WOKING'S Story is the name of the museum section in The Lightbox. I fear it tends to be overlooked, being dimly lit and passed on the way to the Main Gallery, which stages important exhibitions – currently on Lucian Freud.

Perhaps it was not helped by the remarks written on the floor at the entrance to the gallery: “Once known as the place of the mad, the bad, and the dead.”

I always knew that phrase to end with the word sad rather than dead. Whatever. They are not the words of welcome I would have chosen for my doorway.

They allude to Woking’s one-time asylum, prison and the cemetery at Brookwood. Now the whole room has been brightened up. 

The blind which used to cover part of the window has been removed. It is now a wonderful site for viewing the sun setting and reflecting in the waters of the Basingstoke Canal which runs alongside The Lightbox.

Local Heroes showcases a member of the community – someone who has made their mark on the lives of those around them.

The current hero is Richard Dodds, an orthopaedic surgeon who rose to fame when he captained the Great Britain field hockey team which won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988. Born in York, he moved south when his father, also a keen hockey player, became headmaster of Ottershaw School. 

Whilst Richard was at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, his family moved to Horsell Rise. Richard did part of his medical training at St Peter’s Hospital and managed to combine his work with hockey, winning 79 caps for England and 65 for Great Britain. He was made an OBE for services to hockey in 1989.

There is a new exhibition which illustrates the history of Woking’s Shah Jahan Mosque alongside plans and prints for the Abu Bakr mosque in Cambridge, designed by Marks Barfield, the architectural practice behind The Lightbox. 

It collaborated on the Cambridge Mosque with Professor Keith Critchlow, currently featured in the Main Gallery Freud exhibition and tutor to both David Marks and Julia Barfield.

Woking’s Story also features exhibits on those mad, sad and dead subjects, and also one on Woking Palace, which is well illustrated, along with interviews which record memories of local residents dating back over the years.

At last, The Lightbox is harking back to its old motto: Art Turned On , History Lit Up, and it certainly benefits from being lit up.

For more local opinions, see this Thursday's edition of the News & Mail. To send your community gossip to Ann for her column, use [email protected]