TALKS

Battle of Britain – How the West Country was defended An attentive audience was enthralled by John Smith’s presentation of the pivotal actions in the skies overhead during nearly 20 weeks in the summer of 1940. A particular frisson was added to the event by the attendance of Mark Dowding, a grandson of Air Chief [...]

  A wartime legacy hardly used during WW2 A bookshop in Alnwick, a laboratory in Bedfordshire, and a slew of merchandise that has proliferated since 2000 are all connected – by what?  By the well-known war-time phrase “Keep Calm and Carry On” – except that phrase was barely used during WW2, we learnt from Paul [...]

An attentive gathering was treated to an enthusiastic tale by Emily Utgren of her journey from growing up in Sweden on the edge of the forest, to studying and working in Britain and to journeying around the world to absorb the thinking behind Japanese gardens. Historic houses in Sweden have only small, formal gardens, in [...]

A wet, miserable evening was forgotten as a gathering of some 50 or so were warmed, cheered and entertained by the pictures of 17th century country life drawn in words by Mistress Agnes and Master Christopher from North Devon, dressed in costume, as ordinary folk of the day. Numerous anecdotal comments and descriptions of what [...]

Community Action for Transforming Cale Habit A gale of enthusiasm blew into the Balsam Centre on Wednesday 26 April in the form of Gary Hunt, one of the founding members of CATCH, “a community group committed to returning [the Wincanton stretch of] the River Cale to a self-sustaining ecosystem that is rich in bio-diversity and [...]

The origins of this now heritage line lie in purely commercial intentions.  From Joe we learnt that, in the mid-1800s, coal from the vast South Wales coalfields took a hazardous sea-route around Cornwall en-route to its various destinations.  A proposed railway line from Watchet, then a prosperous and busy harbour, to Bridport/West Bay in Dorset [...]

Breathing Life Back into St Giles House at Wimborne St Giles A good crowd came to the Balsam Centre to hear an overview, delivered by Philip Hughes, of the fortunes of Lord Shaftesbury’s house at Wimborne St Giles and its gradual repair and conservation (from 2011 to 2014). Having been in the same family for [...]

Many or most have heard the quotation “Dr Livingstone, I presume” and, indeed, that is how John Blashford-Snell started his lecture, with a black and white film clip of the 1939 version of those events.  But how much more there is to the Livingstone story we steadily learned in the course of the detailed presentation. [...]

For those whose only connection to a veterinary surgeon has been taking their pet cat/dog/rabbit/budgie for a consultation and treatment, or watching “All Creatures Great and Small”, Marcus Giles’ reflections on his life in the profession was an absorbing talk, packed with information and observations. He started by giving us background to the origins of [...]

TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM EVENTBRITE   Doors open from 6.30pm On the footings of a pre 5th century building, the reconstruction of a Roman villa has provided fascinating insight into many aspects of the Roman world in Britain. The concept was inspired by the discovery of ruins of a Roman-British villa that once stood on the estate; [...]