October 1st 2011 was a beautiful Indian summer day that showed Charlton House in all its former splendour. This was the first public event of the project. It was designed to encourage local people to view the research into the history of the Maryon-Wilson Estate and how the parks had been developed over the past 112 years.

In all 74 people attended the event including people who just dropped by looking for some shade from the autumn heatwave. A number of stories were collected on the day while other people arranged for a quieter time to record their memories.

It was an encouraging start to the main body of the project. Some people had brought personal photographs or their collections of postcards of Charlton which they let project volunteers copy to add to the archive, others looked for their homes on maps drawn up before some streets were built and listened to stories already recorded. A good day was had by all. editor.