Voices of Farnham Past
The Farnham Theatre Association is presenting three free lunchtime events at the Brightwells Creative Space as part of the Farnham Heritage Open Days. Professional actors will read from the works of celebrated local authors reflecting the history and development of the town over the past two hundred years. The programme is:
Wednesday Sept 16, 13:15 to 14:00 Cobbett, Verney and Hoggart
Our guest speaker Dr. Richard Thomas introduces extracts from William Cobbett’s Rural Rides, written during his travels across southern England in the 1820s.
Sir John Verney, a founder member of the Farnham Trust, lived here after World War II for 32 years and left a memoir of his life in the town.
Professor Richard Hoggart, also a Farnham resident in the 1970s, made acute observations on the character of the town and its population.
Thursday Sept 17, 13:15 to 14:00 Sturt, Herbert, Lyall & Gibson
Local author George Sturt lived at the turn of the 20th century and was a wheelwright by trade. His numerous writings record the changes in the working lives of Farnham’s people after the industrial revolution.
The Rt Revd Dr Christopher Herbert has chronicled the life and times of Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester during the Swing Riots of the 1830s and his daughter Louisa Gibson as a child remembered those turbulent times.
Friday Sept 18, 13:15 to 14:00 Childhood in the 19th Century
The Children’s Hymnal was compiled by Mary Sidebotham, sister of the first vicar of St. Thomas-on-the-Bourne and by 1889 had sold over one million copies.
George Sturt recorded his experiences as a schoolboy in the 1860s and J.M. Barrie wrote Peter Pan based on the adventures of children in Bourne Woods.
Young ’cellist Toby Carrington plays Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Idyll, composed in Brightwell House, as well as Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestüke, to conclude this celebration of Farnham’s historic culture.
