Guided tour and historical exhibition. 
 

Coach trip to Oxford for tour of the medieval museum, Merton College chapel and grounds.

Coach trip to Arundel, with possible visit to the English Martyrs Catholic Church on way home to see the "UK Sistine Chapel"

75 minute backstage tour at the National Theatre. Independant travel by train and walk to the theatre from Waterloo. Tour cost £12.50 per person.

Coach trip to Brighton for a tour of the Royal Pavilion. There is a nearby museum and art gallery which can be visited (at extra cost). Cost £45 per person. Tickets on sale before the July lecture.

Standen House is one of the finest examples of Arts and Crafts workmanship, with Morris & Co.interiors. And there are hillside gardens for all seasons, an award winning plant collection and views across the Sussex countryside.

Coacxh travel with pick-ups in Fleet and Hartley Wintney.

This is a visit to the magnificent Hindu temple in Neasden on 20th April 2023. 

This is to be a virtual tour, with Russell Nash as our guide.

This will be a virtual tour of Rome, focussing on the art of Raphael, led by Stuart Harvey. This will be an interesting follow on from Sian Walters' lecture in February. Stuart's description of what we will see :

Raphael Sanzio, the “Prince of Painters”, worked in Rome from 1508 until his untimely death in 1520, aged just 37 years. In this virtual tour we will examine his works in Rome, from the Papal Apartments in the Vatican, now known simply as the Raphael Rooms, through to the various artistic commissions from two Popes and various wealthy patrons and cardinals. We will discover many of his earlier paintings in various museums in Rome, and also look at his architectural legacy. Finally we will explore his colourful personal life and his death and burial in the Pantheon.

This is a virtual tour, with an Oxford Blue badge guide. 11.00 on Wednesday 19th May. A big change from the East End of London.

This is our third virtual visit to the East End of London with Pepe Martinez as our guide. Lots to see!

Following on from his tour in October, Pepe Martinez will take us on a further virtual tour of the East End of London. In October he showed us the changes due to immigration from the Hugenots to the Kindertransport in 1938. This time he will be looking at "Bangladesh to Banksy". Should be interesting.

This is a virtual tour, presented on Zoom, with Pepe Martinez as our guide. Pepe is an award winning London Blue Badge Tourist Guide.

 This is essentially a story of immigration, wave after wave of people coming to London to seek refuge. He will take us from the arrival of French Huguenots in the 1680s through to the arrival of more than 10000 Jewish children of the Kindertransport in 1938.

Booking from 10.00 am at May and June meetings.

This will be a private tour organised for The Arts Society Hart. Bookings will be taken at the March and April meetings.

Booking from 10.00 am at November and January meetings

Morning

Time for coffee in the refectory

A tour of Salisbury cathedral 11.15 /11.45

An exhibition of the Magna Carta

Lunch

Afternoon

A tour of Arundells 2pm

The house of Sir Edward Heath

Mottisfont is an 18th-century house with a medieval priory at its heart.  Maud Russell made it her home in the 1930s, bringing artists here to relax and create works inspired by Mottisfont’s past, including an extraordinary drawing-room painted by Rex Whistler. There is a permanent 20th-century art collection and major exhibitions in the top-floor gallery.

Outside, the gardens are not to be missed and include a stunning walled rose garden.

The romantic exterior of Knebworth House with its turrets, domes and gargoyles silhouetted against the sky does little to prepare the visitor for what to expect inside. The House has stood for many years longer than the Victorian decoration suggests; the stucco hides from view a red brick house dating back to the Tudor times.

Home of the novelist, playwright and politician Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton; author of the words “The pen is mightier than the sword”. Other notable family members include Lady Constance.

Knebworth is an extraordinary walk through 500 years of British history. Stories and heirlooms reflect the family’s contribution to literature, politics and foreign service.

Home of King Henry VIII. He extended and developed this grand palace after acquiring it in the 1520s and its many royal occupants have furnished the palace with decadent tapestries and paintings throughout the centuries.  We can see Hampton Court Gardens which span over 60 acres of lush greenery, parkland and plantations, the Great Vine vineyard that was planted in 1769, the Maze, apparently the most famous maze in the world and the enormous Tudor kitchen built to feed the entire court.

A replica of Henry VIII’s crown sits on display in the Royal Pew.

Since October 1812  Sandhurst has been the British Army military academy for training infantry and cavalry officers of the British and Indian Armies.

RMAS is the primary training facility for officers in the British Army. It provides a 44 week intensive officer training regimen in military science, academics and athletics.

Our Tour will last about 3 hours and include Prestige Rooms of Old College including the Indian Army Memorial Room and Old College Grand Entrance, the RMAS Museum, The Royal Memorial Chapel and Roman Catholic Chapel.

In 1901 Merton Russell-Cotes gave his wife Annie a dream house on a cliff-top overlooking the sea.

It was an extraordinary extravagent birthday present. They filled this exotic seaside villa with beautiful objects from around the world, and lined the walls with a remarkable collection of British art.

The visit will cost £25 each, to include admission, guided tours and coffee and biscuits on arrival.

Tickets will be on sale on Wednesday 13th June and Wednesday 11th July.

Lydiard Park

This visit is cancelled. The venue is closed that day. Instead, we will go to the Russell-Cotes House, Art Gallery and Garden in Bournemouth.

Stourhead

Stourhead is a Palladian house, described in a magazine in the 1740s as ‘a living work of art’. The world-famous landscape garden has at its centrepiece a magnificent lake reflecting classical temples, mystical grottoes, and rare and exotic trees, and offers a day of fresh air and discovery.

Uncover the fascinating history of Stourhead house and enjoy the unique Regency library, Chippendale furniture and inspirational paintings.

Explore the 1,072 hectare (2,650 acre) Stourhead estate where chalk downs, ancient woods and farmland are managed for wildlife.

Highclere Castle

Highclere Castle was built in the Jacobean Revival style by the architect Charles Barry, with a park designed by Capability Brown. Whilst most famous as the location for Downton Abbey, it was also the location for Jeeves and Wooster!

The Carnarvon family has lived at Highclere since 1679, and the current Castle stands on the site of an earlier house, which in turn was built on the foundations of the medieval palace owned by the Bishops of Winchester for some 800 years.

The 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.  There is a new Egyptian Exhibition throughout the cellars of the Castle.

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park is a place of exceptional historical importance. It remains highly relevant to our lives today and for the future. It is the home of British codebreaking and a birthplace of modern information technology. It played a major role in World War Two, producing secret intelligence which had a direct and profound influence on the outcome of the conflict.

Bletchley Park brings together the dramatic history of the twentieth century with the challenges we face in the twenty first in our rapidly changing and technologically complex society.

Parham is one of the country’s finest traditional stone E-shaped Elizabethan mansions, built in 1557 and set in the heart of an ancient deer park below the South downs. Over the years it has been owned by three families and it is still a family home. 

The House includes a Great Hall with towering mullioned and transomed windows and early english furniture, and a 160ft Long Gallery with a wonderful variety of furniture, pictures, needlework, antiquities and objets d'art.

There are important collections of paintings and needlework. The paintings include portraits of English Tudor and Stuart monarchs and their courts, and the collection of 17th Century embroidery is considered the finest and most important in the country.

The spectacular gardens pre-date the house and consist of seven acres of beautiful Pleasure Grounds and a four-acre Walled Garden. There are stunning herbaceous borders, a glasshouse, vegetable garden, orchard, and a 1920s Wendy House.

Hatfield House was completed in 1611. It was built by Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury and son of Lord Burghley, the chief minister of Elizabeth I. The Estate has been in the Cecil family for 400 years. The deer park surrounding the house and the older building of the Old Palace had been owned by Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, who had used it as a home for his children, Edward, Elizabeth and Mary. It was while she was living in the Old Palace, in 1558, that Elizabeth learned of her accession to the throne.

Superb examples of Jacobean craftsmanship can be seen throughout the House such as the Grand Staircase with its fine carving, a 170ft Long Gallery, and the rare stained glass window in the private chapel.

Hatfield House forms the centre piece of an extensive private estate, including a deer park and woodlands. There are extensive gardens and parterres surrounding the House as well as ornamental sculptures and woodland walks.

Whitchurch Silk Mill is a gem of industrial heritage set in rural Hampshire.  It is the oldest silk mill in the U.K. still in its original building - a Georgian water-mill that weaves silk using 19th Century machinery.  Visitors can take a guided tour and see the original mill and the Victorian machinery plus wonderful fabrics on the looms.

Guided tours of Winchester Cathedral and Winchester College.

Booking at the September and October lectures

Winchester Cathedral is the longest medieval cathedral in Europe. It is also an outstanding example of all the main phases of English church architecture from the 11th century until the early 16th century, when much of today’s building was complete. It is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and before the Reformation, Saint Swithun. It is the seat of the Bishop of Winchester and centre of the Diocese of Winchester. Among its treasures are the beautiful illuminated Winchester Bible, 12th-century wall paintings, medieval carvings, and contemporary art.

Winchester College was founded in 1382 by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, and is believed to be the oldest continuously running school in the country. The guided tours last about one hour and concentrate on the mediaeval heart of the College, and include Chamber Court; the 14th century Gothic Chapel, with one of the earliest examples of a wooden vaulted roof; College Hall, the original Scholars' dining room; School, the seventeenth century redbrick schoolroom and the original mediaeval cloister.

Berkeley Castle is a Norman castle which is the oldest building in the country to be inhabited by the same family who built it.  It is also a fairytale Castle with its warm pink stone that glows in soft sunset light.

The Castle includes medieval kitchens, an imposing Great Hall, and elegant State Apartments, and its Norman Keep contains a cell in which King Edward II was held captive and reputedly murdered. Its collections include magnificent furniture, rare paintings by English and Dutch Old Masters, Elizabethan tapestries, and the renowned Berkeley silver. Of particular interest are Francis Drake's cabin chest, Queen Elizabeth I's bedspread, and the banner that the 4th Earl of Berkeley took with him to the Battle of Culloden. Many of the unusual tapestries, paintings, ceramics and silverware also have their own story to tell.

The Castle is surrounded by eight acres of landscaped gardens including Queen Elizabeth I’s bowling green, sweeping lawns, terraces and scented borders, and an ornamental lily pond. There are collections of roses, magnolias and other specialist plants.

Within the old walled garden is a tropical Butterfly House with a large number of species flying freely in the landscaped, humid environment. It provides a wonderful opportunity to see rare species in beautiful surroundings.

The house is also home to the world's largest moth – the Atlas Moth!

N.B. There are plenty of tickets left so family and friends are welcome

Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival house and estate near Wraxall, North Somerset. From 1843 to 2002 it was owned by the Gibbs family who built their fortune from guano.

The House is a treasure trove of almost 60,000 objects, including everything from priceless paintings and ornate furnishings to ice skates and picnic sets.

The private purpose-built chapel was commissioned by William Gibbs in 1873. It has flamboyant Gothic architecture, with every aspect being decorated, from the beautiful mosaic floor to the flowering brass chandeliers.

The estate comprises 540 acres of parkland, woodland, and meadows. The gardens are relatively unchanged since 1900. There are large open lawns and formal terraces as well as smaller spaces such as the Rose Garden. The Kitchen comprises an Orangery, cut flower garden, walled vegetable garden and glasshouses with an interesting selection of working buildings.

Claverton Manor is a commanding 1820 manor house and is home to the American Museum. Its position allows for wonderful views across the Limpley Stoke Valley, now a designated area of outstanding natural beauty. A number of 19th Century neo-classical features can still be seen in the house, such as the ox-skull plaster mouldings and the circular glass lantern light in the ceiling of the main hall. The American Museum is the only museum of American decorative and folk art outside the United States. It takes visitors on a journey through the history of America, from its early settlers to the twentieth century, with a remarkable collection of folk and decorative arts.

The architect Sir John Soane’s house, museum and library at No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields has been a public museum since the early 19th century. The Museum’s collections contain many important works of art and antiquities, including Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress and An Election, Canaletto’s Riva degli Schiavoni looking West, the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, 30,000 architectural drawings, 6,857 historical volumes, 252 historical architectural models as well as important examples of furniture and decorative arts.

The Foundling Museum explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and first public art gallery. The Foundling Hospital was established in 1739 by the philanthropist Thomas Coram to care for babies at risk of abandonment. Instrumental in helping Coram realise his vision were the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel. Their creative generosity set the template for the ways in which the arts can support philanthropy.

In addition to the House there are 30 acres of gardens within a 200-acre park which was transformed by 'Capability' Brown. Also there is a stunning domed conservatory designed by Charles Fowler in the 1820s

The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the wonderful works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation in 1897. Its 25 galleries display outstanding works of French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury.

The new exhibition in the Fox Talbot Museum is entitled Platinum. It features work by world renowned photographers, from Alvin Langdon Coburn, Jacques Henri Lartigue to Bryan Adams. Many of the photographs might be familiar to you, and the exhibition is a rare chance to see these images in the fine art of a platinum print. The exhibition features only platinum prints, a rare art only rediscovered in the 1970s and perfected by Max and Paul Caffell from 31 Studio in Gloucestershire. Platinum prints are monochrome, with an extended tonal range, bringing greater depth and resolution to the photograph. You could compare the difference between a silver and platinum print to a string quartet and symphony orchestra – both produce beautiful art, but an orchestra can offer so many more nuances.

IWM is undergoing a major building redevelopment to transform the museum to mark the Centenary of the First World War. When the new museum opens in July 2014 the major family exhibition Horrible Histories®: Spies will reopen along with War Story: Supplying Frontline Afghanistan. Also, there will be an exhibition of contemporary arts and photography. The permanent exhibitions will also reopen including: The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes – featuring the world’s largest collection of Victoria Crosses The Holocaust Exhibition – telling the story of the Nazi persecution of the Jews and other groups Secret War – revealing the clandestine world of espionage, covert operations and the work of Britain’s Special Forces A Family in Wartime – telling the story of the one family's experience of life in London during the Second World War.

The Fan Museum is the UK's only museum devoted entirely to every aspect of fans and fan making. It is home to more than 4,000 predominantly antique fans from around the world, dating from the 11th century to the present day. Its collections, along with fans on loan from other collections, are displayed in changing themed exhibitions in which fans are presented in their historical, sociological and economic contexts

Although the Castle remains a family home, the 15th Century west wing which houses the exhibitions and coffee shop, St Mary’s Church where Katherine Parr lies buried, the gardens, Pheasantry, medieval ruins and adventure playground are for you to explore and experience at your leisure. Sudeley’s glorious gardens are amongst the very best in England, from the centrepiece Queens' Garden, billowing with hundreds of varieties of old fashioned roses, to the Herbal Healing Garden.

The Mary Rose museum's extraordinary collection of personal, domestic and military items gives this famous maritime disaster uniquely human poignancy. HMS Victory is the world's oldest commissioned warship, and the Royal Navy's most famous warship. It contains The Great Cabin, where the Battle of Trafalgar was planned, The spot where Nelson died, and The once crowded decks where over 800 men lived, worked and fought. HMS Warrior is the world's first iron-hulled warship powered by steam as well as sail that changed the maritime world forever. Yet 10 years later, she was obsolete. Booking at the April and May meetings

Chiswick House was built by the third Earl of Burlington in 1729 to showcase his art collection and to enthral his guests. The house continues to display many spectacular works of art. the gardens are the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement. Our visit will include a guided tour. Hogarth's House was his family’s country refuge, a weekend and summer home, away from the noise of his other home in what is now Leicester Square. He extended the house and enjoyed the fruit trees and nut walk in the walled garden. He had a ‘painting room’ at the bottom of the garden where he was working until a few days before his death. Booking at the February and March meetings

Booking at the November and January meetings. Cost: £12.00 per head. No refunds will be given.

Booking to be advised

Booking at July and September meetings (Penny Roberts)

Booking at the June and July meetings (Chris Watt)

Booking at March and April meetings (Jenny Savage)

Booking at January and February meetings (Jenny Savage)

Booking at October and November meetings. (Penny Roberts)