Emma Warren, Curator
This year marks Chertsey Museum’s 55th anniversary, and we can all agree, it’s been a strange one so far! During its time the museum has moved location, from the Old Town Hall to its current location at The Cedars and has incorporated the nationally significant Olive Matthews dress collection, along with expanding to become the borough museum for the whole of the Runnymede area. In mid-March, instead of planning a summer of events, the team found themselves packing up the museum and beginning a period of 127 days enforced closure. However, lockdown didn’t mean an end to museum activities. The education service went online, offering zoom sessions to local school children. Our craft activities continued with videos on our YouTube channel, and behind the scenes the curators worked on new exhibitions.
When the museum re-opened on 25 July, it was with three new exhibitions. The Roaring Twenties: fashion of the Jazz age showcases some of the Olive Matthews Collection’s most stunning pieces with plenty of shimmering, beaded dresses to view. In The Beginning: Prehistoric Runnymede, detailing the lives of the areas earliest residents, shows visitors just how old their Borough really is (both exhibitions run until 2021), but it is the summer exhibition, Runnymede’s Melody Makers, which has caused the most discussion so far! The Borough has a fascinating musical history and has been home to a number of recording studios which have attracted all sorts of artists to the area from Take That to Timmy Mallet! These artists weren’t just visiting, there are a number of famous musicians who, at one time or another, have called the Borough of Runnymede home.
One to the most famous and colourful former resident was The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, who lived on St. Ann’s Hill in the early 1970s. He was often seen about town, driving his hovercraft the short distance up the path to The Golden Grove pub and, when he needed to pop into Chertsey itself, his milk float! Legendary Skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan (1931-2002) used to live in Thorpe opposite the Rose & Crown pub, and Mike Rutherford (Genesis) and Justin and Dan Hawkins (The Darkness) were born in Chertsey. However, probably the most significant musical connection is also the least well known. Most people walking down Guildford Street in the 1960s and 70s would not have realised they were passing one of the country’s most renowned electric guitar and sound system factories. Watkins Electric Music (WEM) was founded by brothers Charlie and Reg Watkins, who hoped to make the first solidbody guitar in the UK.
Alas, they missed out on the accolade of being the country’s first, beaten to it by a few days, but their Rapier 22, 23 and 24 guitars were an instant success. By 1960 WEM were the dominant force in the British music industry with their supply of amps, echo chambers and electric guitars. They became the first manufacturers in the world to produce a 10000w PA system for live music, and so became the leading suppliers of touring sound systems with WEM equipment regularly used by The Who, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones.
Chertsey Museum is free to visit and is now welcoming visitors with temporary opening hours.
For up-to-date details see our website:
www.chertseymuseum.org/visit