4th at 6.45, opera screening at Dorking Halls, £17.50, 01306 881717

4th  II th 18th  25th  at 8.30, Watermill jazz at Aviva social club, £18-21, 07415 815784

6th at 5.00, Dorking Chamber Orchestra at St Nicolas, Great Bookham, £12, 01306 877176

6th at 12.00, lunchtime recital at St Martin’s, free, 01306 884229

13th at 2.30, Puccini concert screening at Dorking Halls, £ 16.50, 01306 881717

21st at 3.00, Heath string quartet at Dorking Halls, £20, 01306 740619

The concert season seems a little quieter than usual in  February; however there  is still some good music to be enjoyed. We have the first of a series of three concerts by the Heath string quartet, one of the most exciting young string quartets around and who have performed widely throughout the UK and Europe to great acclaim.  Their series features all  three  string quartets  of Tchaikovsky and this concert  begins with his first quartet.   We  know Tchaikovsky better for his orchestral  music and his ballets, but his three  string quartets  are fine works and this is  an excellent opportunity to  hear all three of them. This first concert also features quartets by Mozart and Beethoven. The remaining two concerts will follow  in March.

The Dorking Chamber Orchestra,  playing  in Great Bookham, has a concert entitled ‘Basically Baroque’ and including  music by JS  Bach, CPE Bach, Albinoni, Carelli  and Vanhal.  JS  Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto  no.4 is  very well known, as is  Carelli’s Christmas Concerto,  and the  other  items will introduce you to further glories of the baroque period.

At  the  Dorking Halls there   is a  live screening from  the  Royal Opera  House  of Verdi’s tragic masterpiece La  Traviata, containing some of his finest music.  There is also a screening of a concert given by the great tenor  jonas Kaufmann   in  Milan  last year.   Kaufmann sings the  music of Puccini – some of the greatest and most deeply emotional music in  Italian  opera – and also talks about Puccini the man and musician. This concert caused a sensation in Italy at the time and is now being broadcast more widely; it promises to be both informative and enjoyable.

Watermill jazz meets every Thursday at the Aviva social club. This month’s performers are: the Liane Carroll trio  (4th),  Stan Sulzmann’s Neon Orchestra  (I I   th),  Malija   (the  Lockheart/Noble/Hoiby trio} (18th),  and the Gordon  Campbell quintet  (25th). And finally,  this month’s lunchtime concert  at St Martin’s church is given  by Richard Buck’s brass trio.

IAN CODD

Dorking Friends of Cancer Research UK are celebrating their 40th anniversary at a Coffee Morning at Betchworth Park Golf Club on Wednesday I Oth February between 9.30 and 11.30am.

There will be local artisan stalls selling handmade gifts and cards. Tickets are £10 available from

01306 711688 or 01737 842084, or email dfcncerresearchuk@btinternet.com.  Please come and join us.

The centenary of the Great War has yielded many poignant stories about the lives -and deaths – of the people of Dorking and the surrounding villages during those difficult years.  Reflecting the impact that the War had across the whole community, those revealed in the Museum’s programme ofWWI Home Front exhibitions and in our War Memorials Project have recently marked the centenaries of two very different local casualties.

Valentine Joe Strudwick has become one of the best known of the fallen, symbolising the ‘boy soldiers’ of the war.  The son of a gardener and a laundress, Joe was born in Falkland Road and attended St Paul’s School. He must have lied about his age when he signed up a month before his fifteenth birthday.  Joe joined the 8th Battalion the Rifle Brigade and, after only six weeks training, soon found himself at the front.  He died near Ypres during the daily rounds of firing between German and Allied lines on 14th January 1916, still a month away from his sixteenth birthday. His grave at Essex Farm Cemetery is one of the most visited in any of the First World War cemeteries, generally surrounded by numerous British Legion wooden crosses and poppies.

Lieutenant Commander Basil Harrison came from a prominent local family, the son of Commander Matthew Harrison and his wife Lucy (nee Wedgwood}.  On 30th December 1915, Basil was on the battleship HMS Natal in port at Cromarty, entertaining families and guests with a film show, when the ship blew up at her berth, killing over 400.  The cause of the explosion was never fully explained. His older brother, Lieutenant Commander Thomas Harrison had died a year earlier, when his obsolete armoured cruiser (one of the ‘live bait squadron’} was torpedoed by a U-boat just off the Dutch coast. The Harrison brothers are commemorated on the Coldharbour Memorial and in a memorial chapel built by their parents in British Columbia, where the family had moved before the war.

The Museum’s ‘Dorking  1915’ exhibition has been retained until Easter and ‘Dorking  1916’ will open in autumn. The War Memorials Project is online at www,dorkingmuseum.org.uk.

February Diary

Family Activities: Saturday, February 20th, ‘Shops in Dorking’ – Can you find the shops that were here when your grandparents were little? Look at old adverts and photos to find out how shopping has changed in Dorking. Make a shop in a box from times goneby. Drop in at any time between 2pm and

3.30pm. Ideal for families with children up to age ten.  Free with regular Museum entry.

Group bookings are welcome for our Guided Walks of Dorking and Museum tours, by appointment­

please see the website or contact admin@dorkingmuseum org.uk.

Dorking Museum is at The Old Foundry, 62 West Street, Dorking RH4 IBS

www.dorkingmuseum.org.uk and on Facebook and Twitter. Tel: 01306 876591

Time is speeding by and it is now not long until Leith Hill Place opens for the newSeason on 4th  March.

Although the house has been shut for many weeks, work has not stopped.   We have a group of dedicated and talented DIY volunteers who give up their time and expertise to help bring the house back to life again.

Over the winter their most important  job has been making our new museum room ready. This will house several exhibits with a Ralph Vaughan Williams connection, including the study piano on which he composed several of his best known pieces. We are very excited to have this in the house where RVW grew up and hope that it will be of particular interest to our visitors.

As well as conservation work, we have been organising concerts, both formal and informal (more information on our website),  as well as special days for Mothering Sunday and Easter. On Sunday  6th March, mums and grandmas accompanied by their children can get in to the house free (up to two free entries for a family group). What better way to celebrate the day than with a cream tea at Leith Hill Place?   Dogs on leads are welcome.   No booking required.

The Easter bank holiday weekend (25th to 28th March inclusive) will feature a musical Easter trail in the garden from I Iam to 4pm, with an Easter egg prize for every child. £3 per trail; normal admission charges apply if you wish to enter the house and access further facilities. No booking required. Your four-legged friend can come too, as long as Rover stays on the lead and doesn’t eat the eggs!

We look forward to welcoming you to Leith Hill Place.