Surrey Group's achievements in 2020

Although 2020 has been a most difficult year, Surrey Group has remained active in many ways.

We started the year with a record amount in the bank, much of which was earmarked for printing a new edition of the L&B book by Brown Prideaux & Radcliffe (BPR).

These Funds have been used in several ways to support the L&B through these challenging times as described below.

In January we assisted with the purchase of barley twist lamp posts by transferring monies to the General Manager’s Fund.

In February, after our Committee meeting, we met for a social lunch attended by 15 members and guests at the Cricketers in Horsell.

Sadly, all subsequent events and shows in 2020 were cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Photo by Peter Jones

In March, Pews made from good quality slow grown pine were salvaged from the Spire Church in Farnham and delivered to EAST at Fridaywood Farm. A donation was given to the church funds in thanks and the cost of transport reimbursed to Hugh who hired a van for the job.  Many thanks to Peter Jones for securing the timber for us and delivering it to EAST with Hugh Pearce. Thanks also to Peter, Hugh, Alan Wey, Dave Rush, Peter’s brother and Keith, a church volunteer, for all the hard work required to dismantle the pews and for loading and unloading the van. This was completed just in the nick of time before we went into national lockdown.

Whilst in lockdown, Jan & I turned our attention to revising Gordon Brown’s L&B book (BPR). Sadly, Gordon passed away in early March and we have included an obituary to him in the Preface.

(A pdf of the Preface can be viewed here)

Once the new L&B web site was up and running, Keith Vingoe had the time to assist by rescanning about two thirds of the original black & white photos in his possession, to improve reproduction quality. He also corrected the photo captions and acknowledgments and provided useful comments on the text. While Jan scanned Gordon Brown and Paul Gower’s originals and then spent hours using Photoshop to remove 100 years of accumulated detritus from these photos, to further enhance the images.

For example

[Before]  [After]

Meanwhile I turned my attention to completing the update of the modern parts of the book and the appendices, including bringing the chronology up to date by scanning through my complete collection of newsletters and magazines dating back to the formation of the L&B Association. Jan did the design & layout and produced print-ready files, complete with an index, not included since the 3rd edition. In early June the files for the 6th edition were completed and printed. There was a significant saving against the allocated budget, thanks to design and layout and print-ready files being completed by Jan. Sales have gone extremely well so far and many compliments have been received, with over one third already sold, mostly via the L&B online shop I suspect.

Thanks to the savings on the book, Surrey Group was able to sponsor the production of this year’s Eric Leslie’s Christmas cards, the last to be produced during his lifetime. The Cards all sold just before Christmas providing a very welcome income to the L&B.

As lockdown was eased in late June, we were finally able to acquire an LSWR lattice Signal Post, originally from Barnstaple Junction, which had been stored in Woking for many years. General Manager Martyn Budd came up with his large trailer to repatriate it to N. Devon along with two twin lever frames and other Narrow Gauge equipment donated by Woking Miniature Railway. The cost of the signal complete with arm and three steel ladders was paid by Surrey Group, along with a transfer to the General Manager’s fund to cover transportation costs. Many thanks to all those who came to help.

In October and November, the Committee held two successful meetings via Zoom.  A newsletter was distributed reporting on 2019 in lieu of a physical AGM and we opened a new account with Lloyds Bank that now enables us to use online banking facilities.

I wish all our members a Happy New Year and here’s looking forward to a return to normality in 2021 and another successful year for Surrey Group.  It is hoped that we will be able to hold a physical AGM and social activities sometime in 2021 once we have all been vaccinated and current restrictions have been lifted.

Written by Phil Rawstron