Diary of Events August - December 2012

See also earlier Diary postings for other event asin same period.

To Friday 31 August. Celebrating the Horse Today. Contemporary Equine Art Fair pop-up exhibition.  Wandsworth Museum, West Hill, London, SW18. Highlights the role of the horse in art, sport and education. www.wandsworthmusuem.co.uk.

To 12 September. Portrait of London exhibition.  Wandsworth Museum, West Hill, London, SW18. www.wandsworthmusuem.co.uk. 

To 21 October. The Plant Seekers. Exhibition at Garden Museum of material from the RHS Lindley Library, tells the story of many of history’s most important plant collectors who travelled the globe and overcame life-threatening situations to transform our landscapes and grow our knowledge of plants and horticulture. It demonstrates how international plant hunting has influenced modern British gardens, and show the wider impact of plant collecting, from its influence in medicine and science, to the role it has played in biodiversity and other environmental issues. Members of the RHS with a valid membership card will receive half price entry to the exhibition. www.gardenmuseum.org.uk.  

To 14 January 2013. North East Sport & the Olympics.  Exhibition at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum examining the sporting history of the North East.

Sunday 19 August. 3.30pm and 7.30pm. Jamaican 50th Celebrations Tour.  Musical that tells the history of Jamaica from before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, through the centuries to present day, noting the icons and heroes along the way including Nanny, Marcus Garvey, Mary Seacole, Sam Sharpe and Bob Marley. Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, CR9. From £22, children £16. 0208-688 9291. www.JAStory-Croydon.DJMrP.com.

Thursday 23 August. Commemorating International Slavery Remembrance Day 2012. Talks, gallery tours, archive journey sessions, a singing workshop, and a commemorative riverside ceremony. Contributors will include Dr Hakim Adi, Angelina Osborne, Ethnovox and S.I. Martin. The actor and broadcaster Burt Caesar will be Master of Ceremonies. Organised by S.I. (Steve) Martin. Free but booking is essential. Please email: rsvplearning@rmg.co.uk. Royal Museums, Greenwich. www.rmg.co.uk/visit/events/slavery-remembrance-day-2012

Thursday 23 August. 1.15pm. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). Talk by Charles Elford.  Free. National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London, WC2.

 
Thursday 23 August. Close of consultation on the future of Thameslink. See story ‘Threat to Thameslink Wimbledon Loop’ in News section below.  

Friday 24 August.  1pm. Two New Notting Hill Carnival Plaques. Two Blue Heritage Plaques will be unveiled in honour of Russell Henderson and Leslie Palmer, as pioneering fathers of the Carnival. 69 and 70 Tavistock Road, (aka Carnival Square), London, W11. There will be music, dancing and theatre on the Square followed by light refreshments at Tabernacle, Powis Square, W11. The plaques are being put up by Nubian Jak Community Trust. The unveiling of the plaques will officially open up the 2012 Notting Hill Carnival Weekend celebration. www.nubianjak.com.  

August – November. Call Mr Robeson performances

Sunday 26 & Monday 27 August. Greenbelt Festival, Cheltenham Race Course.

Saturday 6 October. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.
Saturday 13 October. Otley Courthouse.
Sunday 14 – Sunday 21 October. South Yorkshire Schools.

Monday 22 October. Hawth Theatre, Crawley.
Tuesday 23 October. Merlin Theatre, Frome.
Wednesday 24 October. Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury.

Thursday 25 October. Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham.

Friday 26 October. Forest Arts Centre, New Milton.

Sunday 18 November. Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Wednesday 21 November. Rhodes Arts Complex, Bishop's Stortford.

For appreciation see review of June performance at Warehouse Theatre Croydon by Penny Corfield and Tony Belton on: www.penelopejcorfield.co.uk/discussion-point_june2012.html.

Wednesday 29 August. 9.30am–1pm. Consultation Event on Lambeth Council’s Draft Community Assets Transfer Framework Policy. This Lambeth Voluntary Action Council event will feedback on the Council’s plans for community hubs across the borough but the main purpose will be to consult on the Council’s draft Community Assets Transfer Framework Policy. The Council would like your input to help shape the future management and ownership of community assets across the borough! LVAC is organising and facilitating the event on behalf of the Council. Lambeth Accord, Brixton Rd, London, SW9. Further details from  lvac@lambethvac.org.uk

September - January. The Hartley Pit Calamity 1862. Display in words and images to mark its 150th anniversary. The Calamity, when 204 men and boys lost their lives, was the first large scale mining disaster of Victorian times. The extent of the Calamity, together with the spreading of news by rail and telegraph, brought this tragic event in rural Northumberland into the homes of families throughout the land on a daily basis.  The reaction from the public, together with the interest shown by Queen Victoria, kept the story in the press for more than a month. Just as evidenced in 2010 in the Chilean mine rescue, the public were gripped by the horror of men trapped underground and the heroic efforts made to rescue them. The display has been compiled by Dr Keith Armstrong and Peter Dixon of Northern Voices Community Projects and members of the Hartley1862 Research Group. It was  commissioned by North Tyneside Council with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. With historical documents and images, alongside the background history and poems and photographs by local people, it forms part of a series of events and activities intended to ensure that the story of Hartley is not forgotten.

Monday 3 – Saturday 29 September.  St. Alban's Church, Earsdon

Friday 7 -  Saturday 29 September. New Hartley Memorial Hall
Monday 1 – Friday 26 October. Blyth Library
Monday 1 – Friday 12 October. Wallsend Memorial Hall
Monday 15 – Friday 26 October. Linskill Centre (North Shields)
Thursday 8 – Wednesday 21 November. Newcastle Library.
Friday 9 November - Friday 7 December. Segedunum Museum (Wallsend)
Friday 23 November - Friday 7 December. Seaton Sluice Community Centre
Monday 20 – Friday 21 December. John Willie Sams Centre (Dudley)
Monday 10 – Wednesday 19 December.  Wellfield Middle School (Whitley Bay)
Monday 7 January 2013 onwards. St. Alban’s Church, Earsdon on permanent display
k.armstrong643@btinternet.com.

Saturday 1 September. 11am – An SC-T Picnic Pilgrimage on the actual day he died 100 years ago. Commencing at St Mary Magdalene Church, Canning Road,  Addiscombe, Croydon, CR0 6QD (parking available) we will walk to various houses, churches etc. where SC-T lived, worked, sung, got married etc. ending up at Aldwick, St Leonards Rd, where he died. Picnics can then be consumed on Duppas Hill Recreation Ground. If the weather is inclement we can eat our picnics in the Parish Church Junior School. Jeffrey Green, author of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Musical Life will give informal talks along the route. Approximate length of walk – 2 hours. After lunch those who wish can take a tram back to Lebanon R tram stop – the nearest one to St Mary Magdalene. 

Saturday 1 September. 1.30pm. Engels and Central Manchester Walk led by Jonathan Schofield. Meet Manchester Visitor Information Centre, Portland Street, City centre, M1 Price £7. Further details at www.jonathanschofieldtours.com.

Monday 3 September. 7.30-9.40pm. BBC Proms 70 (Desert Island Discs 70^th Anniversary). Kirsty Young interviews guests from the series and introduces the most popular music choices, including Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Coates’s The Dam Buster March and The Sleepy Lagoon; and excerpts from Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, Coleridge-Taylor’s The Death of Minnehaha, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Handel’s Messiah, Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and Tosca, plus arrangements of Ailish Tynan (soprano), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello),  Peter Donohoe (piano), Wayne Marshall (organ), Sir Willard White (bass-baritone), Huddersfield Choral Society, BBC Concert Orchestra. Keith Lockhart (conductor). Live on BBC Radio 3 – www.bbc.co.uk/proms.

Wednesday 5 September. 7pm. Riot City: Protest and Rebellion in the Capital. Clive Bloom discusses the past, present, and future of unrest and rebellion in London, as explored in his latest book. Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1. £3, redeemable against any purchase.

Saturday 8  September. Over 60s 1950s Tea Party.  As you enjoy the tea and cakes, some of the 1950s objects from the Museum’s collection will be passed around to spark your memories.  Chat with the 12 young people who will be taking part. If you still have something from the 1950s, bring it along and share your memories! Free. Limited places so to book please telephone 020 88706060 or em. ail bookings@wandsworthmuseum.co.uk.  Wandsworth Museum, 38 West Hill, London, SW18. www.wandsworthmusuem.co.uk.  

Saturday 8 September. 12-8pm. Second Wigan Diggers' Festival. The Wiend, Wigan.  This free open air festival celebrates the life and ideas of Wigan-bon Gerrard Winstanley and the 17th century diggers' movement of which he was the leader. Performers include Alun Parry, Claire Mooney and James Quinn, and there will be a showing of a film about Winstanley plus exhibition, refreshments etc. More details at http://wigandiggersfestival.org.  

Saturday 8 (11am-1.30pm & 2-5pm) & Sunday 9 September (2-5pm). Washington Pit Heritage Open Days. One of the country’s oldest working pits. Learn about Washington’s coal mining heritage. Free. Washington ‘F’ Pit, Albany Way Washington, NE37. See: www.twmuseums.org.uk/washington/latest/news/heritage-open-days-at-washington-039-f-039-pit.html.

Saturday 8 September. 12-4pm. Friends of Kennington Park 10^th Anniversary Event. Includes Nature Trail Safaris and a Big Draw event for children. Further details from Friends Chair Gordon Johnston: johnston.methley@nujj.com.

Saturday 8 September. 6.30pm. King’s Cross: a sense of place. Photographer Angela Inglis will be presenting her new book which examines the area’s ever-changing landscape. Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1. £3, redeemable against any purchase.  

Sunday 9 September. 11-5pm. St. John’s Hill Festival, Clapham Junction. Organised by the Traders Association of St John’s Hill. All along the pavements of St John’s Hill. StJohnsHill.co.uk. Editorial Note. St John’s Hill was one my walks in the 2011 Wandsworth Heritage Festival. 

Tuesday 11 September. 11.30am. Launch of Smith Institute report Making the Most of Housing and Growth in the East Midlands. The report provides a critical and timely perspective on the plight and future prospects of the East Midlands, with a particular focus on recent allocations of the Regional Growth Fund to the region and the performance of East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnerships. Could this be a model for analysis in other regions? 

Tuesday 11 September. Lunchtime concert 1.05pm. Waka Hasegawa plays SC-T’s Valse Suite Three- Four Op.71, Forest Scenes Op.66 (selections), Moorish Dance Op.55, and Cameos Op.56. Fairfield Halls, Croydon. www.fairfield.co.uk/showHome.php. Waka writes: ‘I think his piano music deserves more exposure and having performed Valse Suite at concert a few months ago back I know audience love his music! They went crazy afterwards!’ To see more about Waka go to Duo Piano 4 Hands www.piano4hands.com. She is Co-Artistic Director of Bristol International Piano Duo Festival www.pianoduofest.org.uk.  

Tuesday 11 September. 7.30pm. Tooting Local History Group Meeting. Tooting Progressive Club, Mitcham Road, London, SW17. All welcome.

Thursday 13 September. Industrious Women: A one day conference to Celebrate the Life and Work of Katrina Honeyman School of History, Room 331, Michael Sadler Building, University of Leeds. The programme includes papers on: “The Export of Children. Katrina's Work on the Children's Friend Society”; “Agency and reform: the regulation of chimney sweep apprentices, 1770-1840”; “What happened to (some) parish apprentices”; “Child Factory Workers, Exploitation and Overwork in the Early Nineteenth Century”; “Gender and American Automobility: Cars, Women and the Issue of Equality”; “"We liked the Ladies' little double bed": Pilgrimage, Sexuality and Domesticity in the Historic House”; “The Currency of Cloth in Yorkshire in the Long Eighteenth Century”; and “Menswear, Cloth and Consumption in Post-War Britain”. Plus tour of M&S Company Archive. Public lecture:  Laura Ugolini (Wolverhampton) on “Dull Uniformity, Style Monotony and Masculinity: First World War British uniforms.” For more information contact Kate Dossett k.m.dossett@leeds.ac.uk. 

Friday 14 September. Closing date for submission of views  on Draft Water Bill. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee intends to conduct pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Water Bill and invites all interested parties to submit written views. The draft Bill can be seen on www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/water/legislation/water. See News and Information Section below.

Saturday 15 September. 11am–1.30pm & 2-5pm. Washington Heritage Festival. www.twmuseums.org.uk/washington/latest/news/washington-heritage-festival.html.

Sunday 16 September. 6.30pm.  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Civic Service - Festival Evensong at Croydon Minster, Church Street, Croydon. Minster Choir; Tom Little, organist; Adrian Adams (St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, music director). Programme: 

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in F by SC-T; 
Psalm 150, Laudate Dominum, O Praise God in his Holiness. Chant by Sir C. V.Stanford – SC-T’s composition professor at the Royal College of Music.
Anthem By the waters of Babylon.  Psalm 137 by SC-T.
Hymn tunes - Luconor, Jesu, the very thought of Thee by SC-T and Engelberg,
For all the Saints by Stanford.
Organ voluntaries and solos by SC-T & Stanford.

Tuesday 18 September. 6pm. A Quaker on the back benches: Edward Belson of Reading (1681-1746). Speaker Chris Skidmore. Quaker History Group. Qaker Centre, Friends House, 173 Euston Rd, London NW1. www.quaker.org.uk/quakerhistory

Tuesday, 18 September. 7pm. How the West Fuels War and Poverty in the Developing World. Discussion of  Vijay Mehta’s book The Economics of Killing (Pluto Press). Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre, Edinburgh Campaigns Against Arms Trade and Uniting for Peace. Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh, EH1 2JL. RSVP: Geoffrey Carnall - gcarnall@googlemail.com or Brian Cooper – 01314469545. Vijay Mehta - vijay@vmpeace.org.

Thursday 20 September. 2-3pm. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Talk with audio-visual presentation on his life and introduce some of his works, including Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. The talk will be followed by a Question and Answer session during which Coleridge-Taylor's life as an African living in England at the turn of the 20th century will be explored. Speaker Kwaku is a music industry and history consultant. National Archives, Kew. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/events/samuel-coleridge-taylor.htm.  

Thursday 27 September – 24 February 2013. Tues-Fri 10am-5pm; Sat & Sun 11am-5pm. Painting Wandsworth. Watercolours 1770-1925. Exhibition of 60+ watercolours. Wandsworth Museum, West Hill, London, SW18. www.wandsworthmusuem.co.uk.

Friday 28 September. Closing Date for Proposals for North-West Sport and Leisure History Network Workshop, Saturday 24 November. See News and Information section below.

Saturday 29 September. 1.30pm. Remembering Dorothy and Edward. Sheila Rowbotham. Inaugural Dorothy and EP Thompson Lecture. The Perdiswell Young People's Leisure Club, Droitwich Road, Worcester. Sheila Rowbotham was a student, colleague and friend of the renowned historians. Tickets price £3/£1. More details from dandeptlecture@talktalk.net.  

Saturday 29 September. 7.30pm. “From Coleridge-Taylor to Chopin”: piano, soprano and tenor recital including songs and piano works by Coleridge-Taylor, alongside piano solos, operatic solos and duets by Chopin, Mozart, Donizetti, Gershwin (Porgy and Bess) and Scott Joplin (Treemonisha). The programme features three performers of Black heritage. Maxine Franklin (piano), Royal College of Music graduate and BBC Mozart competition prizewinner, has given numerous concerts in London, Europe, Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean and USA. Abigail Kelly (soprano), Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Birmingham Conservatoire graduate and prize winner, has performed in Birmingham, London, across Europe, Jamaica, and with English Touring Opera and Opera South Africa. Peter Brathwaite (tenor), Royal College of Music graduate and prize winner and Winston Churchill Opera Fellow, has performed operatic parts in Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh Festival and with Opera North, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. Piano accompanist is Oliver Davies, former piano professor at the Royal College of Music, piano and chamber music performer, music historian and Coleridge-Taylor specialist. This is a charity concert organised by Kiwanis (UK) international charity raising funds for a global UNICEF mother-and-baby project. Tickets £25 (students/children £15) from the Fairfield Halls Box Office, 0208 688 9291.

Sunday 30 September. 7.30pm. A Dream of Africa 2012. Gala Concert in aid of Ashanti Development. Programme to include Coleridge-Taylor: Five Negro Melodies for piano trio (Robert Gibbs, violin; Adrian Bradbury, cello, Oliver Davies, piano) and dancers from the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet in new and recent works by Tamara Rojo, Thomas Whitehead, Nathalie Harrison, Daniel Jones, Erico Montes and other choreographers. Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7. Tickets £30 from RCM Box Office, www.rcm.ac.uk/ box office. For more information please visit: www.ashanti-development.org. 

Monday 1 October. 10am - 4.30pm. Plant Hunting in the 21st Century. Symposium. ‘Our gardens and public spaces are adorned with the results of previous generation’s plant hunting. Today however, plant hunting is at a crossroads. The expectation that countries of origin gain some benefit from ‘their’ plants, concerns over invasive aliens and a growing interest in native plants has raised questions over the future of plant hunting. With so many species in cultivation - do we even need more? Conservation and the pressures of climate change also raise issues.’ Speakers include Roy Lancaster, Bleddyn Wynne-Jones, Tim Enwisle (Kew), James Hitchmough and Michael Wickenden, with opportunities for audience participation. The day will be chaired by Dr Noel Kingsbury. Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Rd, London, SE1. Tickets £70; Museum Friends, Full-time students and Members of the RHS £50. Click here to book a place online. www.gardenmuseum.org.uk. 

Saturday 6 October. 10am. Croydon Bach Choir Workshop Day to learn and practise Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and then sing it in an early evening performance. St Mildred's Church, Bingham Road, Addiscombe CR0 7EB www.croydonbachchoir.org.m  

Saturday 6 October. 11am-4pm. Mandy Hudson on Trade Unions and Equality and Alex Gordon on Political Education in Trade Unions. Independent Working Class Education group. Brunswick Centre, near Russell Square tube, London. (From Russell Square Tube follow Marchmont Street to Entrance One of the Brunswick Centre/big block of flats. There will be signs. Put Flat 10 (Community Centre) in entry phone and ring. Lift to Floor 2. Follow signs.)

Monday 15 October.10am - 5pm. Symposium on Natives and Aliens: Ethnicity in the Garden. ‘Gardening is central to English and British national identity. So how is the gardening scene changing in an increasingly ethnically-diverse society? What about the people who garden in this country? Is gardening a predominantly ‘white’ activity? How open is our garden culture to ‘foreign’ influences? What impact do different cultural attitudes to gardening have on the landscape in our multi-ethnic society? Is there any significance in the parallels between the discussion surrounding ‘native’, ‘alien’ and ‘invasive’ species in the UK garden with the discourse about asylum and immigration in the popular press? This symposium seeks to explore these questions and more to encourage more debate about ethnicity and garden culture in the UK.’ Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Rd, London, SE1. Tickets £50, Museum Friends £40, Full-time students £20. www.gardenmuseum.org.uk.  

Tuesday 16 October. 6pm. Aneurin Bevan and the Socialist Ideal. Talk by Vernon Bogdanor.  Museum of London. 150 London Wall, London, EC2.  www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/aneurin-bevan-and-the-socialist-ideal.

Friday 19 October. 6.30pm. Readers Research: Black in Renaissance Britain. Two British Library readers present their research and talk of the role the British Library collections played. They will be in conversation with Dr Caroline Bressey, Director of the UCL Equiano Centre. How did 135 Africans come to spend a week in a barn outside Bristol in 1590? Why were two Africans examined by an English judge in 1592? Miranda Kaufmann reveals some untold histories from the Libraries manuscript collection. The image of the Black Magus has become traditional and iconic. One from a rood screen, found in Devon and now in the V&A collection, is from early 16th-century Devon. Discover how Michael Ohajuru made use of the British Library to gain an insight into the making, location and viewing of the screen. Conference Centre, British Library, Euston Rd, London. £4/£3 concessions. www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event134333.html. 

Saturday 20 October. 12-4pm. London art in the age of jazz. African & Asian portraits & artists in London between the wars. Free. Part of Bloomsbury Festival. Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre. Organised by Equiano Centre: www.ucl.ac.uk/equianocentre/Events.html.  

Wednesday 7 November. 6pm. Why the Enlightenment still matters today. Talk by Professor Justin Champion (Royal Holloway). Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London, EC2.  www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-the-enlightenment-still-matters-today. 

Friday 9 & Saturday 10 November. From Local to Global the north's role in peace & co-operation. Annual national Peace History Conference. Recognising its move from London this year, and celebrating the International Year of Co-operatives, the title is ‘From Local to Global - the north's role in peace and co-operation'. This focus will be reflected in the programme of the conference which covers topics on peace in its broadest interpretation. Friday  Friends ‘Meeting House, Mount St, Manchester, M2. Saturday The People's History Museum Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3. Organised by the Movement for the Abolition of War and peace organisations active in the north of England in association with The People's History Museum. www.cnduk.org/images/stories/cnd_docs/peace_history_leaflet_2012.pdf.

Tuesday 13 November. 6pm. Iain Macleod and Decolonisation. Talk by Vernon Bogdanor. Museum of London.  150 London Wall, London, EC2.

www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/iain-macleod-and-decolonisation.

Wednesday 14 November. 7pm. Battles within Battles: Radicals, Secularists, Socialists and Feminists and the Struggle for Working Class Loyalty at the End of the 19^th Century. Talk. Deborah Lavin. Socialist History Society & Freethought History Research Group. Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate London,  EC2.

Saturday 17 November. Kubla Khan. The Kent based Hayes Choral Society hopes to perform Kubla Khan. Further details in due course. 

Saturday 24 November. 7.30pm. Bach – Cantatas. Croydon Bach Choir. St John the Evangelist Auckland Road, Upper Norwood, London, SE19. 

Tuesday 4 December. 6-7.30pm. "African Americans in Britain 1850-1865". Talk by Jeff Green. ICS/BASA Seminar.  Senate House, Malet St, London, WC1.