How to ‘Read’ the English Country Church: The Tudors to the Commonwealth
Tuesday 21st January 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Rev'd Dr Nicholas Henderson
A walk in the country; you come upon the typical village country church. This lecture will help you look at the architecture inside and out, the church furniture, those mysterious nooks and crannies, high and low. How and why did it all come to look this way? This is a fascinating journey through English history unravelled before your eyes. “I can’t make you experts” says Nicholas Henderson, “but I can teach you enough to amaze your friends on that day in the countryside.”
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
Tuesday 18th February 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Lucy Hughes-Hallett
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite of King James I - who addressed him as ‘my sweet child and wife’ - and subsequently chief minister to King Charles I. Buckingham was a beauty, and he surrounded himself with beautiful things. He enjoyed exquisite clothes, like the fabulous white silk suit encrusted with diamonds that he wore to visit the Queen of France. He was a superb dancer. When he cut capers during a court masque King James startled visiting ambassadors by shouting out ‘By God, George, I love you!’
Music in Art
Tuesday 18th March 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Sophie Matthews
Music in Art looks at how the depiction of musical instruments from the Middle Ages to the 18th century evolves, focusing on instruments that Sophie plays, so as well as looking at images by artists such as Bruegel, Bosch and Hogarth she gives musical demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted
A Concise History of Our Great British Parks
Tuesday 15th April 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Paul Rabbitts
This really is a fascinating insight into the history of one of our greatest ever institutions - our Great British Public Park. This talk illustrates their origins from the great Royal Parks to the Pleasure Gardens of the eighteenth century, to their Victorian heyday. It discusses what makes a great park, it’s ‘parkitecture’ with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains, lidos, palm houses and to their wonderful floral displays, to their great decline in the sixties, seventies and eighties.
Rescuing Zeugma from the Floodwaters of the Euphrates
Tuesday 20th May 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Louise Schofield
In Spring 2000 an archaeological drama unfolded on the banks of the Euphrates in Turkey. Archaeologists found a Roman city on the banks of the river, with mosaics
and wall-paintings finer than those of Pompeii. However, just beside it was the almost completed Birecik Dam and flooding the reservoir behind it would take the city under
water. This lecture tells of the extraordinary archaeological rescue excavation that then took place and of the fabulous treasures recovered.
Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’: the Anatomy of a Masterpiece
Tuesday 17th June 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Hilary Williams
'The Night Watch' of 1642 is Rembrandt's greatest painting and the most famous painting in the Netherlands. But why is it so special? It has become an icon of the Golden Age and of the modern Dutch Nation. Why? How was it commissioned and constructed? How did Rembrandt paint it and where has it been hung throughout its life? Who are the characters represented? Why is there a lone woman and what is meant by the dead chicken trussed up in her waistband? What does this all tell us about changing Dutch society? This work redirected how group portraits were conceived.
The Glories of Ancient Rome
Tuesday 15th July 2025 at 10.45am BUT meeting starts at 10.30am (AGM)
Lecturer: Paul Roberts
MARY GLEN MEMORIAL LECTURE
It is sometimes hard to see beyond the ruins of today, so using masterpieces of Roman art and reconstructions and with the Emperors as our guides, we’ll go on a journey through Rome in its golden prime: from the splendid civic hubs of the great Imperial Forums to the beautiful, soaring temples of the gods, the dazzling gleam of marble and mosaic in the great public baths and the roar of the crowds at the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum.
Art, Faith and Empire: The Golden Age of Spanish Art
Tuesday 16th September 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Isabelle Kent
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain rose as the great superpower with an empire spanning the globe. This vast wealth, alongside the renewed catholic fervour of the counter reformation, kick-started the Spanish siglo d’oro – literally the century of gold - the great flourishing of painting, sculpture, literature, and music. This lecture explores this period, looking at the historical moment and its vast array of art.
George Stubbs, the English Leonardo
Tuesday 21st October 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Christopher Garibaldi
2024 marked the 300th anniversary of the birth of George Stubbs and North Lincolnshire celebrated his connection with the region. Between 1756 and 1758, under the patronage of Sir John Nelthorpe, Stubbs spent 18 months in Horkstow dissecting and studying horses which led to the publication of ‘The Anatomy of the Horse’ in 1766. His legacy and influence are still an inspiration to today’s artists. There were further exhibitions and events at Normanby Hall and Scawby Hall, home of the Nelthorpe family.
The Twelve Plants of Christmas
Tuesday 18th November 2025 at 10.45am
Lecturer: Timothy Walker
Apart from the pear tree in which sat the partridge, there are no plants in the 12 days of Christmas according to the folk song. Sadly, even that reference is erroneous, because partridges are ground dwelling birds. And yet at Christmas we are surrounded by plants. This talk puts the record straight and rewrites the zoocentric song replacing partridges with poinsettias, and maids with mistletoe.