News
Latest News Feb 2026!
8th Feb 2026
"Sore Fingers Week 2026”
10th April, 2026
Hey Guys and Gals, time for another update.
STOP PRESS: REMINDER - WE HAVE MOVED!
The event takes place at:
Lord Wandsworth College
Long Sutton, near Hook, Hampshire – RG29 1TB
Sorry it’s a long one, so pour yourself a Gin and Tonic and read this in front of the fire side!
Contents:
ACCOMMODATION NEWS
WIFI ACCESS
COURSE AND TUTOR NEWS
SCRATCH BAND FORM IS UP AND RUNNING
MERCHANDISE RETURNS!
TRAVEL INFORMATION
ACCOMMODATION AT LORD WANDSWORTH COLLEGE
As previously explained, the school has a much better distribution of rooms favouring single, twin and three bed rooms across the campus. Many who normally stay in caravan and motorhomes have upgraded their booking to take advantage of this state of affairs.
If you are in such accommodation we encourage you to enquire about an upgrade.
Plenty of space remaining so accommodation will not be a problem.
As we are at a new venue, we are introducing a team of receptionists at each Boarding House to greet students on arrival and help them find their rooms, nearest sanitary facilities, Sitting Rooms, Kitchen, Garden, etc. This should make your arrival much easier. Members of this team will also man the camping area to position your outfit or tent appropriately.
May we remind you there will be no electric hook ups.
We are bringing back the traffic management team that did such a good job last year and team members will be dotted around the site to guide you to the best parking spaces to suit you. There's much more parking close to the boarding houses but probably not enough for everybody. So, there will be some remote parking and if you don’t intend to use your vehicle for the duration, we ask you to volunteer for remote parking.
At LWC there is provision to park up to a 1000 vehicles! So no more parking on the grass and getting stuck in the mud!
A leisurely walk from the furthest House to the centre of things will take no more then 5 minutes and it’s mostly on the flat, no steep climbs.
Once in the centre, most facilities, classrooms, main hall, refectory, etc. are much closer together.
Although there are electric vehicle charging points in the main staff car park we are discouraging limitless use of them as they are intended for the school staff electrical maintenance vehicles and school staff use (i.e the people who will be looking after us). We will have access to them if necessary, so don’t worry you won’t be left stranded but please make sure your vehicle is fully charged before entering the site.
TUTOR NEWS AND BOOKINGS
We are pleased to announce that our Christmas/New Year promotion worked very well and we exceeded our best target of 200 bookings by December 31st achieving a total of 228!
So, Philippa Ogden has taken charge of the draw in a public place at a session local to her. Two booking numbers will be drawn out and the winners will receive a 50% discount on their course fees.
Thanks for joining in and booking early, it really helps us plan. Here’s a round-up of available places on courses.
AUTOHARP: 8 PLACES
BANJO (LEON HUNT): 14 PLACES
BASS: 7 PLACES
DOBRO: 7 PLACES
BG FIDDLE: 5 PLACES
GUITAR (ROSS MARTIN): 9 PLACES
MANDOLIN (MIKE COMPTON): 11 PLACES
MANDOLIN (JACOB JOLLIFF): 3 PLACES
MUSIC DEVELOPMENT: 10 PLACES
SINGING: 2 PLACES
SONGWRITING: 6 PLACES
UKULELE: 9 PLACES
FOUNDATION CLASSES: 15/20 PLACES
Quite a lot of room yet. If a course is not listed it means it is full.
Keep booking folks, we’d really like to crack the 300 student mark this year and we’re not too far off with a couple of months still to go.
As announced, after a long-fought battle with availability to get cover for Tim Stafford’s withdrawal, Ross Martin came to the rescue! What a result! Result, Ross is such a good high profile catch and has some Sore Fingers history having taught here in 2023.
Flat-pickers are in for a treat!
THE 2026 SCRATCHBANDS
Yes, we know you’ve been waiting and the S.B. team are already anticipating your enthusiastic participation. Please remember, there are two streams, one Performing in the concert and the other Non-Performing who go through the same mentoring but do not perform a spot in the concert
Want to register? Here are the log on details:
Username: sbandsEs26
Password: sfsbEs26 (type exactly as shown
This latter stream is particularly recommended to students on the foundation classes and anyone who is less confident about joining sessions. This stream will get you playing with a group and beginning to understand band dynamics and how to play with others.
On a related subject, Peter Earle has done some great work to the “How to Play in a Session” electives we launched to great acclaim last Easter Monday through Wednesday. The pilot was a success and is destined to be even better this time!
MERCHANDISE
We have always had a merch stand at S.F.Week set up to sell tutor merch, CDs, Books, etc and some goods of our own. We are pleased to re-introduce the fashion store with a selection of garments embroidered with SFSS logos. We will have a small sample stock so you can check the quality etc. Of course, if you want something we haven’t got on display, it will be possible to order the item online and there’s a whole range of other types of clothes in a range of colours on sale.
These will be visible from the website and the goods are available in small quantities all year round, perfect for Xmas and Birthday presents!
We will also have a stock of strings, and other bits and pieces to cover those emergencies, all sourced from sponsors D’Addario.
Card Payments will be accepted.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
We will update the website with some general Route plans for travel from different parts of the Country.
We’ve done a fair amount of checking to ascertain typical journey times by road
The common thing to emerge, for those travelling from north of the Midlands is that it is best to avoid London and the M25.
Aim for the centre of the country in the South Midlands near Warwick, easily done from the M6, M1, A1M, etc and take the M40 south towards Oxford.
Then it’s A34 South towards Newbury where you take the A339 for about 20 miles to cut across to Basingstoke. By-passing the town, you join the M3 at Junction 6 and exit at Junction 5 – Hook and you are almost there!
From South Wales, it’s the M4 to Junction 13 – Newbury. Take the A34 into Newbury and then the A339 towards Basingstoke. See above.
From Cornwall, Devon and the West Country, the A303 is the one, all the way until it joins the M3 North just short of Basingstoke. Follow the M3 London bound to Junction 5 - Hook and you are a few miles from Lord Wandsworth College.
For Sat Nav lovers, here is the school post code: RG29 1TB.
Getting from Heathrow, Gatwick or Stanstead airports by public transport:
Please note we will be running a shuttle bus between railway station and school as we did previously. We may need to make a small charge for this as the distance is about twice what it was at the last venue.
Heathrow is the easiest and quickest. Get the rail Air bus to Woking Station where you can get a direct train to Hook. They run every hour.
Gatwick requires a train trip into London Bridge Station and a change of station to London Waterloo where you can catch a direct train to Hook. These run every hour. The connection between stations is two stops on the underground on the Jubilee line Westbound.
Finally from Stanstead, travel by rail into London Liverpool Street station, transfer to London Waterloo and take a direct train to Hook. The station transfer on the underground is as follows: Take the Northern Line Southbound to London Bridge (2 stops) and change to the Jubilee Line Westbound (2 stops) to reach Waterloo Station.
Best wishes,
John, Moira and the SFSS team.