The Victorian Age in Send and Ripley, the current exhibition in Ripley Museum, attempts to shine a light on this highly important period in the development, or lack of development, of the two villages.

Only one year into Queen Victoria’s reign, the railways arrived at Woking Heath, which was then in the middle of countryside – just try to imagine if the railway had come to Ripley or Send instead!

As well as this game-changing moment, the exhibition considers changes in education, religion and sport, plus highlighting a few famous Victorians connected to the area, such as Thomas Love Peacock, HG Wells, Ada Lovelace and local boy George “the Lion hitter” Griffith, a renowned cricketer.

The Send and Ripley History Society are fortunate to have a publication which follows a walk by Victorian diarist AJ Munby.

This walk round Ripley and Pyrford is illustrated in the exhibition and the publication is on special offer for its duration.

The exhibition runs until the end of September and is open every Saturday 10-12 and by arrangement with Clare on 01483 728546.

For those of you not in the know, Ripley Museum is in the car park of the new Ripley Village Hall (GU23 6AF).

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of Send & Ripley History Society.

Clare, the museum curator, said: “We were founded as the Send History Society. Membership soon built up to over 200 and after 10 years the members decided to expand the reach to include Ripley. We now have some 350 members.

“After a half century – on a modest budget and with a relatively small group of volunteers – we have a fully accredited museum, one of the smallest in the country, and have certainly fulfilled that initial promise to help preserve our heritage by building up an impressive resource of research material.”