Every Good Friday the four churches in Bagshot hold a combined 'walk of witness'. It starts at the Catholic Church in Guildford Road, processes through the High Street, along the bypass and back down Bridge Road to The Square where a hymn is sung and prayers said. Coffee and biscuits are them served in the Evangelical Church.
I find the history of about 100 years ago really quite fascinating - to
find out how life and places then compare with today. So in 1999 I
started a personal project to make my contribution to the knowledge of
future generations with similar interests. My plan was to create
a record of Bagshot as it was at the end of the second millennium. It has
taken a long time, but now it is complete. It has ended up being principally
a pictorial record of Bagshot in about 2500 images. It is described in more
detail in a separate page. I have received
very complementary letters from the County Archivist's office and our local
museum, and had a large write-up in the Guildford Diocesan newsletter 'The
Herald'.
"The next train may not be for 3 months." These may not
have been the exact words of the local train company, but on Monday 12 January
many commuters turned up at local stations to find they had a bus journey
instead. All except a few peak time trains on our line had been cancelled
in order to facilitate driver training on new trains that are being introduced.
Despite having been able to plan the provision of the replacement bus
service, the train company claimed that they had not taken the decision soon
enough to have been able to tell commuters on the previous Friday. The
only saving grace is that the replacement busses were free - but I'm not
sure how much consolation this is to people with connections to make, or
those left behind because the bus was full. The cancellations lasted
until the beginning of March.
One of the old slam-door trains that are being replaced. |
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The Cedars is a grand old house at the end of the High
Street. It's most recent use was as offices but is now vacant. In a recent
controversial decision the borough council overturned an earlier restriction
and allowed housing development in its garden. So we now have a substantial
three storey development of seven flats appearing behind it.
Then I heard from local resident James "We have received notice of a plan submitted to Surrey Heath Council, to demolish part of the original 'Cedars' building, and then extend most of the way along the present car park to turn it into ten flats! ... this is in a conservation area, the building itself is locally listed, and this proposal will change entirely the way Bagshot is seen by visitors arriving along the A30." Since I doubt that this particular application has got any chance of success I really don't see what prospective developers think they gain by causing stress to concerned residents.
One of the 'local knowledge' threads includes a
photo of children
outside the old Catholic church. I am delighted to be able to recount
that through the photo some of the friends in it have been reunited and will
be enjoying a real reunion in Bagshot in April..
The Bagshot Evangelical Church has renamed itself the Brook Church in recognition of the fact that they serve the whole of the Windle Brook area, not just Bagshot.
Jane, an ex-pat now living in California wrote to say how much she enjoys the pictures I have used showing English flowers, I've done my best here for you.
E-mail viruses seem to come in spates. The latest versions
not only send emails to everyone in the victim's address book, but pretend
not to have come from the actual victim but from random addresses from the
victim's address book. So a couple of weeks ago I not only received
a virus (which was promptly quarantined by my Anti Virus software), but I
also got an automated message from someone else's system administrator claiming
that I had sent a virus when I had not, it was that my address had been forged
by the virus. The really sad thing is that someone I know must have been
infected by the virus, and I have no way of knowing who it is. Should you
be interested, I have a few notes about avoiding becoming a victim
here.
Revisions to the website since the Christmas newsletter
include:
![]() God Bless, Neil (webmaster) home: Bagshot St Anne's Church The opinions expressed here are those of the author, writing on his own behalf and not representing anyone else or any organisation. copyright © 2004 Neil Bartlett |