On a lovely sunny Saturday the Manor Farm Tithe Barn in Little Bookham opened its doors for Heritage Open Days and over 350 visitors came along to see the historic 16th century barn, displays on the history of Little Bookham, 100 years of Bookham social history and the centenary of The Bookhams Residents' Association.

We were delighted with how positively the event was received and perhaps more importantly how actively engaged our visitors were with some offers to share maps and other artefacts they have in their own collections. It was also surprising how many years some of our residents have lived in The Bookhams and shared their memories. The aerial photos from 1922 were a big hit showing how sparsely populated The Bookhams was in those days. Also enjoyed was the rolling display of images of the Hight Street and 50 years of postcards. 

We uncovered a lot of information in preparation for the event and as a result we are planning to create a new heritage archive on the BRA website in the very near future. We also had many requests asking for a booklet, so that’s something we will be looking at. If you have any interesting photos or maps or artefacts such as old BRA newsletters that we could scan for the archive please get in touch via the BRA website.

Special mention should be made to Vivien White for her extensive research and authoring allowing me to produce the artwork for the extensive displays and mini cinema. Thanks also to our friends at Effingham Residents Association for hosting, to The Friends of St Lawrence Church Effingham and All Saints Church Little Bookham for providing refreshments and to Carolyn and Mike Nicholls for opening their beautiful barn for the day.