Newsletters

The earliest L&DLHS Newsletter dates from January 1947. Written by two joint honorary secretaries, R F Dalton and A T Ruby, this is a typescript letter listing coming events and telling members about the developing structures and ambitions of the new Society following its first meeting on 20 December 1946. There were plans for lectures, demonstrations and tours to encourage membership growth and no fewer than six separately defined groups to cover historical documents, buildings, photography/cartography, archaeology, natural history, and miscellaneous subjects such as folklore and local crafts and traditions.

The first Proceedings of the Society for the year 1947 appeared a year later and reported the activities of all the groups over the previous 12 months. Henceforth this would record official research and discoveries by members of the Society while the Newsletter reported meetings and coming events. This was the pattern for decades to come but 20 years later, the January 1967 Newsletter also included a single historical document, the last will and testament of a Fetcham labourer in 1654. It demonstrated the slight blurring of roles between the two publications by that time which has continued to the present day. Another 30 years on and the November 1996 Newsletter was openly appealing for local history contributions. The subsequent February 1997 edition carried an 1880 report of a new soup kitchen for the poor of Leatherhead. Another ten years and the February 2007 edition contained a wealth of news about the Society’s many activities, new books, and historical pieces too. The final edition of that year marked the arrival of Martin Warwick as Editor and the start of transformation into the magazine style Newsletter we have today.

Since that time the Newsletter has grown to a standard 40 pages containing both news from the Society and the Museum, and a regular supply of fully illustrated feature articles covering all aspects of local history interest. Colour photographs and other imagery help bring it all to life. Martin was succeeded as Editor by Tony Matthews in May 2016. The printed Newsletter is now provided to all Society members and stewards at the Museum and copies are available for sale to non-members. Back copies of nearly all past Newsletters are provided here for online viewing. Those from 1961 and 1962 are missing but we live in hope that they may one day turn up in someone’s attic should they exist.

Newsletter Search Help:

To find archived Newsletters use Search feature below by entering “year”, without quotes. Select the month from the displayed list. You can also expand the list from 5 to 50 by clicking the little arrow on the right . Left click on chosen Newsletter to view.