Last Weekend for High Street Merchandise

This weekend is your last chance to place your orders for prints and calendars, with the final deadline Monday 30th November. With this in mind, we thought we’d feature some of the other artworks that have been unseen so far.

The artists at Southborough C of E Primary explored a range of techniques and materials to create their high street illustrations: watercolour, ink drawings, collage and chine-collé etchings (where coloured and printed tissue paper is added to the etching plate). With such inspiring work it would be a shame not to showcase everything they created.

These additional illustrations can be ordered too - just make it clear on the order form which ones you are after and we are more than happy to oblige!

To make your order, please download a form and email it to us: thesouthboroughsociety@gmail.com

A Word.doc order form is available here and a PDF order form is available here.

Hand and Sceptre Hotel

Peter Hoare Antiques

The Gallery, Hairdressing Salon.

The first of two chine-colle prints of Hardman & Hemming.

Variation on the first print.

The House Company

Joe’s Barbers

Body Art Tattoo Studio

Dominos

Thank you for looking. If you like what we do and want to support a local charity, please join us. You can drop us a line here and we will send you a Membership Application Form.

HIGH STREET MERCH!

Just in time for Christmas! We will be selling our prints and calendars featuring the wonderful artwork of Southborough High Street created by the talented young artists from Southborough C of E Primary School.

You will have read all about this collaboration between the Society and Southborough C of E Primary School before on our blog - but in case you missed it, check it out here.

You can order A3 sized prints of the High Street (as seen above) for the very affordable price of £5 each (!) and the A4 calendars are priced at £10 each. It’s also good to know these are all locally printed (just down by the old High Brooms Brickworks, by the amazing team at BDP Media), so as well as raising funds for the Society and our local primary school, we are also supporting a local business. It ticks all the boxes!

Importantly, your orders must be received by Monday, 30th of November. To make your order, please download a form and email to us: thesouthboroughsociety@gmail.com.

A Word.doc order form can be downloaded here and a PDF order form available here.

The prints and calendars will be available from week beginning 7th of December, or earlier if possible. We will be in touch with those who have placed an order to let them know where they can be collected from shortly. Prints and calendars ordered from parents with pupils at Southborough C of E Primary School will be distributed to students to take home.

The A3 print features many of the shopfronts illustrated by Southborough C of E pupils, Aimee, Codie, Jacob, Phoebe, Poppy, Shaun and Sienna.

Individual shop prints can be printed to order at A3 or A4 size, but to do this please get in touch at thesouthboroughsociety@gmail.com or head to our contact page here.

Thank you again to the local businesses who contributed towards this project, without your support it would not have been possible.

For anyone interested in purchasing Elaine Gill’s fabulous Southborough High Street Map that was on display in the shopfront of Hardman & Hemming during the Heritage Open Days High Street exhibition, you can download Elaine’s order form here.

Happy shopping!

Through the Lens

Over the last year, in preparation for our digital archive, we have been trawling through the scans and we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some highlights from our photographic competition since its inception in 2004. We also hope that this post serves as a reminder for you to enter your photographs for this year’s competition by the 30th of October! See details on how to enter here.

The competition started life as ‘Putting High Brooms and Southborough in the Picture’ and was later reinvented in 2009 as ‘Through the Lens’ as it now continues to be known.

The category of ‘Places’ has consistently received the highest number of entries in the competition and has recorded many recognisable/iconic views which clearly say ‘Southborough’. But the more changeable aspects of our town such as its people, the high street and its events tell us more about how our town has been transforming over time.

Below is a small selection of the entries from our archive, we hope you enjoy reminiscing!

The beauty of St Peter’s in snow, by Albert Dungate in 2009.

2019 student category winner, Freddie Knight, ‘St Peter’s Church Tower’.

The everyday, vernacular photography can tell us more about that point in time than images of well recognised buildings and beauty spots of Southborough. Shops that had been stalwarts of the high street have been photographed in their final days, as you can see from Howes, the Q8 Garage, Wisdoms, and the butchers. A particular highlight in Southborough was the passing of the Tour de France in 2007 which resulted in many entries documenting the peloton as it raced through our High Street.

The End of an Era: Howes of Southborough, 1953-2007 by Rita Scales.

Q8 Creations, London Road, 2007, by Bob Holly.

The Upholsterer: Michael Wisdom, 2006 by Peter Dillon.

Kevin Major: The Final Chop, 2008 by Fred Scales. Major & Sons was a family butcher, previously located on the corner of Western Road and Norton Road, now residential property.

‘A Bold Gendarme’, 2007, by Michael Tayler.

Blurred Colours of the Peloton: Tour de France, 8th July 2007, by Abu Subhan.

The Leaders Speeding Through: The Tour de France, 8th July, 2007 by Olywn Kinghorn.

Now gone: Horse Trough on Sceptre Hill, Southborough, 2013, by Rhys Kinghorn.

The people of Southborough and High Brooms have been sharing loads of fantastic photographs on Facebook, particularly throughout the lockdown period, so get your entries in now! Good luck!

Architectural Scavenger Hunt

Our High Street exhibition opens today and we would like to encourage families over the next two weeks to have fun exploring the hidden details of the past and present of London Road with our Architectural Scavenger Hunt.

There will be a prize draw to win: gift vouchers from Arty Farty Retreat, Pets Fayre, Temper Temper Chocolate and a fine art giclée print of the Southborough High Street Map by illustrator, Elaine Gill (original work to be unveiled from tomorrow at Hardman & Hemming). A prize worth well over £100! So a very big thank you to our local businesses and Elaine Gill for generously supporting this competition. There will be additional prints for sale of Elaine’s map on her Etsy shop coming soon and for anyone looking to purchase the original watercolour map, Elaine has informed us there is space on the map for her to add an illustration of your own house!

For those keen to purchase prints of the illustrations by Southborough CofE Primary School pupils, we will be taking orders soon for calendars and prints-so watch this space!

You can pick up a sheet from either of the Premier Stores (on the Parade or opposite the Library) and also from The House Company and Pets Fayre, or you can download it here.

When you have completed the hunt, please return your sheets to the pink box at either Premier Store and keep your fingers crossed to be the winner!

With many thanks to all the local businesses who have supported our exhibition, without their assistance this would not have been possible.