Welcome to the 2019-2020 season  –

Autumn is here already and after the long summer days we can now look forward to Thursday 3rd October and the start of an exciting and varied lecture programme taking us right through until July 2020.

On behalf of the Committee, I should like to extend a very warm welcome to all our new Members.  We hope you will all be able to attend the buffet lunch on 7th November in Stalbridge Hall after the lecture.  This is an opportunity for us to meet you personally and for you to meet other new members.  We hope you will enjoy being part of our lively society and that you will make new and lasting friendships.

Thank you for joining us.

With best wishes,

 

Sheila Williams

Chairman

While Covid continues to prevent us from having lectures at Stalbridge Village Hall we are presenting Zoom lectures, for our members, in April, May, June and July 2021.

If you are are new to Zoom, this link will help help you to get started.

 

After almost six years of recording, the task is now completed. Originally set up by Jill Harris in 2011, the current team of seven are to be congratulated for their painstaking work which has culminated in the production of a superb record which will be treasured by posterity.

Jill de Bretton-Gordon      Helen Oakes      Felicity Mc Swiney

Belinda Wentworth           Maggie Blather   Pat Gee

Diana Stephens  

The team was assisted by Frances Moule, Judy Heron, Trish Johnson – and names from the past, Rosie Roberts, Liz Hamilton, photographer Andy Newton, Leon Sparrow and many others.

The record, beautifully- bound in dark blue leather with gold lettering, was handed to St. Mary’s Church at a service of Holy Communion on Sunday 16th February 2020 by the Chairman, Mrs Sheila Williams.

 

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         Sheila Williams (Chairman)

The annual Young Artists’ Christmas Exhibition is now running from Friday 29th November until Saturday 14th December.  Prizes were awarded on Friday evening by the Chairman, Sheila Williams to Will Montgomery, Peter Hazzard and Sharon Hutchings.  George Thomas and Anne-Louise Richard’s exhibits were Highly-Commended.

A very interesting day was enjoyed by our members and guests on Monday 14th October at The Arthur Morison Memorial Hall, Cucklington when lecturer Anne Haworth gave us some excellent talks about The Silk Road, China’s Windows on the World.

The new venue seems to have gone down well with our members who appreciated the lovely hall and facilities. Let us hope for better weather for the March event so that we can open up all those lovely glass doors and venture out onto the terrace for our coffee and lunch breaks!

With the use of some old maps shown on the big screen, Anne showed us just how extensive the Silk Road routes were and she also showed us some of the many goods that were exchanged along the routes both by sea and through the desert from Ancient times, through the Middle Ages and the European Renaissance, into the 19th Century. We learnt how the Silk Road was named in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen, a well-known German geographer and how the movement of goods were affected at times by the different Rulers of countries that they had to pass through.

As always, this was a very sociable day and we were very well looked after by our caterer Donna and her helpers who served up lots of tea, coffee and biscuits as well as a delicious seated lunch. It’s always good to hear the great buzz of conversations going on around the hall during the coffee breaks and lunch on these days and we look forward to the next Day of Special Interest which will be held on Monday 16th March 2020 when lecturer Rosamund Bartlett will be talking about St. Petersburg.

Penny Brentnall

The Evening Lecture planned for Wednesday 27th May 2020 will be held in the Tithe Barn at Hinton St. Mary. 

The  Making of Landscape Photographs – an Extraordinary Double Act between the Eye and the Brain by Charlie Waite, a world-renowned landscape photographer who produces amazing, artistic landscape pictures.

Doors open 1815hrs followed by the lecture at 1845hrs.  Drinks and canapes served until 2030hrs.