Programme 2020
Generously supported by
The Westminster Foundation
All meetings and talks are at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester at 7-30pm
Except for
January 2020 & February 2020 talks
which
are at 2-30pm
Entry is free to members, £5 for visitors and £2 for students/under 18.
2020
Important notice – Change of Speaker
Tuesday 14th January 2020 at 2.30pm – afternoon lecture.
Dr Rhian Morgan is our advertised speaker for Tuesday 14th January. Very sadly, Dr Morgan has had to cancel and cannot speak to us about the DNA discoveries associated with the identification of the skeleton found in a car park in Leicester as those of King Richard III.
We hope that Dr Morgan will deliver her talk in the next lecture season.
Kindly stepping in will be Mike Blackburn
Study of the Landscape using Air Photography and Satellite Imagery
Mike was a surveyor cartographer with the British Ordnance Survey for over 40 years. He will explain the origins and developments of aerial landscape photography from its inception in World War I and its rapid development from the 1940s onwards when its use became commonplace and made a huge contribution to mapping the United Kingdom and further afield.
The talk encompasses recent developments which we now take for granted – satellite imagery, Google earth and the GPS navigation systems, and Mike will also give us a glimpse into the future, which he suggests will look radically different in as little as five years’ time, with many of today’s technologies becoming redundant museum pieces as they are displaced by recent innovations.
Mike is a polished, highly experienced and engaging public speaker, and we look forward to his lecture, and thank him for stepping in at very short notice.
Thursday 6th February at 2.30. - afternoon lecture.
Adventures of an Art Dealer - discovering lost paintings
by Miles Wynn Cato
Miles Wynn Cato has been a dealer in historic British art for over 30 years.
An authority on early Welsh painting, he is also the author of several books including the first biography and catalogue of the work of Sir Joshua Reynolds' Welsh pupil, the portrait painter William Parry (1742-1791)
Miles's illustrated talk will look at some of the fascinating discoveries he has made during his time as a dealer, with insights into the challenges and rewards of being an art dealer in the 21st century.
Sponsored by Brian Dykes
Wednesday 4th March at 7.30pm
Taylor’s Boatyard
250 years of Boatbuilding
by Geoff Taylor
Geoff Taylor, grandson of Joseph Harry Taylor, the founder of JH Taylor and Sons, Chester, will outline the history of a boatbuilding family that had its origins in the Black Country in the early 19th C. It brings together many years of research and includes oral history, family documents and many original photographs.
Sponsored by The Westminster Foundation
Thursday 16th April at 7.30pm
The quest for Perfection: designing the 18th century English Country House and its landscape
by Dr Alan Crosby
The talk ties in with Peter Boughton’s Grosvenor Museum exhibition
April – October
Dr Alan Crosby guides us into the world where Georgian country houses are among the supreme achievements of English architecture.
Their designers drew their inspiration from the classical buildings of the Mediterranean, but modified and reworked these styles to produce something distinctively English.
The principles of simplicity, symmetry and formal lines were adopted and adapted in a thousand different ways.
No less important was their setting.
Here the emergence of a highly characteristic English style of landscaping can be traced back to the 1720s and 1730s, although it is popularly exemplified by the work of Capability Brown 30 or 40 years later.
Ironically, perhaps, the landscape style rejected formal straight lines in favour of sweeping curves and artfully created vistas but the combination of house and garden is uniquely harmonious.
This talk looks at England as a whole, but uses many examples from the houses and designed landscapes of Cheshire and adjacent areas.
Sponsored by Col and Mrs Bryan King
Wednesday 6th May at 7.30pm
Deva Victrix & Isca Silurum: Life at the edge of the Roman Empire
by Dr Caroline Pudney
In this lecture, Dr Caroline Pudney will explore the ways in which archaeology has unearthed and shed light on the people of Roman Chester (Deva) and Caerleon (Isca).
Situated at the edge of Britannia and the Imperium Romanum, these legionary fortresses attracted people from across the empire, all of whom brought with them their own cultural traditions and social practices, creating a cultural melting pot.
What evidence for these individuals survives and how has it shaped a narrative of life in and around the western frontier of Britannia?
Caroline Pudney appeared with Professor Alice Roberts in the Channel 4 programme ‘Britain’s most historic towns – Roman Chester’.