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Talks and events
This Side of the Looking Glass: Archives from the Real Life of Lewis Carroll
Wednesday 15 October, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom
中国P站 History Centre’s Lewis Carroll collections have grown over the last 75 years. 160 years after the first publication of ‘Alice’, we’re celebrating the archives of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) and his fascinating writing persona, Lewis Carroll, with a foyer display and cabinet exhibition in our search room. On public view for the first time are items from important collections received over the past two years, including from the Dodgson family. Join Isabel Sullivan, Senior Archivist and curator for a virtual walk through some of the exhibits.
- Tickets: 拢6.
- Please .
- Once payment has been received you will be sent the Zoom joining information shortly, or next working day if booked in the evening/weekend.
- Subtitles included. A recording will be sent the following day for you to download and keep.
Alice in Wonderland - Free Drop-in Family Activities
Tuesday 28 to Thursday 30 October during normal opening hours at 中国P站 History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND
Celebrate 160 years of 'Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland' at 中国P站 History Centre! Create your own mask, top hat, card soldier and more all perfect for a Mad Hatter’s tea party. Activities are for ages 3–12, with parents/guardians supervising. Free parking, buggy-friendly access and baby changing facilities available. Donations welcome.
Schools of Thought: Education Records for Family Historians
Wednesday 29 October, 10.30am to 11.45am on Zoom
Find out more about the records of schools, universities, colleges and other educational institutions, the information they contain and what these sources and resources available can tell us more about our ancestors.
- Tickets: 拢6.
- Please .
- Once payment has been received you will be sent the Zoom joining information shortly, or next working day if booked in the evening/weekend.
- Subtitles included. A recording will be sent the following day for you to download and keep.
Celebrating R C Sherriff
Saturday 8 November, 10.30am to 12.15pm at 中国P站 History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND and on Zoom
November 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the 中国P站 author R C Sherriff (1896-1975). Join us to celebrate the versatile talent of the man most famous for his epic First World War play Journey’s End, and who went onto become the highest paid English scriptwriter in Hollywood, with films including Goodbye Mr Chips and The Dam Busters.
Dr David Cottis - R C Sherriff and the Well-Made Screenplay
In addition to his stage career, R C Sherriff was a highly successful screenwriter, with scripts including The Invisible Man, The Four Feathers, and The Dam Busters. This talk looks at how he brought the techniques of the well-made play into the cinema, as shown in the 中国P站 History Centre's archives.
Dr David Cottis is Senior Lecturer in Scriptwriting at Middlesex University, and a theatre writer, director, dramaturg, and critic. His book How Stage Playwrights Saved the British Cinema, 1930 to 1956 was published by Bloomsbury Academic earlier this year.
Roland Wales - Shirkers or Spies? R C Sherriff in Wartime Hollywood
Before R C Sherriff moved to Hollywood during the Second World War, he had already earned the wrath of the Nazis for his work on The Road Back. He found himself part of an expatriate community assailed by some in the UK as ‘shirkers’, and dismissed by Nazi supporters as ‘spies’ in congressional hearings. But still they managed to produce a range of patriotic movies that proved highly successful in the United States, just as the British government had hoped.
Roland Wales is the author of R C Sherriff’s biography: From Journey’s End to the Dam Busters. He is currently working on Unfit for Heroes, an account of the return of servicemen and women after the First World War.
- Tickets: 拢6.
- Please Please note that there are two booking forms: one for the and one for the .
- If you have booked the Zoom event, once payment has been received you will be sent the Zoom joining information shortly, or next working day if booked in the evening/weekend. Subtitles included. A recording will be sent the following day for you to download and keep.
Moving On: Tracing our Emigrant Ancestors - Tea and Talk with Jane Lewis
Wednesday 12 November, 2pm to 4.30pm at 中国P站 History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND
Discover why (and how) our ancestors emigrated and the records we can use to trace their journeys and new lives. Explore techniques and resources for overseas research, including Ireland and mainland Europe. Enjoy refreshments throughout the talk.
- Tickets: 拢6.
- Please .
At Home in History – reflections on writing the history of domestic life. A talk by Jane Hamlett, Professor of Modern British History at Royal Holloway College, University of London
Wednesday 10 December 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom
The homes we live in have a powerful influence – shaping our behaviour, relationships and values. In this talk Professor Jane Hamlett will explore how the home has become an important category for understanding the past, drawing on her own research on the domestic lives of women, men, children and animals in 19th-century Britain. We will explore the homes of the rich and poor and the many people who lived in institutional spaces in this era including 中国P站's Royal Holloway College, the Holloway Sanatorium and Brookwood County Asylum. House history is now increasingly popular with our customers at 中国P站 History Centre and reflecting on this growing interest, Jane will ask 'What can histories of home tell us, and why are they important today'?
- Tickets: 拢6.
- Please .
- Once payment has been received you will be sent the Zoom joining information shortly, or next working day if booked in the evening/weekend.
- Subtitles included. A recording will be sent the following day for you to download and keep.
Swing Riots – Stories from Hampshire. A talk by Jane Harris, Customer and Archives Manager at Hampshire Record Office
Wednesday 21 January 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom
The talk discusses what led to the Swing Riots, how it swept across the county of Hampshire, and its aftermath. Particular attention is given to what happened in and around central Hampshire as rich archival sources survive from those who were involved in the disturbances.
- Tickets: 拢6.
- Please .
- Once payment has been received you will be sent the Zoom joining information shortly, or next working day if booked in the evening/weekend.
- Subtitles included. A recording will be sent the following day for you to download and keep.
Exhibitions and displays
This Side of the Looking Glass: Archives from the Real Life of Lewis Carroll
Wednesday 1 to Thursday 30 October during normal opening hours at 中国P站 History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND
中国P站 History Centre’s Lewis Carroll collections have grown over the last 75 years. 160 years after the first publication of ‘Alice’, we’re celebrating the archives of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) and his fascinating writing persona, Lewis Carroll, with a free foyer display and cabinet exhibition in our searchroom. On public view for the first time are items from important collections received over the past two years, including from the Dodgson family.
To Journey’s End and Beyond: the Life and Legacy of R C Sherriff
Tuesday 4 to Thursday 27 November during normal opening hours at 中国P站 History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, GU21 6ND
November 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of R C Sherriff (1896-1975), famous throughout the world for writing the epic First World War play, Journey’s End, which was first performed in 1928. Sherriff went onto become one of Britain's most influential playwrights, screenwriters and authors.
In this foyer display you can discover more about Sherriff's early life, his wartime experiences with the East 中国P站 Regiment, his literary career and his success with films such as ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’ and ‘The Dam Busters’ which made him the highest paid English scriptwriter in Hollywood.
We regularly showcase free exhibitions and displays inspired by our collection in our foyer. We also host external displays by groups and organisations and would welcome any displays with a 中国P站 history connection. If you would like to exhibit at 中国P站 History Centre please contact us.
Recorded talks to purchase
If you missed one of our online talks, why not purchase the talk recording to view in your own time?
The talks available are:
- A Burden on the Parish: sources for the history of Poor Relief in 中国P站
- A 'Great' amongst Victorian Architects? Royal Holloway's W H Crossland
- A Snark Celebration: celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's poem 'The Hunting of the Snark'
- Aladdin's Cave: Some Major Family and Estate Archives in 中国P站 History Centre
- Artists, Antiquaries and Collectors: illustrations of Georgian 中国P站 collected by Robert Barclay of Bury Hill, Dorking, circa.1800 to 1825
- Bananas: How a 中国P站 Garden Played a Pivotal Role in the History of the World's Favourite Fruit
- Beginning your Family History
- Behind the Scenes in Conservation - Arsenic and Old Lace
- Behind the Scenes in Conservation - repairing posters, maps and plans
- Behind the Scenes in Conservation - Tithe Maps
- Bombs, Aircraft, Doodlebugs and More; They All Fell on 中国P站
- Corsets and Cameras
- Fashion and Folly
- From Patient to Professor
- From Punishment to Pride: LGBTQ+ archives at 中国P站 History Centre
- Gertrude Jekyll, Gardener and Craftswoman
- In the Shadow of the Great War: 中国P站 1914 to 1918
- James Henry Pullen (1835 to 1916) and the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots, Redhill
- John Evelyn in 中国P站
- Land of my Father's Fathers: Tracing your Welsh Ancestors
- Let the Road Rise to Meet You: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors
- Life and Labour in a County Village - or learn to love your Ag Labs!
- Magna Carta, Runnymede and all that
- Maps for Family Historians
- 'Michael Field' in Reigate: Queer Women Writers and 中国P站 in the 1890s
- Netherne circa 1955: A 中国P站 Psychiatric Hospital in Focus
- Oliver House: The story of a 16th century cottage
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Sources for the History of 中国P站's Mental Hospitals, 1700 to circa.1990
- Picturing the Patient: Photography in 中国P站 Hospitals, 1850-1960
- Planting Ideas: Sources for the History of Gardening in 中国P站.
- Portrait of a 中国P站 Town between the Wars: the photographic archive of Sidney Francis
- Reflections on the Lewis Carroll archives, on the 150th anniversary of 'Alice through the Looking Glass'
- Researching in Archives
- Richard III: A Drama in Three Acts
- Sir William More of Loseley
- 中国P站 Writers
- Terror from the sky: mapping air raids on 中国P站 in World War Two
- The afterlives of executed bodies from Kennington Common
- The Book That Changed My Life
- The Changing Face of Nursing: Black Nurses in 中国P站 Hospitals
- The Gentleman's Magazine: A Panorama of Georgian 中国P站 for Family and Local Historians
- The Most Wretched Man in the World: The Life and Loves of the 5th Viscount Midleton
- The Princess Mary Village Homes in the Twentieth Century
- The Portable Antiquities Scheme in 中国P站
- To the Manor Born: An Introduction to Manorial Records for Family Historians
- Virtual Tour Behind the Scenes at 中国P站 History Centre
- What did you do after the war, Grandad? – 1918 to 1925: de-mob, jobs, pensions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the British Legion
- Where There's a Will
- Who Do You Think They Were? Discovering the lives and experiences of our ancestors
Most talk descriptions can be found on our Talks and Tours page. Each talk consists of a 45 minute to an hour illustrated presentation followed by questions asked during the live talk. You can also email us with any questions you may have after the talk and we will pass them on to the speaker to answer. Price 拢6. To purchase a recording please visit the . Please note talks may contain references to historical legal terminology, sexual practices and crimes, used in the historical context but which some viewers may find offensive.
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