New Developments at Brooklands Technical College

It was wonderful to see the impressive new developments both completed and in progress at the Brooklands technical College. £45m has been committed into the Weybridge campus providing new classrooms, sports hall, gym, community hub and a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities facility.

Suzanne and I were given a tour by Christine Ricketts, Principal & CEO, of some or the varied activities studied; including construction, car maintenance, hair-dressing, beauty salons, hospitality and many more. Although the college mainly caters for 16-18 year olds, it also has over 500 adults which attend in the evenings and some seventy 14-16 year olds which attend up to 13 hours of classes a week of having previously been home-schooled, or have struggled in mainstream education. This latter initiative of providing alternative learning is to be greatly applauded as it significantly helps reduce the risk of a young person becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) by providing opportunities not usually available until they leave school. Whilst we were on our tour we met a group of 14-16 year olds having a hairdressing lesson and all were diligently focussed and clearly enjoying the experience.

Meisha Harding is the Director for Foundation and Pathways co-ordinating the interaction with schools and parents to allow these young people to flourish and is pictured on the left here with Christine and myself.

The Mayor of Guildford’s Charity Calendar Launch

It is always a pleasure to see the creative side of my home town of Guildford and this weekend has been a joy on that score. Following the launch of Guildford Festival of the Arts, co-founded by my Daughter Charlie, I was also invited to the launch of the Mayor of Guildford’s 2026 Charity Calendar, in which Charlie was also involved as a judge of the final selection, as was my Friend from BBC Surrey – Mark Carter DL and my PR and Media Advisor Andy. The thirteen images selected, (one for each month and one for the cover), were revealed dramatically at ‘Art & Grind’ a fabulous art themed Cafe situated opposite the Holy Trinity and St. Mary’s Church on Guildford High street.

The stunning images – all taken in the Guildford area and around 100 initially, were chosen from entries to the Mayor’s photography competition, organised by the Guildford Photographic Society. The Mayor of Guildford – Howard Smith, who came up with the idea to raise funds for his four chosen charities, Phyllis Tuckwell, The Cheryl King Trust, Guildford Shakespeare Company and The Mayor of Guildford’s Local Support Fund said at the event; “There were so many wonderful entries that the judges had an incredibly difficult task selecting the final collection. This calendar is a celebration of Guildford Borough’s natural beauty, captured through the lens of our talented local photographers. I hope others will be as captivated by these images as we were, and enjoy them day by day through this stylish and practical family calendar. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped bring this project to life.” the Mayor continued “I’m especially grateful to the Guildford Photographic Society for organising the competition and to the judges for their expertise and thoughtful choices. Thanks to our generous sponsors every penny raised will go directly to my chosen charities.”

As High Sheriff I was there to help with the reveal which I am pleased to say added a touch of theatre to the proceedings – appropriately so during the Festival of the Arts. The evening continued with a lovely reception hosted by Art and Grind and lots of calendars being sold! The calendar is available for £10 and can be purchased online, at the Guildford Tourist Information Centre, Art & Grind, and Paper Moon bookshop.

Photos by Andy Newbold

The Mayor of Guildford – Howard Smith

Guildford Festival for the Arts.

It was such a great honour to join the Mayor of Guildford – Howard Smith and Guildford’s MP – Zoe Franklin, to officially launch the Inaugural ‘Guildford Festival of the Arts’ at Tunsgate Quarter on Thursday. (25th September). It was even more personal to me as it was created by my Daughter Charlie and her friend Lauren Gerrard along with a team of volunteers which included my Wife Suzanne.

Co-founder Charlie outlines the concept, “Guildford Festival of the Arts is a creative festival in the heart of Guildford designed to promote and celebrate creativity, within the community. The important work of the creative industry often gets overlooked and we wanted to give a space to those who work in the arts to help promote the wonderful work that they do and showcase the amazing opportunities on offer to creatives, or those that just want to try something new.”

“Guildford and the surrounding area is much more creative than people may realise. There are some amazing spaces that offer workshops and events, exhibitions and art history that not many people are aware of. Other places may have art fairs and stamp trails lots of these places don’t have the diversity that we do. The town does have other creative events and festivals of course – for example, Guildford Fringe is an amazing creative organisation and we love going to their events each year – however, we felt that there is little attention on the visual artists that live and work within the local area and that’s why we felt that the Guildford Festival of the Arts needed to become a reality.”

A key feature of the festival is the walking/stamp trail which showcases Guildford’s creative community – all based within walking distance of Guildford town centre. Whether that’s a drop-in-drop-out workshop, an exhibition or something to just observe, you can turn up and get involved in one way or another. At each of these locations there will also be able to get a stamp on a stamp map (which can be collected along with a brochure during the festival) and on the completion of the stamp trail there is an opportunity to win a prize! 

With eleven venues signed up to the art trail, and 20 venues taking part in the festival, an amazing street art experience, (where a select team of local artists will be transforming the exterior of a building that has been abandoned for years), screen-printing drop-in workshops hosted by Ochre Print, a creative pottery workshop by Watts Gallery, talks and events hosted by local artists and workshops for young people there is plenty going on that will inspire and entertain and many of the venues have cafes including New House Art Space, Art + Grind, the Guildford Institute, Yvonne Arnaud, Solar Sisters, and Supporting pubs and bars include The Star Inn, Britannia Pub and Growlers.

Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre will be hosting workshops throughout the festival as well as showcasing the video work submitted to our Open Call and Sustain Film festival. John Walmsley will be showing his photographic work there and they will also be hosting their own exhibition ‘Designing for our stage’ which will include: Sketches, sets, costumes and photographs of Yvonne Arnaud original productions where the public will be able to see how designers have created concepts for their productions, and how they’ve been brought to life on stage.

The Festival is in town until Sunday 28th of September and a great place to start is with a visit to Tunsgate Quarter where you can pick up your trail map and find out what is going on for the day. Be sure to pop inside Charlie’s Memory house installation which is an amazing visual experience from the inside! You can find out more too on the website – www.guildfordfestivalofthearts.co.uk and please follow and share your photos on Instagram: @guildfordfestivalofthearts.

Photography by Andy Newbold

Whitmore Vale – A Wonderfully Tranquil Place.

I had a most enjoyable couple of hours attending the Whitmore Vale AGM which was held in the Royal British Legion in Hindhead on Friday September 26th. I had visited Whitmore Vale House a couple of weeks earlier meeting the wonderful staff and some of the residents who have severe learning difficulties. It is a wonderfully tranquil place, set in beautiful woodland, and the newly decorated home with its high ceilings and large comfortable rooms gives a wonderful homely feeling which is magnified by the warmth of the members of staff to the residents and each other. Sonja Jones the CEO, and Deborah Robinson, Chair, have overseen a massive transformation at Whitmore Vale, improving the finances and the care offered through adept management of the space and concentrating on the welfare of their staff as well as the residents. Incredibly, they have no staff vacancies currently which is almost unheard of in the care sector. This is due to the attention they give their staff in terms of advancing their training and personal welfare. They are also keen to introduce young people into the sector by demonstrating what a rewarding career it can be.

At the AGM, I had an opportunity to meet some more of the residents and their families, together with the staff and a number of the volunteers which are so important to the smooth running of the various services. There was a wonderful joyous atmosphere all round, helped by a wonderful lunchtime spread.

Warhol in Woking – a viewing at the Light Box by Invitation of Home Start.

Suzanne and I enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Lightbox Gallery in Woking where Home Start kindly invited us for a Private Viewing of the Warhol Exhibition.

Home Start are a charity I have known for a long while and supported through the Community Foundation for Surrey and Guildford Philanthropy. They offer an early intervention service in supporting families who are struggling to cope. They have a wonderful group of trained volunteers but also employ experienced family support workers to deal with some of the most complex cases. Statutory funding for such provision has sadly fallen away and they are competing with many other charities for donations necessary to sustain their services. Please consider becoming a Home Start Guildford Angel as an individual or company, details can be found on their website https://hsguildford.org.uk/

Do also check out the amazing Warhol exhibition. It is amazing we can bring such artwork to Surrey and hats off to the Lightbox. 

Surrey & Sussex Heroes Recognised at the 14th ‘Make A Difference Awards’

Suzanne and I enjoyed an inspiring evening full of uplifting stories about community heroes in Surrey and Sussex at the 14th Make a Difference Awards held at Lingfield Park Racecourse. The BBC event saw awards in eight categories with judges including Sally Gunnell and Ray Mears. These awards began in Sussex and Surrey in 2011, and are now run across BBC Local.

I was honoured to be giving out the award in the Volunteer category and there were four very worthy finalists. The winner was 85 year old Terri Collins who co-founded the Elmbridge Community Link and later The Counselling Partnership, for which she undertook a skydive to raise money on her 85th birthday! But in truth everyone present was a winner and have collectively done so much to enhance their local communities and help their neighbours. 

Photos kindly forwarded by Emily Coady-Stemp

A Dinner for the Judiciary in a Suitably Historical Venue!

One of the roles of a High Sheriff is to support the judiciary and all that uphold the King’s Peace. I have already in my Shrieval year visited both the Crown Court and Magistrates Court with visits to the Family Court and Coroners Court in the diary. I have also visited three of the prisons in the County with further visits planned. It is traditional for the High Sheriff to hold  a service for the Judiciary, and this is taking place on October 3rd at Holy Trinity Church in Guildford; and it is also customary for the High Sheriff to hold a dinner for members of the Judiciary by way of thanking them for their service and I was delighted to do so last week.  Suzanne and I happen to live in what was known as Guildford’s Third House of Correction or the prison governor’s house when Guildford had a gaol. Originally the prison was located in Guildford Castle, then in the eighteenth century when an Act of Parliament decreed that every city and town corporate in the country had to have a house of correction, the first one was built on the corner of the High Street and Quarry Street. This was soon outgrown and the second house of correction was built a bit further along Quarry Street. By the early nineteenth century this too was outgrown so plans were drawn up for a much larger prison on land just beyond the bowling green in the castle grounds. With seven cell block, three stories high a chapel and infirmary and it also controversially had two treadmills for the prisoners to grind corn. Completed in 1822, it was described as “a dismal plot on a charming scene” as it dominated the Guildford skyline. In 1852, when Wandsworth prison opened, Guildford prison was no longer needed and everything bar the prison governor’s house was demolished. Castle Hill road was constructed and four new houses built. The Surrey Archives at Woking holds the original architect’s drawings of the prison and from this local architects Stedman Blower have kindly created a computer 3D representation showing how large it was. It seemed only fitting that Suzanne and I hosted a supper for the Judiciary on the site of the old prison; and to carry on the theme we asked The Clink to provide the catering. The charity was founded in 2009, and has grown to become of the largest prison rehabilitation and prevention charities, last year training over 800 prisoners. Both the food and the service was exceptional and I would certainly recommend them for events. 

It was wonderful to meet and thank so many people from our local judiciary and I look forward to the forthcoming service for the judiciary. 

A Week of Celebrations including the Anniversary of 60 Years of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre!

I was delighted last week to attend with Suzanne three celebratory events. I have already posted about the Community Foundation for Surrey’s 20th Anniversary event and that was the third night in a row we had been in celebratory mood.!

Earlier in the week, we enjoyed a wonderful evening at Loseley where the Surrey Police Gala recognised a number of officers who had excelled in their duties. Hearing the citations was quite humbling  as was the commitment to public service displayed by each of the award winners.

The following night, we had the opportunity to raise a glass to the Yvonne Arnaud theatre celebrating both its 60thanniversary and the completion of their extensive front of house renovations. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh joined in the celebrations together with the Mayor of Guildford and Chair of Surrey County Council as we were regaled by a series of performances and tributes to the theatre and those that had trod the boards over the past 60 years.

 

Civic Service in Guildford’s Holy Trinity Church.

Suzanne and I were delighted to attend the Civic Service held at Holy Trinity Church on Sunday 14th September, hosted by the Mayor Howard Smith and Canon Simon Butler. Processing from the Guildford up to the church and returning afterwards, carefully avoiding the market traders, we provided a pleasant diversion for the early morning shoppers.

Surrey volunteer Police Cadets Walk for Charlie’s Promise – Please Support to Help Eradicate Knife Crime.

During the week of the 22nd September  Surrey Police Volunteer Cadet Units supported by “Fearless” worker Phil Jebb a Police Cadet leader  and other Cadet leaders will be each walking 9K to raise funds for “Charlies Promise.“

“Charlies Promise” is an amazing charity dedicated to Charlie Cosser 17 who was stabbed and tragically killed in Sussex in July 2023. The Charity is headed by Charlie’s father Martin. 

Each Cadet who participates will be walking the 9KM as part of the “Walk 53” which will be remembering each teenage life tragically lost to knife crime in the UK in 2024. The walks will take place in and around each Units Borough with the Cadets raising public awareness of both “Charlies Promise” and “Fearless”.

“Fearless” like “Charlies Promise” are a charity. They educate and engage with young people to report their concerns around crime anonymously and empower them to do the right thing.

Hopefully we can do Charlie proud and reach our target. 

Please give generously. https://www.justgiving.com/page/philip-jebb-1