Elmbridge based photographer Astrid McGechan celebrates the beauty of the borough with a new book and exhibition. She talks to Rosanna Greenstreet
The Elmbridge Hundred
A stunning book of photographs showcasing the Borough of Elmbridge will be launched with a photographic exhibition at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton this month.
The Elmbridge Hundred – A Visual Journey is the brainchild of Walton based landscape photographer, Astrid McGechan. It forms a companion piece to the history project The Elmbridge Hundred – launched in 2009 to mark the centenary of Elmbridge Muse
The Elmbridge Hundred - A Visual Journey
um (known as the Museum for Weybridge until 1974) – which was set up to identify and make a website record of the hundred most interesting figures with links to the borough.
Elmbridge Museum – together with artist, writer and historian Alistair Grant – worked with AS, A-level and International Baccalaureate students from the American Community School, Brooklands College, Claremont Fan Court, Esher College, Esher Church of England High School, Heathside, Hinchley Wood, Notre Dame, Rydens School and the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Each student was allocated a figure from the past to research and write about. To be eligible for inclusion on The Elmbridge Hundred website, an individual needed a strong association with a place within the boundaries of the old hundred itself – an area virtually coinciding with the modern borough – through having lived or worked there, or on account of a momentous visit.
“The historian involved in the project at the time picked up on the fact that, in Saxon times, administrative units were called ‘hundreds’,” explains Astrid, 46, originally from Germany. “So there was the Elmbridge Hundred, the Hundred of Chertsey and the Hundred of Kingston.
“The historic hundred of ‘Amelebrige’, as Elmbridge was known in Saxon times, more or less corresponds to the current borough of Elmbridge, so the hundred theme fitted in with the museum’s centenary celebration.”
As the project gathered pace, Astrid, who was recently awarded a Licentiateship by the Royal Photographic Society, had the idea of adding a visual aspect to The Elmbridge Hundred.
“The borough is very beautiful, so I had the idea of taking one hundred photographs in Elmbridge.
“I wanted to involve the community, so I came up with a photography competition for senior schools which was judged by the renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite.”
The 10 best entries, including the competition winner – Pylon, Esher Common, photographed by Bryony Ross from Hinchley Wood School – are featured in Astrid’s self-published book. They can also be seen at the Riverhouse Barn exhibition, which opens on November 12 and runs until November 30. The gallery is open daily from 10am – 4pm.
This is not the first time that Astrid has exhibited at the venue.
The Elmbridge Hundred
“Having discovered a keen interest in photography in 2004, I started to engage seriously in landscape work in late 2007,” she recalls. “Then, in 2010, I held my first exhibition – jointly with fellow landscape photographer Huw Alban – at the Robert Phillips Gallery in the Riverhouse Barn.”
Further exhibitions followed, in June 2011 at the Zeitkunst Gallery in Born auf dem Darß, Germany, and in 2014 at the Mall Galleries, London as part of the Year of the Print exhibition. Astrid’s images have also been published in magazines and calendars at home and abroad.
Her new book is full of delights, including shots of Black Pond on Esher Common, Concorde at Brooklands, the swans at Walton’s Cowey Sale, bluebells in Painshill Park, Cobham, and the sunrise over Molesey’s Hurst Park.
There are also some cheery black and white portraits of a cross section of characters who work in the borough, including Julie McGee, a Hersham lollipop lady; Gloria Hiscock, a librarian at Dittons Library; butcher Simon Taylor of Surrey Hill Butchers, Oxshott; and David Russell, a chimney sweep from Claygate.
Meanwhile, more than 700 people of note were identified by The Elmbridge Hundred history project. A panel, which included Elmbridge dweller and Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Elmbridge Michael Aspel OBE, whittled these down to the most important hundred. Astrid has incorporated their names, together with their dates of birth and death, in her book.
The Elmbridge Hundred
Unfortunately, although each person is listed under the Elmbridge place name with which he or she is primarily associated, space constraints preclude Astrid from detailing the specific connections. However, this information is easily accessed via the history project’s excellent website, which holds a rich variety of interesting facts.
It may be common knowledge that Henry VIII acquired Oatlands Manor, Weybridge in 1537 and transformed it into a palace; and that Queen Victoria paid many childhood and early adult visits to what she referred to as ‘dear Claremont’, in Esher. But who knew about Alan Turing’s Elmbridge link?
Apparently, the mathematician and logician, who helped crack the Enigma code during World War II – and is now the subject of The Imitation Game, a new film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightley – was a keen amateur athlete who ran for Walton Athletic Club when he worked at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington from 1945-7.
Astrid also lists Beatle George Harrison, who lived at a bungalow called Kinfauns in Esher, where many of the demos for The Beatles: The White Album were recorded.
Fellow Beatle John Lennon also gets a look-in, as he lived in Weybridge, on St George’s Hill, with first wife Cynthia for four creative years in the 60s
The Elmbridge Hundred
Astrid, who is married with a 13-year-old daughter, has called Elmbridge home for the past 16 years and can’t imagine being anywhere else.
“We lived in West London before, but I wasn’t completely happy there,” she says. “In Walton I feel at home.
“I love Elmbridge. For this project I explored every corner of the borough and found some really interesting places – spots that I never knew existed.”
Now, through her new book, we can discover them too.
