"A vital and vibrant resource at the heart of the local community."
2021
Stoneleigh Broadway Christmas Trail
Art-K - Christmas arts & crafts sessions and Face Painting
Bodyfix Clinic - Christmas Hoopla with Mr Bones
Learn & Grow Tuition - festive Spanish songs, arts & crafts, lucky dip
Masons Bar - meeting Father Christmas and his elves
Phillomena Dance Studio - making festive marshmallow characters
Poltsa - Christmas guessing game
The Children's Trust - Children's lucky dip
V Tech Solutions - Christmas Competition
The mayor and mayoress came to see what was happening. They were shown along the Broadway by some of our volunteers, including two of our younger members.
Our many volunteers all worked hard to make it a great occasion.
Traders on the Broadway also offered traditional and seasonal refreshments and hosted entertaining activities, including the trail, which started and finished at the library.
The mayor was presented with a framed Stoneleigh print (on sale at the library) during his visit to the event, which finished with carol singing outside the library - and the hamper raffle draw inside.
Co-op donation to the Stoneleigh Broadway Christmas Trail
We are grateful to Stoneleigh Co-op for their generous contribution to the Stoneleigh Broadway Christmas Trail. Steve from the Co-op presented us with a cheque for £150 - together with a donation of various treats and goodies for the Hamper Raffle.
Thank you to our partner traders who helped make Saturday's event the best it could be for everyone in the local community!
Diabetes support comes to the library
Stoneleigh Library was pleased to welcome Surrey Downs Diabetes UK Group to the library. They ran a series of support group meetings in the library, for eight weeks during October to December 2021. The group met to share ideas on how to improve health and fitness. Topics included:
- Your diabetes
- Can you reverse T2 diabetes?
- The role of food and medicine
- Making Changes
- Getting Active
Further information about Surrey Downs Diabetes UK Group, call Nicole on 07957 611759 or email surrey_downs_diabetes@outlook.com
Six for the Summer
Reading challenge for adults and young people
If you’re aged 12 years or over and interested in a reading project during the remainder of the summer holidays then why not try our challenge? Can you read 6 library books in 6 weeks from 6 different categories?
To enter, please register your name at the library and you’ll be given a bookmark – this has the list of 16 categories for you to choose from.
At the end, when you’ve completed the challenge, your name will be entered into a prize draw. We have two prizes to be won. Winners from two groups (young people aged 12-17, and adults aged 18 and over) will each receive a £20 Amazon voucher.
Please come into the library to find out more – and sign up to the challenge!
Free Local History Walks
Stoneleigh Library, in association with Stoneleigh and Auriol Neighbourhood Forum (SANF), is organising guided Local History Walks this summer.
Each will be on a Sunday starting at 2:30 pm lasting around 1.5 to 2 hours.
22nd August: From Farmland to Suburbia. The building of Stoneleigh Broadway and the Stoneleigh Estate including the site and history of Sparrow Farm. Start and finish outside Stoneleigh library.
5th September: Upper Stoneleigh including the history of Coldharbour Farm and the Stoneleigh Brickworks. Starts and finishes outside the Cafe in Auriol Park.
This is a great opportunity for you to discover more about the unique history of Stoneleigh.
Numbers will be limited, so early booking is advised.
To book, just email your name, phone number and which date(s) you want to attend to friendsstoneleighlib@gmail.com
As with the majority of our events, these walks are free but donations to Friends of Stoneleigh Library are most welcome.
The Summer Reading Challenge
From 10th July 2021
The Summer Reading Challenge will be starting at our library on 10th July 2021.
This annual event for 4-11 year olds is a great way to encourage your children to carry on reading during the summer holidays.
There is also a Mini Challenge for children under 4 which rewards reading with a series of fun stickers.
Taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge or the Mini Challenge is completely FREE.
To sign up to The Summer Reading Challenge:
First, join the library if you (the child's parent or carer) are not already a member. It is free to join the library. You can join by coming into our library but our customers usually find it more convenient to join online before coming in.
When you come to our library, we will add your child to your membership and sign them up for this year's challenge so they can get their first free gift and put their chosen character on our progress board.
About The Summer Reading Challenge
The Summer Reading Challenge takes place over the summer holidays throughout the UK. Run by a national charity, The Reading Agency, and delivered with the support of the UK public library network, it is the UK’s biggest free reading promotion for primary-aged children.
The Challenge reaches over 700,000 families each year, motivates children to keep reading during the summer holidays, and helps them to maintain their reading skills and confidence.
Available online and through public libraries, the Challenge provides fun reading for pleasure activities for all abilities and helps to prevent the summer reading ‘dip’ during the long break from school.
2020
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Stoneleigh Community Library was not fully open for a number of months due to Coronavirus. Group meetings, events and activities from March 2020 had to be cancelled. |
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Easter 2020 Fantastic entries for our Easter Colouring and Design Competition |
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Sadly, we had to cancel our planned Easter Fun Day and Easter Egg Hunt which was scheduled for Saturday 4th April but, instead, local children were invited to take part in our Easter colouring competition! The children downloaded a copy of our wonderfully bland EGG COLOURING FORM, printed it out at home and coloured it in. Their parents/carers then sent an electronic copy of their artwork to us for judging. We had some wonderful entries - including these excellent runner up entries below;
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THE WINNER OF THE EASTER COLOURING COMPETITION IS AMELIA, 8 years old A big well done from all the Library volunteers for producing such a colourful and positive design. A prize goodybag is yours!
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Have a look at our Spring Children's Newsletter! |
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Our Children's Newsletter is packed with news and things to do for children.
Please click on the link below to open the newsletter in a separate window. Children's Newsletter Spring 2020 - final
We regularly send this out to those who have signed up to our email list. Click HERE to sign up to our mailing list. |
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Our young volunteer wins an amazing award |
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Huge congratulations to one of our young volunteers who has won the Epsom & Ewell Young Champions 2020 Volunteer Award!
The Epsom and Ewell Young Champions Awards are about recognising and celebrating the outstanding achievements of the brilliant young people in our borough.
Epsom & Ewell Borough Council wants to celebrate those who have gone above and beyond to help their local community and support others - which is what we do here at the Stoneleigh Library.
If you would like to volunteer at the library, click HERE |
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Friday 28th February 2020 |
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Our first night of board games for adults landed a double six! |
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On Friday 28th February, we hosted our first board games night for adults in the library. The Friends of Stoneleigh Library provided free refreshments whilst the enthusiastic players got stuck into Rummikub, Cluedo and other classic games.
There were no prizes for the winners but everyone said the night was a huge success and we will be running more of these events in the future.
The next board games night will be on 27th March at 7pm - just show up. |
Please do let us know if you have any ideas for community activities you would like to see in your local library. |
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Monday 17th February 2020 |
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Robots invaded Stoneleigh Library! We were invaded by robots on Monday 17th February - as well as a number of very excited children who were keen to learn how to control mini, programmable robots called Ozobots - using just a set of coloured felt tips.
This free session helped to inspire young minds with a fun and innovative way to play, learn and interact with robotics in a small-scale safe environment blending entertainment with education.
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Thursday 2nd January 2020 |
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First Litcraft Workshop a big hit |
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On Thursday 2nd January 2020 we held our first Litcraft session. Children in year 6 and above read and discussed Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and then used iPads to visit Treasure Island in Minecraft. |
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The Minecraft island had tasks to complete based on what the children had been reading - from taming a parrot to keeping an in-game journal and much more.
Litcraft is a great way to engage a reluctant reader with literary classics and introduces a whole new way to enjoy literature in a digital environment, and we intend to hold more sessions later in the year. |
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Wednesday 1st January 2020 |
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A Happy New Year |
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We wish all our customers a very Happy New Year and thank them for all their support for the library over the past year.
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2019 |
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Monday 2nd December 2019 Winter Mini Reading Challenge - Pugs of the Frozen North |
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The Winter Mini Reading Challenge began on 2nd December 2019 and ran through December into 2020 until 13th January 2020. The challenge was run by the Reading Agency and this was the first year we supported it, so we were pleased to have about eighty children entering of which about half completed the full three books necessary. Each time a child completed a book their pug moved a little closer to the finish line at the north pole. Even before the official start, there were a few pug dogs already at base camp ready to start pulling the sledges! Each child completing the challenge received a special Pugs Certificate! |
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Crafty group makes a scene at the library |
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A great BIG thank you to our Reading Group who meet in the library every month on a Friday.
Last week they got crafty and produced made a fabulous nativity scene for the library complete with Animals, Wise Men and even stars.
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Christmas cheer begins at the library |
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Christmas well and truly started at the library on 29th November as we hosted a packed-out Christmas Celebration as part of the Lights on Broadway event in Stoneleigh.
As well as providing the community with free refreshments, we ran some excellent children's activities around the library - giving parents and carers a well-earned break.
We hosted a display by the Stoneleigh and Auriol Neighbourhood Forum which provided information about their work producing a local plan for the area.
As an extra special treat for the children, we invited local author, Victoria Broden-Keast, to come in and read extracts from her latest book, Rex the Dragon.
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Our, now famous, Christmas raffle was drawn at 6.30pm by Victoria and two lucky winners won excellent hampers expertly put together by, Madeleine, one of our amazing Trustees.
Merry Christmas! |
A very happy winner with his hamper |
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October 2019 Indian Subcontinent Fortnight |
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During the first two weeks of October we hosted a special display of books about the indian subcontinent including books by Indian, Bangladeshi & Pakistani authors.
Given Stoneleigh's historic links to the Indian tea trade, we also gave our customers a great treat of a free tea tasting session where they could sample a selection of teas from the region. See "Tea Time at the Library" below.
We also marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born 2nd October 1869. |
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Wednesday 23rd October 2019 |
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Hurrah for Horrid Henry! |
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On 23rd October we held a Horrid Henry activity afternoon celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the first Horrid Henry Book.
Our thanks go out to The Reading Agency and Hachette Children's UK for some great stickers and activity sheets.
We provided the wonderful volunteers who helped run the event and the craft ideas/materials plus refreshments.
The children and their carers who came along all had a great time - thank you for being great participants.
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Saturday 12th October 2019 Heroes at the Library |
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Saturday 12th October saw the Library filled with Superheroes as children of all ages flocked to the library for a fun-filled session swapping their Heroes collectable cards.
Loads of the children completed their collections - much to the relief of their parents and carers.
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A very big thank you to our friends at
who helped us enormously by providing loads of spare cards to fuel the event.
And, in addition, a very big thank you, as usual, to the real heroes at Stoneleigh Library - our many volunteers who make these events possible. |
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Thursday 10th October 2019 |
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Tea Time at the Library
On Thursday 10th October, our customers were able to drop by for not one tea but lots of teas as we hosted a free Tea Tasting event as part of our Focus on the Indian Subcontinent fortnight.
Whilst the customers enjoyed their tea they were able to learn about Stoneleigh's founder, John Jeffrey Stone, and one of India's oldest tea companies as described in our exhibition.
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An excellent year reported at our AGM |
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A special thank you to Dawn, pictured left above, who stepped down as a trustee after many years of supporting us. |
Our Chair, Diana Kay, reported an excellent year for our community library. Bucking the national trend, we had an increase in book borrowing and footfall last year. In addition to healthy finances and a brilliant group of volunteers, Diana talked about the dozens of special events and the many local clubs & meetings we have hosted for the local community.
Diana also took time to thank all her fellow trustees, our amazing volunteers as well as Surrey County Council and local businesses like Stoneleigh Sainbury's for their continuing support.
Thank you, our local community, for your support! |
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Another record for the Summer Reading Challenge at our library |
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A record 300 children successfully completed this year’s Summer Reading Challenge at Stoneleigh Library. Each child had to read a total of 6 books over the summer holidays. Recognising their achievement, the volunteers who run the library laid on a special ‘Finishers Party’ to celebrate their success on Saturday, 21st September. |
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Councillor John Beckett and his wife Alison came along to offer their personal congratulations to the young readers who filled the library on Saturday.
The children enjoyed plenty of cake and squash whilst the Mayor answered their questions about him, his ceremonial chain and about his favourite book when he was a child (which was Stig of the Dump).
The children also watched a video of the original moon landings.
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Diana Kay, the Chair of The Friends of Stoneleigh Library said:
"The local children have been amazing this year as well as many of the parents who took part in our new adult reading challenge and our very young readers who took part in our Little Big Read.
Thanks to all the volunteers who made this such as great success this year and to the Mayor and his wife for helping us celebrate the children’s amazing achievement."
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We also held a prize draw for those who took part in this year's Adult Reading Challenge. The names of all those who completed their reading challenge were put into a hat and the lucky 3 names (below) drawn out were winners of £20 Amazon Vouchers;
Dragana L. Robert S. Sheila B.
A big thank you to all the adults who took part.
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Thursday 27th June 2019 The History of Stoneleigh Talk filled our Library |
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Diana Kay, our Chair, presented an illustrated talk on the History of Stoneleigh from Farmland to Surburban Village 1895-1939 on Thursday 27th June.
Demand was so great we had to add another session on Saturday 29th.
More than 130 people attended in the end, demonstrating a real interest in the local history of our community.
Positive comments left included;
"Fascinating. Meticulous research. Thank you for taking the time to deliver this."
"Really informative and thoroughly enjoyable."
"Really interesting-thank you!. It really brings the local area to life. Please do continue with the talks-would love to hear about Stoneleigh in WW2."
A big thank you to Diana, Roger and the other volunteers who made these talks possible. |
Display boards showing some of the materials will remain up in the library for some time. So do pop in and take a look.
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Saturday 18th May 2019 |
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Plant Sale a Roaring Success This annual event always draws large numbers of green-thumbed locals after some green bargains and this year was no different.
Local people of all ages turned up on Saturday 18th May to purchase some great value plants and our large selection donated by lots of local nurseries, organisations and individuals were soon gone.
The Library also had a special display of gardening books for those customers who wanted to learn more and we laid on free refreshments for all.
The day raised more than £500 for your local library. A BIG thank you to all who came along to support us and, of course, to the many volunteers who helped make this event so successful.
A special thank you to to Chessington Garden Centre, Crossways Nursery, Homebase Ewell & Morrisons Sutton who all donated plants. And to Sainsburys Stoneleigh who provided tea and coffee for refreshments. |
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Beyond the Book club enjoy Wimpy Kid day |
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Children at the Beyond The Book club had a great time with Wimpy Kid themed crafts and activities on Saturday.
If you love the Wimpy Kid as much as we do but missed out, there will be a Wimpy Kid display and activity sheets and bookmarks (celebrating Jeff Kinney's latest book 'The Awesome Friendly Kid') to pick up for FREE at the library until next Saturday 25th May.
Thanks to Puffin Books and The Reading Agency for the materials. |
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Friday 26th April 2019 Robot Experiments |
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We were lucky enough to be loaned some mini robots from our friends at Guildford Library so local children got the chance to experience an innovative way to play, learn, and interact with robotics in a small-scale safe environment blending entertainment with education.
The children were enthralled with these mini bots programming their movements using colour coded pathways drawn with simple felt tip pens.
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Thursday 18th April 2019 Lego Challenge Fun |
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On the 18th April our library hosted loads of young Lego builders. Local children tackled loads of lego challenges earning points and prizes for great engineering, creativity and skill. The hardest challenge was definitely trying to build a tower of lego cards!
Some of the designs are on display in the library.
This FREE event entertained loads of local families and resulted in some excellent Lego creations and a lot of happy faces. |
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Tuesday 2nd April 2019 |
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New Books We have just received a substantial number of new books which will be listed on the website over the next couple of weeks. Lots of really interesting titles both fiction and non-fiction, all subjects and genres; So please do come down to the library and take a look at the great selection that is now in stock! |
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Monday 18th February 2019 Eco Fortnight in tthe Library. |
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From Monday 18th February, we were busy promoting ecological awareness with a series of displays and activities in the Library including;
Wednesday 20th February 2019
Author visit On Wednesday 20th February, local author, Tina Talbot, came to the library and entertained local children by reading from her book "The Daring Droplets : World Water Cycle Team".
As well as enjoying the book, the children took part in collage, watercolour and design crafts. Many made their own Daring Droplets that are now on display in the Library for all to enjoy. |
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Thursday 7th March 2019
Two Recycling Talks |
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On Thursday 7th March, the library hosted two free talks about plastic recycling and how you can help improve our local recycling efforts from local environmentalist and campaigner, Reema Ajmera, and waste management in the borough from Officers from Epsom & Ewell Borough Council and how the Council is implementing the UK's New Waste Strategy. |
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2018
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Friday 30th November 2018 |
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How we supported the Christmas 'Lights on Broadway' Celebrations. |
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On Friday 30th November, the library hosted a feast of fabulous, festive activities supporting Stoneleigh's "Lights on Broadway" event. We all had a great time and our visitors enjoyed;
♥ Face Painting |
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PLUS We hosted a very special Children's Storytime with Children's Author, Grant Koper, who read from his own book: "The Day Granny's Knickers Blew Away!" |
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Beating Online Scams talk helps protect our community. On Wednesday 21st November Bucks & Surrey Trading Standards gave a free talk about how to best avoid the perils of online scams. Visitors described the speaker, Andrew Gadd, as engaging as he talked about the various ways that crooks use to trick the unsuspecting computer user, with them often losing thousands of pounds. The Friends of Stoneleigh Library arranged this seminar following feedback from those attending the regular free computer classes put on at the library. If you are concerned about online safety or would like to learn more, why not look at the Get Safe Online website: https://www.getsafeonline.org/
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Wednesday 14th November 2018 |
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Standing Room Only at Local History Talk! |
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On Wednesday 14th November more than 70 local residents were treated to a free evening local history talk at the library on "Stoneleigh House & The Stone Family" |
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Lego Swap Events a great success for our young collectors. |
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Stoneleigh Library was buzzing once again as we recently held more FREE LEGO card swapping events in October and November giving local children the chance to complete their collections.
Sainsburys have been running a promotion giving away LEGO Incredible Inventions trading cards. This was the chance for our community to come together to swap their cards making for a fun morning with free refreshments and an extra Inventions Treaure Trail thrown in for good measure! By the close of the October session, thirty-two children had added their names to the roster of successful collectors who had completed their collections in the library. Well done to them
Lastly, a BIG thank you to our friends at Stoneleigh Sainsbury's for donating a few crates of cards to help make it a special time for all involved.
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Saturday 29th September 2018 |
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Our Young People's Chess Club had an amazing first session. |
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A big thank you to the 20+ children that filled up our community room for the first Young People's Chess Club session on 29th September. We couldnt have asked for a better first session.
Fuelled by lots of free biscuits and squash, the children filled up every space. Abilities were wonderfully mixed from beginners through to experienced players. There were some interesting games and everyone had a great time. |
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What a fantastic Summer Reading Challenge 2018! |
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2018 has been a fantastic time for some exciting events. We’ve had the Winter Olympics, the World Cup, Wimbledon and the brilliant European Championships.
Locally, we can now add a fantastic Summer Reading Challenge which has inspired so many young minds in the Stoneleigh community – plus a few older ones as well!
Children who took part in this year's challenge followed clues to explore their FREE colourful collector's map of Beanotown; meeting Dennis, Gnasher and friends along the way. As they read their library books, they collected special stickers to help them find the mysterious buried treasure! |
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A whopping 260 children completed the Challenge and we rewarded them with prizes and a special, invite only, celebration on Saturday 23rd September attended by the Mayor, Councillor Neil Dallen, and his wife, Mayoress Ann Dallen.
Marvin the monkey and our volunteers ensured everyone had lots to eat and drink plus there was a free raffle for some excellent Beano books.
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Football Stickers Swap a Huge Success |
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We supported Broadway's World Cup Event on Sunday 10th June by putting on some special activities for the community including a special Storytime & Rhymetime, free refreshments and Face Painting.
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The deputy mayor and his wife (above) also popped in to say hello and to thank our volunteers for their work supporting the library. . |
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Wednesday 23rd May 2018 |
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Stoneleigh Library Welcomes Jeremy Harte |
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On Wednesday May 23rd 2018, a packed Stoneleigh library welcomed Jeremy Harte, the curator of Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell. Jeremy gave us a lively talk on the history of Epsom Wells in this, the 400th year of the discovery of the medicinal properties of its waters.
Jeremy talked about the various stages in the life of the wells conveying many amusing anecdotes concerning the various colourful characters who visited the area during its time as a spa, and the evening certainly lived up to its advertised billing as being "exceptionally entertaining"
Refreshments including wine were also enjoyed by the approximately thirty library users and others who attended the event and many of whom were already enquiring about when we would be holding the next such talk. We certainly hope to see Jeremy again at Stoneleigh in the not-too-distant future. |
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Plant sale success as customers flock to stock their gardens |
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On May 12th we put on our annual plant sale and gardening event. Loads of great value plants were snapped up as well as some really useful gardening books - all at great prices. A big thank you to the many customers that came along to support us and, of course, to our many volunteers who helped us run the event and raise more than £450. All proceeds are put back into supporting the library and its community activities. |
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And we are especially grateful to: · BEECHCROFT NURSERY, · CHESSINGTON GARDEN CENTRE · CROSSWAYS NURSERY · HOMEBASE who all donated plants to support our sale, as well as many of our volunteers who grew plants for the sale, and helped on the day.
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A packed house for a Q&A with Ben Aaronovitch |
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Best known for the Sunday Times Bestselling ‘Rivers of London’ series of novels, as well as writing two Doctor Who serials, Ben Aaronovitch energised a packed house on Wed 28th March with his stories about being an author and his colourful, and often frank, answers to questions from the audience.
Ben told the audience about how he went about his writing, how he came up with his characters, his dealings with publishers, the BBC and others in the book world plus a few interesting anecdotes about his interactions with his fans and his time as a screenwriter. Ben's books can be borrowed for free here in the Library. You can reserve them online HERE |
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Ben gave his time for free as he is a big supporter of libraries, we're very grateful to him for visiting us. His blog is HERE;
Our local Stoneleigh Sainsburys supported the event enabling us to include refreshments in the £2 ticket price. Epsom Waterstones also came along to help us by providing plenty of Ben's books that he kindly signed at the end of the evening. |
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Saturday 17th March 2018 |
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A "Fabulous" Creative Writing Workshop defies the weather! |
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On Saturday 17th March, the Stoneleigh Creative Writing group hosted another popular creative writing workshop here in the Library. It was well attended, despite the snowy weather and the budding writers had a great time, judging by the positive comments left on Facebook claiming it was "fabulous" and inspirational. It's great to be supporting the creative community here in Stoneleigh. |
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2017
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Friday 8th December 2017 A Packed Out Christmas Craft Fair |
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Despite the chilly weather, the library was packed out on 8th December with our visitors enjoying free refreshments and a host of activities for the young and old at our craft fair - proudly part of the Stoneleigh Lights on Broadway event. The pictures above show some of the winners of our writing and drawing competitions. Congratulations to all our winners and a big thank you to all our entrants and to all those who supported this amazing event. |
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A Winning Poem |
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Congratulations to one of our library users, Trevor Dunford, who has won first prize in a Surrey Library Poetry Competition. Trevor is a member of the Stoneleigh Library creative writing group and has written a great poem about Stoneleigh Community Library. You can find the poem on the Surrey Library Poetry Blog here:€‹ |
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Loads of fun at the Pokemon Card Swap!
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On Monday 23rd October, in addition to all the swopping, the children had a tricky time tracking down all the Pokemon pictures hidden in the library and a handful worked out "Squirtle" was the secret Pokemon and each won a prize of extra Pokemon cards. |
Saturday 21st October 2017
Bumper Book Sale - A big Thank you!
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A very big THANK YOU to all members of our community and our amazing volunteers who helped or visited our bumper book sale which finished on 21st October, 2017 and raised more than £130. All the proceeds are helping to support your local library. |
Summer Reading Challenge Finishers' Celebration a big hit.
This year's Reading Challenge had record numbers signing up and those avid readers who completed the challenge were invited to a celebration event on Saturday 16th Sept. As well as cake, biscuits and plenty of squash, the children were treated to a visit by guide dog, Nugget, and her owner, Janet, who spoke about her inspiring experiences of becoming visually impaired.
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The children asked Janet lots of questions about what it is like to be visually impaired and Nugget enjoyed all the attention he was getting. |
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More than 350 children took part in this year's Reading Challenge. Well done to you all! |
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RECORD BREAKING
We had a record breaking 361 children participating in the Summer Reading Challenge this summer and another record breaking 280 finishing (77.7%). Last year’s figures were 290 starters and a 72% finish rate
August 2017
Animal Agents Children's Activities are a big hit.
Throughout August, the library put on a number of free activity sessions for the chilren based around this year's reading challenge theme of Animal Agents. Loads of boys and girls attended, and assisted by our volunteers and their carers, made some wonderful things and joined in some great activities.
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This fake cake - made by one of our Stoneleigh Animal Agents - looks lovely but probably wouldn’t taste nice! |
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Biscuit Decorating was a big favourite with the Stoneleigh Animal Agents. Some biscuits were so scrummy they never made it off of the table! |
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Jane Austen Baking Competition delivered some tasty treats.
On 24th June, to mark the 200th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, we held a special baking competition at the library that challenged our visitors to bake a period cake.
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One of the library volunteers donned period costume to be 'Jane Austen' for the event. The competitors in the baking competition were provided with a recipe sheet with a choice of recency inspired delicacies to bake at home and bring to the library for the event. |
One of our younger readers, Pelin, beat off the adult competitors to scoop first prize in the baking competition wowing the judging panel with her lemon drop cakes.
LEGO Card Swap Saturdays a HUGE success!
We recently held a couple of hugely successful LEGO card swap sessions (a suggestion by one of our young library users) to help children (and adults) to complete their collections of LEGO cards.
At the first, we had over 240 people visit the library and 144 lucky children reported that they had managed to complete their full collections of 150 cards - with the help of Marvin the monkey - who had a stack of cards to give away.
Thursday 1st June 2017
Supporting National Volunteers Week
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The Friends of Stoneleigh Library hosted a coffee and cake morning for volunteers from all Community Partnered Libraries at Stoneleigh Library on Thursday 1st June in support of this year’s National Volunteers Week which is 1st – 7th June. |
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Many community libraries were represented, including some as far away as Bramley and Byfleet. This was a great opportunity for those who give their time to support their local libraries to get together, network and share ideas about how to best support their local communities. |
Tuesday 30th May 2017
Children's Activity Event
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We were overwhelmed by the number of children who were keen to join in our David Walliam's themed activities on the 30th May. |
Some of the models and designs were incredibly good but best of all, everyone had fun joining in making things inspired by David's books. |
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Saturday 6th May 2017
Plant Sale and Gardening Week
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Our ever popular Plant Sale took place on Saturday 6th May. Clement weather saw larger than normal visitor numbers who snapped up the wide variety of excellent plants and gardening books. Thank you to all of you who came along and supported your local community library. |
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Wednesday 3rd May 2017
Surrey, Then and Now
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On Wednesday 3rd May, Rupert Matthews, a highly entertaining and knowledgeable local historian, gave an illustrated presentation to a full house of people interested in Surrey’s rich history, covering the history of things like pubs, shopping and transport in Surrey over the years. |
Saturday 8th April 2017
Easter Activities
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The library hosted free Easter family activities including a free Easter Egg hunt and activities for the children including facepainting and crafts. |
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Our Easter events are always popular and the children loved the Easter egg hunt along the Broadway, supported by some of the local traders. Thank you to everyone who came along and to all the volunteers who supported the day. |
Monday 6th February 2017
Stoneleigh Library Reopens After Refurbishment
The library reopened after two weeks of minor refurbishments on Monday 6th February. Hopefully you'll like our new and improved lighting which we think certainly looks a lot neater than the older fluorescent units.
In addition, now that the heater near the back door has been replaced, we have the room to display the new aerial photograph of Stoneleigh we purchased last year.
We now have an upgraded fire alarm - which is extremely loud! It has to be tested once a week but hopefully this will be outside of our opening hours!
We have also had a refresh of books by popular authors Lee Child & David Baldacci - which are on the sloping display unit in the middle of the library.
2016
Friday 9th December 2016
Craft Fair
Winners of the Children's & Family's Story Writing& Picture Drawing Competitions Announced
At our craft fair on the 9th December, we announced the winners of these competitions that brought to life Marvin's adventures. The proud winners are shown below.
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A very BIG thank you to all who entered.
Marvin was very impressed with all the entries and thought he would give bananas to everyone who entered.
Sadly though, Marvin got a bit hungry and ate all the bananas - which gave him a bit of a tummy ache.
Do come into the children's library and say hello to Marvin soon! |
A Sumptuous Christmas for our Lucky Raffle Winners!
Thank you all who took part in our Christmas Hamper Raffle. We raised more than £90 which will help us continue to support our community. Diana Kay, Chair of Friends of Stoneleigh Library, helped by some of our winners of the story and drawing competition, drew the raffle and the lucky ticket holders are pictured below with their prizes.
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Which? Magazine
We are pleased to announce that Which? Magazine is again available at Stoneleigh Library,both as the printed magazine and in limited form online on a library computer. You may rememeber that Surrey Library services decided that, as a money saving exercise, Which? would only be provided in major libraries, however as a popular item Friends of Stoneleigh Library have decided to purchase a subscription themselves. Due to copyright restrictions we are only able to offer access online at certain times booked in advance.
Creepy Crafts Scare Stoneleigh Silly!
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On Thursday 27th October, our 5-11 year old readers got to work producing some really brilliant scary crafts - fuelled by plenty of squash and biscuits at our FREE Creepy Crafts event in the community room. |
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A BIG, Friendly Celebration |
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On Saturday 25th September, we held the Summer Reading Challenge Finishing Party and invited along the 200+ local children who had successfully completed the challenge by reading six books during the summer. This was a huge success and a great opportunity for everyone to celebrate together our record breaking achievement.
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There was plenty of squash and cakes for the children as well as a challenging Roald Dahl treasure hunt that kept young minds busy whilst the parents and carers enjoyed coffee, tea and cake. |
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At the end of the treasure hunt, the Mayor pulled the name of a lucky treasure hunter out of a hat and the winner got her very own Roald Dahl book to keep. |
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We also had some special visitors to the celebrations.
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George Crawford, Mayor of Epsom and Ewell came along to show his support for our Community Library and to congratulate all the children on completing this year’s summer reading challenge. George spent a lot of time talking with the children and because they loved his ceremonial robes, he told them the story behind why mayoral robes look the way they do.
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As well as wearing his mayoral robes, George also brought along his ukulele and entertained everyone with a few excellent songs. |
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Paul Eisner, a 2016 Gold Medal winner and World Champion in theF2A fixed-line model aircraft speed championships made a special appearance and gave an inspirational talk to the children and parents about the importance of not giving up and how persevering made him a world champion. |
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This celebration was made possible by support from the local community and by the library’s volunteer staff who gave up their free time to make it such a huge success.
Eat Your Words!
There was fun at the Library on 4th August when we held our first free activity session inspired by this year's Big Friendly Read.
There was edible paper and drawing pens as well as some very tasty LOOKING sponge cakes and "YUMMY" chocolate bars and of course what sweet treats event can happen without biscuit icing.
Follow Stoneleigh Library on Twitter
We're now on Twitter so please follow us on;
Volunteer Awards
The Chair of Friends of Stoneleigh Library, Diana Kay, has been recognised for her contribution to our local community by this year's Volunteer Awards.
The event took place on 2nd June and was organised by Voluntary Action Mid Surrey in partnership with Epsom & Ewell Borough Council and Mole Valley District Council to acknowledge the contribution of volunteers in local community who has have made a real difference in the local community.
Thanks to Dawn Helps for the photo
The picture above shows Diana with the Mayor of Epsom and Ewell, Councillor George Crawford QPM who presented the awards for Epsom and Ewell. Well done Diana!
If you would like to make a difference, why not call in to the library and speak to any of the volunteers about joining in to support us. Even if you've only got a couple of hours a week free or if you couldn't guarantee a regular time to be available, we'd still like to hear from you. Please click HERE for more information about volunteering.
New Photocopier
Many of you are aware that the Surrey Library Service is no longer providing a photocopying service for the public in smaller libraries such as Stoneleigh, so Friends of Stoneleigh Library has purchased a new photocopier which is available for anyone in the local community to use. The photocopier will do both black and white and colour copies and takes A4 and A3 paper. We are keeping the prices the same as previously for black and white copies at 10p per side of A4, but have cut the price of colour copies from £1 to only 50p for A4 and from £1.50 to £1 for A3.
The new copier produces really good quality output and in future we hope to offer B&W and colour scanning (both A3 and A4) to USB stick as well.
Stoneleigh Library Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
Above: The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP and the Chair of Friends of Stoneleigh Library, Diana Kay, unveiing our new aerial photograph at our anniversary celebrations on Saturday 16th April 2016.
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Saturday 16th April saw the Library celebrate its 50th Anniversary with tea and cake for everyone! Stoneleigh Library was officially opened on April 23, 1966, by the then-mayor of Epsom and Ewell and it's now been operating for 50 years! |
Taking a book out, then and now. |
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Both the Mayor, Chris Frost, and our MP, The Rt Hon Chris Grayling, joined in the celebrations along with our volunteers, who keep the library running, and many library users. The Rt Hon Chris Grayling unveiled our new colour, aerial map of Stoneleigh before admiring the many celebration decorations made by our local schools. |
Crowds celebrating, then and now. |
Click Here to See More photos of our 50th Event
[This will open a new browser tab or window]
W/C 29th February 2016
Sparrows Preschool Visit,
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A big thank you to the children from Sparrows Preschool who came to the library for stories and to make some butterflies and caterpillars for our display board! |
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Half Term
Children's Activities
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The half term children’s events were very popular as usual, bringing young and old together into our library; On Saturday 13th, the “Valentines Biscuit Decorating” was popular with both young and old alike. We were lucky enough to take a photo of one of the finished valentine’s creations before it, like so many on the day, disappeared into a hungry mouth. On Monday 15th, we had a special Monday Storybox for the under 8s with the Library’s very own Marvin the Monkey and Friends. We had a number of great stories, including a smashing story about Marvin and Friends who were very excited that this year is the Chinese year of the Monkey. The children also got to do crafts whilst the parents enjoyed some well-earned FREE coffee and biscuits. (Watch out for forthcoming Storybox events in our events section). On Thursday 18th, the children made models out of Hama Beads, Modelling clay and Knex - including a most impressive train, a station and train track that ran the length of the community room! On Friday 19th, we launched a NEW Friday Rhyme and Storytime for children aged 0-4 - this FREE event will continue weekly at 2pm finishing at 2.30pm allowing for parents who also have school children to the school gate for pick ups. |
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February 2016
Creative Writing Group
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February’s Creative Writing event was well attended and pieces on the topic of "My Favourite Book" were discussed. Interestingly ,most of our budding writers found that they could not chose just one favourite book. One said “Just like one cannot choose which child is a favourite one, choosing a favourite book is both impossible and unfair”. Some people bought a copy of their most treasured book whilst others described them in detail. One writer mentioned a particular childhood story about a tribe of red squirrels whose way of life was threatened by a tribe of grey squirrel invaders. The writer was frustrated as they had long forgotten the title and author but, being a well read group, another member quickly came up with the required information – “A Squirrel Called Rufus ” a book published in the 1940's – and, what’s more, they even had a copy! |
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Cluck, Cluck at Storytime
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All things were chicken at storytime recently as the children set to work making their very best feathered friends! The polka dot wings were made out of cupcake cases. This was made possible by Sainsburys North Cheam who are so generous in providing us with surplus stock and donations. Recycling at its best! |
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Saturday 6th February, 2016
National Libraries Day Celebrations
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Despite the rain and the very strong winds, our celebrations for National Libraries Day were well attended by young and old alike.
The craft workshop in our community room meant the children produced some brilliantly decorated balloons along with a few loud bangs - which kept us all on our toes! They also made some excellent bookmarks that fitted snugly over the corner of their favourite books.
Our local author and illustrator, Zehra Hicks, called in to read from one of her books, All Mine!, a great tale about a seagull who wouldn’t share. This special rhymetime session was full and the children were so engaged that many parents took the opportunity to grab some of the free refreshments that were on offer.
We were pleased to get a healthy number of visitors supporting our Try Ten Titles campaign and landing themselves one of our high quality Library bags for free.
A big thank you to Zehra, all the Stoneleigh Library volunteers and to all who came along and supported this great day. |
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Thursday 21st January, 2016
The Library Volunteers Social Event
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In recognition of all the work put in by the many volunteers, we held a social event allowing everyone to get together, something that rarely happens and it was a great opportunity to welcoming along and thank a number of our supporters.
As well as refreshments, we unveiled new library equipment and held a literary themed quiz with our well-read winners shown on the right.
If you'd like to join our team of volunteers please CLICK HERE.. |
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2015
Tuesday 29th December, 2015
The Wishing Stone; A Family Activity Event
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The Wishing Stone is a timeless tale of adventure and discovery in which a young girl travels to the frozen north in the company of her dog Rusty and a kindly but crotchety school bus driver in search of the answers to a riddle which starts with a four leaf clover and ends with a twist in the tale.
Children and their carers were treated to readings from the wonderous tale above along with art sessions inspired by the story using paint, pencil, crayon and modelling clay. Fuelled by cake and biscuits the group produced some stunning pieces to decorate their homes and each borrowed a copy of the book to take home and finish.
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The Author Edwin Mowforth, born in 1931, is a retired University Lecturer and Consultant in Mechanical Engineering and for many years has pursued an active interest in the history and technology of balloons and airships. He now lives in Stoneleigh with his wife, Lelia.
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Thursday 17th December, 2015
Christmas Coffee Morning
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Free mince pies, biscuits and cake greeted the many visitors to our Christmas Coffee morning. Christmas was a great excuse for adding some extra cheer to one of our regular coffee mornings that take place at the Library. As usual, everyone was welcome and many new and regular visitors got to enjoy a tea, coffee or hot chocolate with the many volunteers who continue to make our community library such a success. |
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Friday 4th December, 2015
Christmas Craft Fair
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As part of the "Lights on Broadway" event, this years' Christmas Craft Fair was a huge hit with young and old alike.
With numbers of visitors up on last year, there was lots to do including childrens' Christmas decoration and card making and a sale of a range of delicious cakes.
During the evening we announced three worthy winners of our children's poetry competition. The poems are up in the library now.
We also drew the Christmas raffle. Thank you to all those who bought tickets. The lucky winners on the night staggered home with well stocked Christmas hampers and 2 £10 vouchers, kindly donated by Sainsburys North Cheam. |
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One of the raffle prizes |
Our festive tree |
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Diana with our three poetry competition winners |
The children - busy making Christmas cards |
Lots of Christmas Gifts |
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Congratulations to our Christmas Hamper winners (pictured left) and special thank you's to Ms Madeleine Blake (in the blue top), one of our Trustees, who was kind enough to put the hampers together and to gift wrap them so beautifully, to Ms Diana Kay (pictured above), our Chair, for organising the event and to all our library volunteers, for making the event such a great success. |
Saturday 19th September, 2015
Summer Reading Challenge Closing Event
We had loads of entries to this year’s Summer Reading Challenge;
Aimed at children aged 4 - 11, the Summer Reading Challenge is run by libraries in conjunction with The Reading Agency and this year's Challenge recognised the 60th anniversary of Guinness World Records.
To close this year’s challenge we held a celebration event, inviting the Stoneleigh Community along to enjoy:
Delicious cakes;
Fun and games;
Plus an inspiring talk by Michael Helps, our local record breaker and medal winner, on his Challenges - including a 13 hour, solo experience of swimming the channel!
Thanks, as usual, goes to all of our volunteers who made this wonderful time possible and to all those in our community who came along - whether they won a medal or not!
Sunday 13th September 2015
Trifest
A very big thank you to all our volunteers who manned our stand at the Trifest in Auriol park and a big thank you to all of you who came along to the stand to offer their support with the Library or to let us know how much they appreciated their local library. With 190 information bags taken away by visitors, 28 new joiners and loads of sunshine, we're happy our stand was a great community success. Lastly, a extra thank you to the three local Residents Associations for putting this on. Marvin the monkey and the other volunteers who helped out are all exhausted but happy
Thursday 18th March 2015
Children's Classics
We have had a good selection of children's classics arrive in the library this week which are on now display in the children's area. Please do take a look: we will have more details and cover pictures here shortly.
Tuesday 10th March 2015
Display News
We currently have two small displays running:
- Author of the Month (March) - Ian Rankin
- Poldark
The Poldark display is made more atmospheric since the dripping Cornish Mines featured in the novels are cleverly represented by the leaking ceiling in the library adjacent to the display :-)
Future displays will include:
- April Trollope
- June 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta
- August 200th Anniversary of William Smith's First Geological Map of Britain
2014
Friday 19th September 2014
New Shire Books
The new Shire booklets on the display unit near the Non-fiction shelves are proving extremely popular and two-thirds of the titles are now on loan. We have just chosen a new selection for ordering at the beginning of October and plan to order a third batch early next year. We hope you like the titles we choose - the aim was to get a wide ranging selection of topics but we welcome your suggestions and ideas; the Shire catalogue will be available in the library to browse.
Thursday 17th July 2014
New Shelf Labelling and Non-Fiction Shelf Changes
As part of the ongoing improvements to the library the non-fiction shelves have been re-organised and with the exception of biography are now in subject alphabetical order. There are new shelf edge classification labels which we hope will make it much easier to find subject areas. Fiction also has new shelf edge A-Z labels on the main fiction and thriller shelves and again this should make it a lot easier to find any particular author. We hope these changes meet with your approval, but would be glad of any comments both good and not-so-good.
Further improvements to the book displays will happen over the summer.
Monday 14th July 2014
New Signs
We are pleased to announce that our new "Stoneleigh Communtiy Library" Signage has arrived and has been installed on the front of the library. The signs are in a nice shade of blue with our Friends of Stoneleigh Library logo included. At present there are a couple of unfortunate "deliberate mistakes" which will be corrected later in the week. Pictures to follow shortly!
Monday 9th June 2014
Extended Opening Hours on Monday
From Monday 9th June the library will be open on Monday mornings From 09:30 in addition to the usual afternoon opening. This will be for a trial period of several months to assess useage and demand. It is hoped this will prove popular with our users.
Saturday 3rd May 2014
News of Recent Events
Our first author event, "An evening with Elizabeth Norton", was held at Stoneleigh Library for World Book Night on the 23rd April. Diana Kay, Chair of Stoneleigh Library, introduced author and historian Elizabeth Norton who spoke about researching and writing her books on the Tudors. This talk took place against a large backdrop depicting Nonsuch Palace which had been lent to the library for the evening by Dr Tim Carter. Sue Polton was the lucky winner of a prize draw for a signed copy of one of the author's books and an entertaining and informative evening was had by all. Hopefully this will be the first of many evening author events at Stoneleigh Community library as we try to look at different ways to put the library at the centre of the local community. We also would definitely recommend this author to other groups. A big thank-you to everyone who helped in making this event a huge success.
Thursday 3rd April 2014
Welcome To The Monkey
We warmly welcome our very latest library member who currently seems to be very comfortable sitting in the children's area reading the books. All children are asked to make Monkey feel very welcome and also enter our forthcoming competition on Easter Funday Saturday to give Monkey a proper name.
2013
Monday 2nd December 2013
Christmas Book Display
Now on until mid-Januray 2014 is our brilliant Christmas book display. We have a superb variety of books on all aspects of Christmas, covering the traditional Christmas story in art and literature. The origins of the Christams Festival itself, and Christmas customs and traditions. We have books looking at Christmas in different times and places, focussing on Dicken's Christmas and Christmas during the world wars of the last century.
Tuesday 24th September 2013
New Surrey County Council Community Partnered Libraries Progress Report
The SCC Cabinet agreed on 24th July 2012 to progress with the implementation of Community Partnered Libraries scheme and that there should be a progress report in September 2013.
Tuesday 17th September 2013
Online Magazines
Surrey Library Services have added a range of online digital magazines to the Online Reference Shelf. These are available from home to library users on a variety of devices, as well as in the library. Mostly these are exact digital copies of the hard copy magazine and cover a wide selection of titles. There is a new display in the library explaining the system and displaying the titles currently available, and a take-away helpsheet is available, together with a more detailed booklet for reference. The latter can also be downloaded here.
Saturday 7th September 2013
New Book News
We now have in the last of three new books we requested about the typical houses in the Stoneleigh area. These are part of a group of books covering the history, design, and maintenance of the properties many of us live in and so should be of considerable interest to many library users. Please have a look at these anddo borrow them ! They will be kept on the new book displays for the next few weeks unless on loan.
Saturday 13th July 2013
The Mad Hatter enrolling children and teens on the Summer Reading Challenges
Seventy-nine children and teens registered for the reading challenge today at the launch event. In addition, thirty-seven people either joined the library for the first time or renewed a lapsed membership and the overall footfall for the day was 465 compared with the previous normal Saturday which had 144 people - a very pleasing result.
Sunday 8th July 2013
An attempt will be made to improve the web-site look and layout over the next few weeks, and it is hoped some new features will be introduced, so please bear with us whilst we experiment with some changes ! Thank-you. Any comments are very welcome through the "Contact Us" Form which can now be found on the right side column of the home page.
Friday 5th July 2013
Surrey Library Services has provided the trustees with two reports profiling Stoneleigh Library useage and various information on it's catchment area:
Stoneleigh Library Profile Analysis [Opens Word Document]
Stoneleigh Library Users Mosaic [Opens PDF Document In New Browser Tab or Window]
Friday 26th April 2013
Prizes for the St George's Day children's competition will be presented at 5pm on Friday 26th April at the library. For those not able to attend they will be at the desk from Saturday 27th. There will be a small prize for everybody that entered.
Saturday 6th April 2013
The Craft and Cake Sale held on the 6th April was a very well attended event with a footfall of 317, and FSL made £125 after expenses. A number of new users joined the library. All-in-all a very good result, and a big thank-you to everybody who supported us and the stallholders who supported the event. I think everyone had a good time and the cakes were also rather scrumptious ! We also had an amazing 43+ entries for the Children's colouring competition and a big-thank you to them for their amazing entries, which gave our judges a difficult choice. However six winners were finally chosen and are their colourful designs are reproduced on the events page.
Thursday 28th February 2013
Some Photographs From The Opening Event:
(Labels Will Follow !)
Saturday 16th February 2013
Stoneleigh Community Library opens its doors with a special opening event and further activities during the following week.
Please Note: The library will be closed for two weeks (Monday 4th to Friday 15th February) prior to opening to allow for interior updating.
2012
Saturday 25th November 2012
We now have the date of Saturday 16th February 2013 for opening as a community partnered library. The library will be shut the preceding Monday to Friday for interior updating.
Saturday 29th September 2012
The Community Partnered Library scheme appears to be moving forward, and it seems that SCC is aiming to move all ten libraries involved to volunteer running by the end of March 2013, however Stoneleigh is now likely to be one of the last to change and is not expected to become volunteer run until Feb/Mar 2013. Further details are in the Chairperson's report for September 2012, which may be found with other documents for the Core Group meeting on 2nd October, under "About Friends of Stoneleigh Library" link to the left.
Thursday 16th August 2012
The SCC Communities Select Committee has today reviewed the Community Partnered Library decision made on the 24th July, and decided not to refer this back to the SCC cabinet for reconsideration. This means that the CPL initiative will proceed as the council originally planned, although a bit later than first envisaged.
Wednesday 1st August 2012
The decision of the cabinet re. the Community Partnered Libraries has been called in for review by the Communities Committee
http://slamupdate.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/library-plans-delayed-further-by-scrutiny-committee
Tuesday 24th July 2012
SCC Cabinet Meeting has just unanimously agreed recommendations to proceed with the Community Partnered Libraries. As with other recent council communication on this issue, there was considerable support for the idea that the CPLs can greatly expand their services into the community over the next few years and provide much added value that a council run small library could not do. As an example it was mentioned that one library has plans for Sunday opening using their volunteers. The issue of savings didn't seem to be fully addressed, but strong insinuations were made as to future restrictions on public finances and the future sustainability of the smaller libraries as council run libraries. Between the words seemed to be the implication that these libraries would have been closed at some time in the future without the CPL initiative moving forward.
The archived Cabinet meeting webcast is now available to watch at:
http://www.surreycc.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/70705
The debate on libraries starts with some public questions around 18mins into the webcast.
A couple of news links are here:
Helyn Clack/Lee Godfrey Interview on BBC Radio Surrey on iPlayer
BBC Radio Surrey "Surrey Breakfast With Nick Wallis" (Time Into Program 1:41:20-1:48:20)
A spot about the Surrey Libraries including interview with Lee Godfrey, from SLAM, and Helyn Clack, SCC Cabinet Member for Community Services and the 2012 Games. Although brief this includes some good questioning and is worth listening to.
Helyn Clack: "... the costs that will come out of the CPLs around the staffing will be reinvested into the service..."
The SLAM Instant Twitter Response:
"SCC retake library decision. Policy completely unchanged despite very many outstanding issues. Here we go again!"
I think many of us hope however that this will not be "here we go again" but rather this time the CPLs can just get on with all the good work that is being planned. The thought of further legal action is just too horrifying to contemplate !
Friday 14th July 2012
Three papers for the next Surrey County Council Cabinet meeting to be held on the 24th July - all concerning the Community Partnered Libraries - are available on the SCC website.
Thursday 12th July 2012
Below is a letter that Diana Kay, Chair of the Friends of Stoneleigh Library, is sending to David McNulty, Chief Exec of Surrey County Council, re. current concerns over the Community Partnered Library program:
FofSL Chair Letter To SCC Chief Executive
(Click to open this PDF file in a new browser tab or browser window)
Tuesday 3rd July 2012
At the Friends of Stoneleigh Library AGM this evening, the existing trustees were re-elected for a further year, and one additional trustee (Sadiye Karadeniz) elected.
The minutes of the AGM are now available and may be found on the "About Friends of Stoneleigh Library" page.
Wednesday 24th April 2012
At a Surrey County Council Cabinet meeting today a question was asked by Hazel Watson (Member for Dorking Hills) about the library plans, and the following is a rough transcript of the verbal reply given by David Hodge (Council Leader):
“Surrey County Council will take a decision on the libraries plans again, following a judicial review. Earlier this month Mr Justice Wilkie upheld a technical challenge over a decision to create ten community run libraries staffed by volunteers, although he did not criticise the policy itself. With that in mind the council has decided to bring the proposals back to a cabinet meeting on the 19th June, when it will consider all the work that has already been done to develop a comprehensive training package for volunteers. In the weeks leading up to that meeting the council will carry out further consultations about equalities training for volunteers at community libraries. Our aim all along is to keep the fifty-two libraries of Surrey open, whilst elsewhere in the country many branches are being closed. Our policy allows the community to run libraries to enable us to do this and it is also our council policy. The judge said that although the council has done a lot of work to develop equalities training the High Court ruled that there should have been more detail about it in the cabinet papers about it at the meeting in September last. The judge recognised that the county council has got excellent equalities and diversities processes within the organisation and did not criticise them at any stage; on the contrary he thought they were very good. What we are going to do now is to bring this back to the June meeting. The matter was due to go back to court in May as part of the judicial review however the council has carefully considered Mr Justice Wilkie’s judgement and feels it is not in the best interests of the library-goers or the taxpayer to return to court. The council’s lawyers will now work on the wording of a legal agreement called a consent order with the solicitors acting for the claimants who brought the judicial review against the council. In his judgement earlier this month Mr Justice Willkie did not criticise the proposal for community partnered libraries or the various consultations that have been carried out by this council. However he did uphold a small technical challenge that the cabinet should have more information in front of it about the work that the council had already done to develop equalities training for volunteers when it made its decision in September”.
Tuesday 3rd April 2012
A judgement has been issued for the judicial review concerning the Surrey library reorganisation, but it seem that things remain somewhat inconclusive, and a further hearing is scheduled for May to determine the way forward.
Surrey County Council have issued the following press release
and the judgement itself is here:
Saturday 31st March 2012
Easter "Eggstravaganza" at the library on Saturday 31st March, between 10:00am and 16:00pm. Great fun for all the family, events and competitions with prizes for both adults and children.
PROGRAMME
- 10.00 am - 4.00 pm Craft activities & Easter treasure hunt, bumper booksale and refreshments for sale
- 10.00 am - 1.30 pm Easter hat making
- 10.30 am - 11.00 am Special Storytime for three to five year olds.
- 11.15 am - 11.45 am Rhymetime for the under-fives
- 12.00 noon Closing time for any entries for the children's colouring competition
- 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Sometime between two and three o’clock the Mayor of Epsom and Ewell will visit and judge the Easter hat competition, then present the prizes for the colouring competition and hat competition, and also announce the winners of the "Guess the Number of Eggs in the Jar" and a Competition for Adults.
Wednesday 21st March 2012
A couple of links for those of you interested in the latest on the judicial review:
BBC News Report on Surrey Judicial Review:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-17452107
A link to the parliamentary select committee enquiry is here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmcumeds/uc1815-iii/uc181501.htm
Tuesday 20th March 2012
The judicial review of the council's plan's for library reorganisation was concluded today, but any decision has been deferred until next week.
Wednesday 29th February 2012
Yesterday's Bring and Buy Sale was a really successful event supported by a good number of you: so many thanks to all who supported us with generous donations of items for the sale, and those of you who came and joined us for coffee and biscuits, and then enjoyed browsing, buying and nattering! Also many thanks to all our members who helped out on the day. I am told this raised £187 towards the FofSL funds - a great result !
Click Here For Photographs of Bring and Buy Sale
Tuesday 28th February 2012
Fundraising Bring-and-Buy Sale on Tuesday 28th. February 9:30am-12noon at the Trix Cafe in Stoneleigh Broadway. Nearly new items, books, cakes and plants can be brought in advance to the Trix Cafe between 5.30-6.30pm on Monday 27th Feb or on the morning itself.
Monday 20th February 2012
Friends of Stoneleigh Library Trustee Statement
Following a meeting to discuss the recent legal events affecting the Surrey Library's reorgnaisation, the trustees of the Friends of Stoneleigh Library have issued the following statement:
Friends of Stoneleigh Library have been very encouraged by the response of local people who have come forward to offer to volunteer to help at Stoneleigh Library . We have conducted a series of group interviews for prospective volunteers and have been delighted with the calibre, skills and enthusiasm of those who have attended. This has been an opportunity for local people to come together and work to develop something they are really care about - a local library service, accessible to all.
Friends of Stoneleigh Library now await the findings of the Judicial Review into Surrey County Council’s plans for the library service with interest and will continue to support Stoneleigh Library in whatever way is needed to ensure that Stoneleigh Library continues as a vibrant and lively resource in the heart of the local community.
Tuesday 14th February 2012
The new self service machine has been installed which allows loans, renewals, etc, and also those nasty fine payments ! Also a nice bit of carpet which smells very new. The library staff have re-arranged things around the old front desk area; The entry counter remains, but the exit one has now gone and the old exit passage has been removed, making room for a slight increase in size of the children's library area. Some interesting folders showing views of the library before and after this reorganisation, and also posters for past events that have taken place - these actually take up several folders reflecting the immense efforts library staff have put into keeping us entertained over the past years. It is appreciated!
Thursday 9th February 2012
The judicial review of the council's plan's for library reorganisation has been rescheduled for 19th/20th March Since the current injunction restrains the council from setting up any new community partnerships, this has resulted in the proposed opening date of 19th March for Stoneleigh Community Library being delayed.
Friday 3rd February 2012
From a Surrey County Council Press Release:
'The High Court today upheld an earlier decision to impose a temporary order which stops the authority from taking any ‘irrevocable action’ towards creating community libraries ahead of a judicial review of the council’s plans.'
The full statement can be found here: [This will open a new browser window or browser tab]
http://news.surreycc.gov.uk/2012/02/03/court-orders-pause-to-library-plans/
Monday 16th January 2012
It is planned that Stoneleigh Community Library will open as a volunteer run library on Monday 19th March 2012, after shutting for one week to allow time for volunteer training and familiarisation.
Stoneleigh Library Website
Update (draft details) 17.6.21
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