Explore various ‘did you know?’ facts on our Tiki-Toki Timeline

Over the past few months, Egham Museum has been bringing its records up to date for full public access. As part of this programme, Margaret, a museum volunteer, has created a wonderful online timeline that can be fully accessed by anybody. The timeline documents important and interesting events that took place in Egham and the surrounding areas, from the Bronze Age discoveries in Runnymede to a 1956 visit from Marilyn Monroe in Englefield Green.  

Margaret joined the museum in March. Here are her own words on why she decided to create the timeline and what it means for her and the surrounding community:

Chatting to other Museum volunteers and members of the Egham-by-Runnymede Historical Society introduced me to some lovely people and gave me some good stories to begin with, which I was able to enhance with pictures and information from the Museum website. Some stories needed to be augmented with interesting additional facts found on the internet.

One of the delights of internet research is the way stories lead into each other and point the user into unexpected directions. Forgotten facts which emerged from these included the storage of the Piccadilly Eros on Cooper’s Hill during World War II and the moving epitaph written by actor David Garrick about a former vicar of Egham, Thomas Beighton. Teasing out the truth behind these stories can occupy me pleasurably for hours – or even days – until a new lead tempts me into another direction.

Thanks to Museum visitors and the fantastic local history websites I have discovered, I have a notebook rapidly filling with the seeds of more delightful stories to research.

It is clear that Margaret is passionate about what she is doing for the museum, and we greatly appreciate the time she is investing into both preserving the past of Egham and helping its future.

The link to the timeline is here: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/747852/Historic-Egham/

I wholeheartedly encourage you all to check it out and see Margaret’s hard work!