Trust Visit 2018 - TrustNews Mar 18
Tuesday 15 May 2018 - Bransgore and Christchurch application form
This will be a self drive visit to:
10am All Saints Church, Thorney Hill, Bransgore: A church built in 1906 by Detmar Blow commissioned by Lord and Lady Manners. It contains memorials to their daughter Christine who died in 1904 and their son and heir who died in the first weeks of the first world war. The lettering is by Eric Gill and the tomb monument by Sir Bertram MacKennal with an extraordinary mural by Phoebe Traquair in the apse. This church is rarely open and we are to be given a guided tour of its treasures.
11am Christchurch Priory: “of all the great churches of England, Christchurch is probably the least well known" says Simon Jenkins who gives it 5 stars. Norman, Early Gothic and Perpendicular (to summarise and simplify).
Parking in the adjacent carpark. Coffee followed by a guided tour of Christchurch Priory, its crypts and museum.
1pm Lunch: A short stroll across the grounds of Christchurch Castle, we have booked a 2 course set menu lunch at the Kings Arms Hotel.
2:30pm Red House Museum: Another short stroll to this outpost of the Hampshire Cultural Trust in Dorset. We shall be guided around the former Georgian workhouse by one of the curators.
Cost: £45 including coffee and 2 course set lunch at award winning Kings Arms Hotel. For those who would prefer to organise something lighter for lunch for themselves then cost will be £30. For those who don't want to drive, then it would be possible to omit the first visit, travel to Christchurch by train and join the group at the Priory at 11am.
Maximum number on trip 30. If you would like to join us, please complete the form enclosed with this Trust News and return it to Heritage Centre together with a cheque by 30 March.
Monday 3 September 2018 - London Livery Halls
This has been arranged so that members can get cheap day returns to London Waterloo (cost not included). We meet at the near Moorgate at 11:30 for coffee followed by a tour of the premises which will end with a sandwich lunch and a glass of wine in their magnificent dining hall. We will then make our way to the Skinners’ Company Hall (20 minute walk or 10 minute taxi ride) for the afternoon tour.
Armourers and Brasiers’ Company: The Company has occupied its present site since 1346 three years after the granting of its fi
rst charter. It is described in the first deed as “the Dragon and five shops". The Hall narrowly escaped the Great Fire and was constantly repaired and refurbished over the next 170 years. By 1835 however, the building was costing more to maintain than it was thought to be worth and the Court decided to rebuild. The New Hall, first occupied in 1841, was designed by Joseph Henry Good, the Company’s surveyor, who was also surveyor of St Andrew's Holborn and a pupil of Sir John Soane. The Livery Hall was Gothicised in 1871. It narrowly escaped the Blitz when many other Livery Halls were destroyed. It has many treasures associated with its members and their craft.
Skinners’ Company: This Company developed from the medieval guild of Skinners who dressed and traded furs. The original 13th century Copped Hall was destroyed in the Great Fire of London and rebuilding work started in 1667. For a time it was rented by the East India Company who presented the Company with a mahogany table still in use today. Although it suffered some damage during the blitz, it survived mostly intact. The Company commissioned a series of 12 murals in 1901 from the artist Frank Brangwyn and, those murals are still amongst its finest treasures.
Cost: £45 including coffee and sandwich lunch with glass of wine at Armourers’ Hall plus both guided tours. No travel costs included. Maximum number on trip 25. This visit is heavily over-subscribed following our call in the last TrustNews for expressions of interest, so at this stage we are sending application forms only to those who responded. If they have not returned forms and cheques by the end of March then we will offer places to those on the waiting list. ln the unlikely event that all places are not filled, we will send application forms with the next TrustNews.
Morris Singer Foundry - I am sorry to report that this trip has been turned down by the owners for “health and safety reasons". I am trying to find another place to visit near there so that we can combine it with the creative skills of Hugo Egleston who is nearby.
Mells and Chippenham - This outing relies on the skill of Dr Antonia Whitley, a very busy lady. I am hopeful that we will make it in the autumn.
An update on these two visits will be in the next Trust News, at the end of May.