatever your view, the key element is choice. It is ultimately for parents to decide which route is better for their children and, providing that these options remain, there are so many good schools out there providing an outstanding education in a range of different settings.

Tom Dawson
Headmaster, Sunningdale School


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Could you be James Bond?

Karen Neville

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James Bond fantasies can easily unravel as Michael Smith reveals in his latest account of spies and secret lives

The popular image of a spy as epitomised by James Bond all too often leads people to imagine they can be spies.

FBI Special Agent Richard Miller was supposedly a professional paid to look for spies, but he was 48, seriously overweight and widely expected to be fired for a series of lapses that included leaving the keys in the door of the FBI offices overnight. He did have one potential asset.

Svetlana Ogorodnikova, a slim, pretty, blonde Russian, had emigrated to the US in the early 1970s hoping to become a Hollywood actress. She was all too happy to play a Mata Hari role by helping Miller to recruit the KGB man as his own agent, and turn himself into a hero, a top spy.

The KGB officers in San Francisco were rightly suspicious and rejected the approach. But their bosses in Moscow ordered them to go ahead. When the KGB said yes, Miller and Ogorodnikova celebrated and ended up making love. “It was just something that happened,” Miller said. “She was a very attractive woman. It just sort of came with the territory. I had a James Bond kind of fantasy.”

But the fantasy was spiralling out of control. The KGB sent Ogorodnikova to Moscow to be briefed on what to do and it was agreed that Miller would be paid $50,000 in return for handling over anything the KGB wanted. Ogorodnikova took Miller to the Consulate-General for a meeting with the KGB boss, but the normally teetotal FBI officer was so nervous that he had a few drinks to calm his nerves and became very drunk. He got out of the car in the full view of the FBI surveillance team watching the building, who photographed him with Ogorodnikova and soon identified him.

The FBI set up a surveillance operation against them Operation Whipworm – she was Whip, he was Worm. They bugged Miller’s and Ogorodnikova’s phones and cars, recording an agreement to fly to Vienna to seal the deal. But the trip never went ahead. They were both arrested and jailed.

* Read more stories about spies who never became famous in Michael Smith’s book The Anatomy of a Spy, published by History Press


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Mallams Auctioneers Oxford

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To sell or not to sell? That is the question. Since 1788 Mallams has been holding specialist, fine art and more general sales.

Mallams has been a well-established part of Oxford business life since its foundation by Richard Mallam in St Aldate’s in 1788. His son, Thomas (1786-1850) was also an auctioneer, as well as a tobacconist and timber merchant, and the family lived in what is now the official accommodation of the principal of St Hugh’s College. Mallams Auctioneers is the oldest firm of auctioneers in Oxford and we are justifiably proud of our heritage and expertise.

Since 1788 Mallams has been holding specialist, fine art and more general sales. Today our specialist and general valuers offer expert advice in many fields, including Fine Art, Paintings and Sculpture, Ceramics and Glass, Modern and Post-War Art, 20th-Century Design, Silver and Jewellery, Furniture and Garden Statuary, Chinese, Japanese and Islamic Art, Clocks and Barometers, Books and Manuscripts, and Collectables.

Perhaps you have an item which you are interested in knowing more about or you are considering selling at auction? Mallams experts can offer advice and estimates for selling your items at auction and there is no obligation to sell.

Mallams have branches in Oxford, Cheltenham and Abingdon and all our branches run regular valuation mornings. The service is free and no appointment is necessary. For full details of branch valuation mornings visit our website https://www.mallams.co.uk/

In addition to our branch valuations, in conjunction with The Leander Club, we are now offering a free valuation service on 5th September and then subsequently on the 1st Thursday of every month from 10am to 2.30pm for the remainder of 2024. As with our branch valuation mornings, this is a free service and no appointment or Leander Club membership is required to attend.

Just come along with your item or, if too large to transport, just bring some photographs to show the specialist.

For full details of upcoming sales visit www.mallams.co.uk


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Guildford Jazz & Soul Festival

Karen Neville

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Guildford Jazz & Soul Festival features 16 events across 14 venues and is celebrating the best in UK and local jazz and soul from September 4th through to October 17th

Guildford Jazz has always been about bringing the best, established UK jazz artists to Guildford. Why go to Ronnie Scott’s when you can have the same experience in Guildford?

Its first jazz and soul festival naturally includes many of the sort of artists who you could see at major venues and festivals across the UK. Headline acts include Natalie Williams Soul Family, who make a rare appearance outside their monthly sold out residency at Ronnie’s, and Bill Laurance, the five times Grammy award-winning pianist and founding member of Snarky Puppy.

Other national artists already booked to appear include jazz pianists Jason Robello and Gwilym Simcock, award-winning saxophonist Tony Kofi and the Organisation, rising jazz stars vocalist Emily Masser and saxophonist Alex Clarke, BBC Radio Jazz Records Requests presenter Alyn Shipton talking about his latest book and performing music from the Jerry Mulligan Quartets as part of the Guildford Book Festival, The Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir and guitarist Pete Roth.

Guildford Jazz’s founder, jazz bass player Marianne Windham explains why now is the right time for the festival. It was decided four years ago to organise the first locally curated Guildford Jazz Festival but just a week before it started lockdown hit. Since then Guildford Jazz has continued to grow and thrive.

It has teamed up with venues such as the Boileroom and The Stoke and attracted audiences at outdoor events and festivals and prides itself on being part of the community and having a reputation as one of the leading jazz clubs in the country.

She continues: “There are many lovers of live music locally who are still unaware of the world class music available on their doorstep. Rather than sit back and wait for them to stumble across us, we thought we would take the plunge and commit to a major high-profile festival to bring great live jazz and soul directly to music lovers who may not have heard of us, in venues across Guildford and in the streets, churches, restaurants, cafes and bars, wherever they normally hang out.

“We hope that the festival will bring the joy of live music to new listeners, bring more people back into the centre of town and be the next step in our journey to make Guildford a UK hub of creative live music.”

Many of the events are free. More information about Guildford Jazz, the festival and how to book tickets at Guildford Jazz


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