The day was Friday 11th February and the weather may not have been good, but the rain stayed away long enough for us to trundle around the Hindhead area and speed off for lunch to a rather fitting location in Grayshott.
We met Mark in the Devil's Punchbowl Hotel, Undershaw's contemporary where he was given a lengthy spill by Mr Gibson of it's history, and there is an awful lot of history that goes with this great house. Mark was very attentive whilst John Gibson reeled off dates, events and names directly from the top of his head, where Mark showed great interest and passion towards his role as Patron and to the information that was being fed to him.
He felt sure that if we had been the owners of this house, monies could be raised through several of his ideas as fundraising schemes, but of course we don't own it and this is what changes the whole situation.
As far as the media attention is concerned I believe Mr Gatiss will promote the campaign wherever possible linking it to the next series of 'Sherlock'. He did a short interview for us which we may use as a possible press release or just for our benefit on the website and was happy enough to sign the 50 cards that will make up an 8 postcard set due for release to coincide with the Judicial Review. These will be auctioned off on e-bay. The content of the card is a close kept secret until their release.
The meeting was very successful and Mark is very much the gentleman that I had imagined him to be. Instantly you feel as though you have known him for years, feeling very relaxed in his company.
It was unfortunate but the meeting took most of our time and visits to Doyle's family graves had to be aborted until Mark's next visit.
For the regeneration of Hindhead, Undershaw could play a very important part for tourism and education. Councillor Hesse who is mediator between the Trust and Waverley Borough Council agrees that Undershaw should be part of the regeneration plan and gave the following statement:
Going back to our Undershaw Day on May 14th which we decided to run concurrently with the Hindhead Tunnel Walk Through which incidentally was a great success for the tunnel and Undershaw.
The recently appointed Mayor of Haslemere is Councillor Jim Edwards who incidentally was the only councillor who voted against the planning application for development. Councillor Edwards said at the meeting on the 9th June 2010 when he spoke out against the development:
Also in September I had the greatest of priviliges to meet and chat with British golfing champion, BBC broadcaster and presenter and golf course designer, Peter Alliss at a flag raising ceremony and black tie dinner in honour of Conan Doyle who founded the club in 1904 and was it's first president.
It was quite an honour to be invited to the British Library at the end of September in celebration of the publication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's new book: 'The Narrative of John Smith. There were several highlights to the evening, one being meeting the charming actor Robert Lindsay, and the other to view for the first time the original manuscript of the said book that Doyle wrote when he was in his early twenties.
tirely; it's a national disgrace.
A few words from Alistair Duncan the author of a new book due for release in December this year.
The Undershaw Preservation Trust postcards are now being bid for on ebay. The cards depict 8 of the 12 coat of arms that appear in the larger of the heraldic windows at Undershaw. The main ACD card is signed by our Patron Mark Gatiss. All proceeds of the sale of these cards will help with our campaigning, printing, stationery and purchasing further merchandise.
The day was Friday 11th February and the weather may not have been good, but the rain stayed away long enough for us to trundle around the Hindhead area and speed off for lunch to a rather fitting location in Grayshott.
