Surely Brookwood Cemetery can hardly be bettered for an evening walk at 5pm tomorrow (Saturday, October 28), writes Ann Tilbury.
Take a torch or a lantern, and dress up if you like for Halloween in the Cemetery: children are welcome and there will be hot food and drinks awaiting your return.
There are three walks arranged for Sunday, November 5, all starting at the usual time – for this time of year – of 1pm.
There is the Military Walk: Close to the Edge, led by Mike Dawson, which will explore the lives of those who died during military service and subsequent years who lie in plots adjacent to the military cemetery.
The walk will finish in time for anyone wishing to attend the Last Post ceremony at 3pm by the RAF shelter in the military cemetery.
Kim Lowe will lead the Medical Walk – a Second Dose, inspired by the St Thomas Hospital Plot. The walk will visit the plots of nurses and doctors who are notable in the medical profession. This is a follow-on from the last medical walk.
John Leech will lead the Mausoleum Walk which gives a chance to visit and, maybe, view the inside of some of the many wonderfully designed – and some of the not so wonderfully designed – mausoleums and tell something of the families who commissioned the monuments, and their stories.
Booking is essential: the average group size is 15 to 20 people depending on bookings. Booking may be done by email ([email protected]) or mobile (07714 289375).
A donation of £5 per person will include refreshments afterwards at the lodge and, once received, a place on the walk will be confirmed.
The Brookwood Cemetery Society was set up in 1992 by a group who wished to see this area of national importance safeguarded.
In 2016 Woking Borough Council, the new owners, paid for a wooden lodge for the society at the Glades entrance off Cemetery Pales, and this is where most of the walks start.
All money raised goes to the conservation and restoration of the cemetery. You only have to look around this beautiful place to see what has been achieved in this respect.