The Surrey Iron Railway celebrates the bicentenary of its foundation on 21st May 2001. We are hoping to mount our own exhibition in honour of this event, and to co-ordinate this with other events across the Wandle Valley.
The first event, in fact, took place on 20 November at the Brewery Tap, the launch of a blue plaque scheme to honour the line.
This is part of Alan Suttie's Wandle Valley Mapping Project, and the launch was attended by David Bellamy, Adam Hart-Davies, and Angela Rumbold (who is Chairman of Alan's Jet Club project). Representatives of many local organisations were present, and photos taken. Alan's talent for making things happen should help in our efforts to make the bicentenay celebrations next year more co-ordinated.
We hope to run a series of articles on Surrey Iron Railway over the next 12 months, both here and on the web site, but anyone who is interested in the detail could do worse than invest in ‘Retracing the First Public Railway' by Derek A. Bayliss, available at £3.95 from the Museum (probably the only book in print on the subject.)
As those of you who attended the Annual General Meeting are aware, member/volunteer Eric Shaw has a large store of photographs on the subject, and a store of knowledge, which we hope he will make public through these means as well, and the Museum would appreciate hearing from any one else with SIR memorabilia.
|
|
|
|