Clandon Wood was officially opened by the Mayor of Guildford in June 2013 and is thirty one acres of native wildflower meadows with hundreds of yards of hedgerow, a wetland and a new lake in the centre. This delightful patch of land in the Surrey Hills is dedicated to the emotional responsibility of natural burial and has an environmental framework to support as many diverse ecosystems as possible.

Natural burial creates new sustainable environments for wildlife. Considered and traditional land management practices enable the land to be used for burials whilst creating a beneficial, natural resource for nature. The site is managed sustainably to encourage wildlife and is providing vital habitats for a number of wildlife species including rare skylarks that are nationally in decline and on the IUCN Red Species list, as well as the Small Blue butterfly (Cupido Minimus) that is rare in Surrey.

Using traditional woodland management practices, the developing woodland will become productive, securing its future and flourishing for generations to come. Recently planted native trees include oak, beech, hornbeam, lime and silver birch, which create a young flourishing woodland. Plus there are over forty eight species of wildflowers and grasses that give a flowering season well into the autumn, whilst the lake and wetland nourish the aquatic plants that balance and stabilise the water quality.

Natural preparation and traditional management techniques nurture and safeguard the landscapes of Clandon Wood so that they will endure long into the future. Authentic working practices maintain the meadow and after the flowers and grasses have seeded, the meadows are mown and cleared of hay, with sheep then grazing over winter in preparation for the next spring growth.

There are now over 300 natural burial grounds in the UK, but with a beautiful glass-walled pavilion and finely-appointed facilities to support funeral and memorial services, Clandon Wood offers a wholly natural alternative to conventional funerals.

Fran Hall, Operations Manager at Clandon Wood has said, “It is really important to us that Clandon Wood is recognised as a mainstream alternative choice for bereaved families, as natural burial is still sometimes seen as rather a ‘new age’ option. Natural burial provides an obvious solution to the growing shortage of burial space in local authority cemeteries and is a really responsible and ecologically sound alternative to cremation.”

Article images provided by Dani Maimone

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Getting Started
There are a few house rules and guidelines that you must follow to make sure that everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience, which is to be expected. Everyone must sign a waiver before they begin and any under 16’s must have theirs signed by a parent or guardian- so bare this in mind before you arrive. Once you have the comfortable and breathable jumping socks on, which are necessary for both gripping purposes as well as hygiene reasons, you are ready to go!

Free Jump Area
The Free Jump area takes up almost half of the warehouse and has over 50 interconnected trampolines that go across the floor and up the walls! Dotted around the edges and among the trampolines are padded yellow platforms that give bouncers the chance to take a running and elevated leap to achieve as high a bounce as possible. This is the place to learn, to improve and just to freestyle some new moves if you’re feeling adventurous.

Dodgeball Area
A field of trampolines with angled trampoline walls (perfect for bouncing the dodge balls off), where two teams face off against each other and use foam balls to knock the opposition out of the game. Though fast paced and highly energetic, the foam balls and well-padded edges ensure that it is a safe area even for little ones. And some of the youngsters will even have a chance of knocking larger, more cumbersome grown-ups out of the game!

The Foam Pit
Across the walkway from the Dodgeball area is the Foam Pit; a part of the park that is sure to excite everyone from nine to 90 as you can use it to get some big air or perfect your aerial moves! There are three trampolines leading up to a pit filled with about 5,000 foam cubes with another trampoline lying beneath, so that even the deepest of cannonballs is guaranteed a safe landing. Staff are on hand with rope to assist those who struggle to free themselves from the pit, although enthusiastic bouncers suggest that the struggle to get out at the end is half of the giddy fun!

Slam Dunk Basketball Area
Upon entering the arena, visitors first bypass the Basketball Slam Dunk area; two lanes of trampolines with basketball hoops at the end where guests are offered the chance to live their own LeBron James moment of glory with a soaring slam dunk. If you never had the height or spring to make a slam dunk on the court, then this is your time!

Safety
Certainly worthy of note is the great care that the staff of AirHop take over ensuring that those that come to bounce have both a safe and fun experience. With the simple rules clearly on display, friendly and happy staff always within easy reach and the precautions taken to pad out any potentially hard surface, parent’s minds can be at ease. While their children bounce excitedly around, they can grab a coffee and watch on from the viewing gallery, safe in the knowledge that their won’t be any cuts and grazes today!

Health & Exercise
On a trampoline, you have the potential to burn up to 1,000 calories in one hour and just 10 minutes of bouncing on a trampoline burns as many calories as 30 minutes jogging! Having a bounce is a low impact activity that provides you with high impact results and as it is an Aerobic exercise, it greatly improves your circulation and encourages your heart to get stronger. Not to mention that ‘feel good’ factor that releases endorphins which will reduce stress hormones in the body! Olympic athlete Katie Gaskill was recently at the park with the British Gymnastics team demonstrating breath-taking leaps, flips and tucks. Having tested the facilities herself, she had high praise for AirHop, remarking on the importance of places like this for the health of Britain’s youth. So AirHop really is the ideal way to get yourself and your children off the sofa and into the air without a passport.

All in all, AirHop has proved itself to be a different, modern and exciting way for both children and adults to exercise in a fun and whimsical way, but also a fantastic way to introduce the current youth to trampolining as a serious sport and career. Visit their website and book your own trampolining adventure HERE or follow their Facebook group for updates.

Charli Aisha Harris

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“Driven by three key principles of performance, participation and personal development, our vision is to inspire and support the sporting ambitions of all users, from world class athletes to grassroots beginners.”

Owned by the University of Surrey, the £35 million pound facility offers a venue that hosts some of the best facilities in the world, attracting its own international and national events and teams that bring world class athletes to Surrey. Since opening in April 2010, the park has hosted a number of high profile sporting events and continues to play its part in building a national legacy of sport.

Some of the bigger events it has hosted in the past include: the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup, Great Britain Women’s Eurobasket and Four Nations Tournament basketball matches, the 2010 and 2011 FA Futsal Grand Finals, the inaugural GB Paralympics SportsFest event, the 2013 Danone Nations Cup Qualifiers, and the BUCS Big Wednesday Grand Finals 2014. Surrey Sports Park will also be the host venue for the 2017 Women’s Lacrosse World Cup.

Surrey Sports Park was also an official Pre-Games Training Venue for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, hosting several international teams and athletes including Great Britain, China, Nigeria, Singapore and USA. On top of this, the Park has played home to a number of elite sports teams and governing bodies such as: the RFU Men’s and RFUW Women’s senior and youth rugby squads, Brazil Sevens rugby, Samoa rugby, Harlequins Rugby Union, the academies for Fulham FC and Aldershot Town FC, Great Britain Women’s and Men’s Futures Basketball teams, Surrey Storm Netball, Surrey United Basketball, England Squash and Racketball, Guildford City Swimming, Great Britain Synchronised Swimming, England Netball, England Lacrosse and the Oman National Football Team.

It’s state-of-the-art facilities put Surrey Sports Park in a totally different league to anything else currently available in or around Guildford. With Surrey’s first ever 50 metre indoor pool, there’s enough water to go round and with ten grass pitches and six floodlit artificial pitches, you won’t find it difficult to have a game of footy any day of the week. Or if that’s not your thing, make use of the glass backed squash courts, three multi-sport halls, eight outdoor floodlit tennis courts, 120 station health and fitness centre or the 12m high Climbing Centre with unique bouldering facility.

As well as this, Surrey Sports Park offers a multitude of fitness classes, hosts regular 6-a-side football leagues, has a 1000-seat capacity sports arena and provides personal trainer sessions for those wanting to push themselves even further in the gym. There’s over one hundred fitness and aqua classes on offer in the fully equipped, state-of-the-art, mirrored studios with everything on offer from Pilates, Yoga and basic aerobics to Boxercise, spinning and Zumba.

The Bench Bar on the top floor of the Sports Park has six, large, widescreen televisions, showing coverage of all the major sporting events on Sky Sports, BT Sport, ESPN and others. It’s a great place to relax before or after sport, with panoramic views of the outdoor pitches and the rolling Surrey Hills. And the daily menu of burgers, salads, sandwiches and soups are all freshly prepared to order and complimented by some delicious specials.

It’s also a great place to hold a private function for your business or sports team or host a birthday party, family event or award ceremony. Surrey Sports Park’s versatile facilities provide the ideal venue for a Hog Roast or BBQ and offer a great choice of catering and entertainment. The Sports Park can also cater for conferences and offers bespoke corporate hospitality packages.

There are also quarterly business networking events called ‘Surrey Talks Business’ that began back in October 2013 with Apprentice star Neil Clough giving an inspirational and motivational talk. These business meets are a great way to learn from other business professionals and network with others from around Surrey.

Surrey Sports Park has both members and non-members covered with whatever sporting activity you’re looking for, so head down for a look or check out their website HERE for any more information you may need.

James Martin

Top image sourced from: http://tinyurl.com/pgvfohz

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Guildford Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Guildford, covering 500 square miles of Surrey, north east Hampshire, the London Borough of Kingston and a part of West Sussex.

The tower is 160 feet (49 metres) high, and contains twelve bells, ten of which were cast by Mears and Stainbank in 1965. The bells were augmented to 12 with two Whitechapel trebles in 1975.The largest bell weighs 30cwt (just over 1.5 tonnes) and is tuned to the key of D. At the top of the tower stands a 15-foot (4.6 m) gilded angel, which turns in the wind. Inside, the cathedral appears to be filled with light, with pale Somerset limestone pillars and white Italian marble floors.

With a seating capacity of 1000, the Cathedral provides both focus and resource for the whole community, a venue for concerts, art and education, a place of pilgrimage, as well as stillness, prayer and daily choral worship.

During the early part of the twentieth century, the population of south east England grew resulting in a three sector division of The Diocese of Winchester. Initially, the Holy Trinity Church in Guildford was the cathedral but it was not big enough. In 1928 the Diocese resolved to build a new cathedral and so a competition consisting of 183 architects was held and Maufe was appointed as the official architect in 1933.

Work on the cathedral stopped during the Second World War and ten years later little progress was made. The main setback was the lack of money and building materials leaving the cathedral empty. However, from 1947 onwards regular services resumed and services were held in the Crypt Chapel which has now become the choir practice room.

Fundraising began for the construction of the Nave in 1952; the target was £250,000 which was four times the original estimate. A new campaign was introduced called the Buy-a-Brick Campaign. This campaign was a great success, it enabled subscribers to buy a brick for 2s 6d (12½p) and inscribe it with their name. To this day, many people feel that they have a personal link with the Cathedral because of this scheme.

The consecration of the cathedral was in May 1961 despite several setbacks and difficulties. Carried out by Bishop George Reindorp in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, His Right Honourable the Duke of Edinburgh, the Archbishop of Canterbury and a packed congregation from all parts of the Diocese.

At this stage however, the cathedral was still incomplete and the Western Porches (the Garths), the Sacristy, the Lady Chapel and the Chapter house were yet to be built. The main tower itself was still incomplete and all the projects were not finished until 1966.

Work has continued in subsequent years, but much remains to be done. The latest addition to the Cathedral was in 2005 with the completion of the statues on the West Front. The emphasis now is on the development of the surrounding land.

Visitors are welcomed to visit the cathedral all year round, from any ages. It can also be hired for dinner parties in the Nave, concerts, performances, award ceremonies, festivals and any more.

James Martin

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Local authorities tend to find it difficult provide a wide range of leisure facilities to the public without making a loss, however the Spectrum therefore incorporates conventional facilities such as the competition pool, arena, squash courts and aerobics studio, with commercial facilities such as the bowling centre, ice rink, leisure pool and health and fitness suite as well as branded catering. This means that rather than being a burden on council expenditure, Guildford Spectrum is one of only a handful of local authority owned leisure facilities that make an operating surplus. This surplus is predominantly reinvested into the Complex so keep the facilities up-to-date and competitive in an ever evolving industry.

It is the home of ice hockey team the Guildford Flames and other sports clubs and used to host Guildford Heat home basketball matches. In addition to its large indoor sports arena it has an Olympic size ice rink, four swimming pools, a tenpin bowling centre, squash courts and football/athletics stadium (full list of facilities shown below). The stadium adjoining the complex is also home to Guildford City FC who play in the Southern Football League. The stadium has 135 seats under cover as well as having a standing capacity of around one thousand.

Guildford Spectrum is set on 26 acres of Council owned parkland in an easily accessible location just outside of the town centre. The facility holds free car parking space for 700 vehicles, has good public transport links and is situated just off the A3. Corporate image is not widely used by local authorities for leisure centres, but as Spectrum is marketed as a facility for local residents and as a tourist attraction alongside major events venue, its branding is essential.

“The name of the complex was decided through a competition within the borough and sums up the numerous facilities, activities and schemes on offer. The Spectrum flame was designed to incorporate parts of the Guildford Borough logo and to be completely unique. Inspiration came from the Olympic flame as the Olympics bring many people together for a variety of different activities, something Spectrum is also proud to do.”

List of Facilities
Four swimming pools, Olympic sized ice rink, tenpin bowling centre, indoor arena, aerobics studio, beauty therapy relaxation area, fitness suite, soft play area, squash courts, spinning room, crèche, Ice Station Zero (Laser Tag), American pool deck, all weather athletics track, four catering outlets, two licensed bars

James Martin

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The Lido was opened on 21 June 1933 by the then Mayor of Guildford at the time, Councillor. William Harvey meaning that this season the Guildford Lido has been celebrating as its 80th anniversary as being part of Guildford’s main summertime attractions.

November 1932 saw Mayor Harvey initiate a scheme to raise money and create jobs for the unemployed people in Guildford and this is recognised as one of the very first official schemes of the sort in the UK. The scheme was known as the ‘Work Fund’ and it was a brilliantly simple plan, using unemployed residents to build the pool and the funding being raised locally rather than from central government. Guildfordians who were working and earning a set wage were asked to contribute to this ‘pool’ fund, as were those individuals who were known to be well off.

By estimating the total number of unemployed people in the borough of Guildford (about 650 out of a population of 40,000), it was calculated that each man given employment through the ‘Work Fund’ would receive a minimum 35 shillings (£1.52) a week for 35 hours work. One of the first schemes was to provide work for 40 men pulling up weeds in the sports ground in Woodbridge Road, Guildford.

A collection box was held at the Guildhall where people donated money and messages, for instance, one note wrapped around three pennies was a piece of paper that read, ‘A working man’s daily bus fare’. The scheme also asked for old gold which could be sold to benefit the fund. Local firms, the churches, the Rotary Club and the local branch of the Royal British Legion all helped with donations.

The men who benefited from the scheme carried out a number of different jobs around the borough, but the most fundamental was the building of Guildford Lido. Talks of building the Lido began in 1930, however members of the St John’s Church on Stoke Road strongly opposed the development and voiced concerns that the sight of people bathing at an outdoor pool would upset the worshippers within the church.

However, the plans were passed and by the end of 1932 employee’s of the ‘Work Fund’ joined forces with contractors and tradesmen to begin the building work. The Lido cost £13,700 to build in the end and was officially opened on the by the Mayor himself on 21 June when 8,000 people packed in. He was also recorded as being the first person to dive in and take a lap.

Entry charges were 6d per person (two and a half pence), with the exception of Tuesdays and Saturday mornings when it was one shilling (five pence) and bank holidays where the entry fees rose to 9d per person (four and a half pence). It cost children 4d (two pence) and a monthly season ticket would set you back 7 shillings and 6d (38 pence).

The ‘Work Fund’ came to an end in 1933, but £10,000 had been raised and more than 150,000 hours of work had been provided. Due to this success William Harvey was appointed OBE in the 1934 New Year’s Honours List and was also given the freedom of the borough of Guildford. Also, his successful ladies fashion shop in Guildford was originally based in the Playhouse Arcade (which is now Tunsgate Square) and later moved to the High Street where ‘Harvey’s of Guildford’ later became an Army & Navy branch and is today a House of Fraser store.

Today, Guildford Lido is home to the The Workshop Gym, a very popular bodybuilding and sports gym which caters for fitness fanatics and the regular competitive sports person. And during the summer months, the Lido is available for private hire/functions, often hosting a variety of outdoor concerts, informal parties and BBQs.

Ade Lawal

Image sourced from: http://tinyurl.com/pzpfam5

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The successful and award-winning visitor centre at Dapdune Wharf is the centrepiece of one of the National Trust’s most unusual properties, the River Wey Navigations. The centre provides families with the opportunity to learn about the journey of Surrey’s famous waterways and the people that lived and worked on it, whilst having a fun family day out in the process. The centre brings to life stories of the historical waterway through interactive displays, a smithy, and a stable. You can have fun at one of their many events, relax on a boat trip, climb aboard a restored barge, learn how to tie a knot, picnic and enjoy a scenic walk or even let the children explore or build dens on out island and raid the dressing up box.

The centre has a series of interactive exhibits and displays which allow you to discover the fascinating story of Surrey’s secret waterway, one of the first British rivers to be made navigable. Here you can see where the huge Wey barges were built and climb aboard two of the only three remaining Wey barges in the world. The ‘Reliance’ is permanently damaged and kept in a graving (dry) dock whereas the ‘Perseverance IV’ is still floating but in desperate need of repair, being the subject of a 2010 National Trust restoration appeal.

Although no longer used as a goods transhipment point, the wharf is the starting point for boat trip hire and horse-drawn boat trips. Or, with 20 miles of towpaths, there is lots of walking to be done for anyone who is intrigued by the history and complex landscapes surrounding the Wey Navigations. In some urban parts and built up areas you can glide through pasture and woodland, glinting past rural scenes, echoing its industrial past. There is even a do-it-yourself walk activity available for visitors that gives everyone something to do and children’s trails and special events run throughout the season.

Whether it is sunny or grey, a boat trip from Dapdune Wharf into Guildford and back is a great way to spend some time. There is also a fantastic opportunity to take part in a meet and greet of volunteer skippers whilst enjoying the scenery and a chance to go pond-dipping in the creek. A visit also offers a chance for you and the family to enjoy and explore the tranquil surrounding area.

Ade Lawal

Visiting Centre open all year round 11am-5pm
River trips available, weather permitting.
Boat Trip: Dapdune Belle/Seewey 40 minutes

Image sourced from: http://tinyurl.com/p7s6499

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The hospital has been at the heart of the community since it began in 1866 when it was the first voluntary hospital in Guildford, funded only by public donations. The RSCH has grown substantially since its opening in 1980 and in 1991 the Royal Surrey County Hospital became one of the first NHS Trusts. Now, it treats over 280,000 outpatients a year, 70,000+ Accident & Emergency patients, 61,000 admitted patients for treatment and nearly 3,500 babies are delivered there each year.

The Trust’s annual income to run its services is £199 million and it has 12 operating theatres, one obstetric and one minor operations theatre and a state of the art outpatient, audiology and rehabilitation department. The Trust has 20 wards comprising of general and specialist surgery, obstetrics, paediatrics, oncology, orthopaedics, general and specialist medicine, intensive care and coronary care. The hospital employs approximately 3,500 staff, with around 400 doctors and 800 nurses making it the second largest employer in Guildford.

The Trust has a very strong reputation for minimally invasive surgery and laparoscopic surgery which is used widely across the surgical specialties. It is a national leader in surgical training and laparoscopic surgery and MATTU (Minimal Access Therapy Training Unit) is one of the most advanced training centres for this type of surgery. It has also been designated as a national training centre for laparoscopic colorectal surgery.

Patients at the Royal Surrey also benefit from state of the art diagnostic equipment including two MRI scanners, four CT scanners, interventional radiology equipment and a gamma camera.

Over the course of a year between October 2006 to October 2007, a successful campaign was launched to save the RSCH, along with St Luke’s Cancer Centre from closure. The campaign attracted the support of over 100,000 local people through petitions, protests, publicity and lobbying at a local and national level.

Ade Lawal

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