Calendar of Society Events 2013
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Calendar of Society Events 2013 [Please note: talks will be free to Members but charges will apply for entry, tour, lunch etc at visited places. Members will be notified of these and asked for precise numbers in advance of the dates but please contact the Events Secretary ([email protected]) if you need to check on details before attending.] Sun. 24 Feb. DERWENTWATER CROSS WREATH-LAYING & 4TH ANNUAL COMMEM. LUNCH AT LANGLEY CASTLE Members will meet at the Derwentwater Cross, near Langley, at 11.30 am for a short address by the Chairman in tribute to all those Northumbrians who suffered for the Jacobite Cause. Members should park beyond the cross and take a short walk back to it on what can be a busy road. Nick Leeming, Piper to the Society, will play Derwentwater’s Farewell on the Northumbrian smallpipes whilst a wreath is attached to the cross, erected by Cadwallader John Bates in 1883. Members will gather afterwards at Langley Castle (built in 1350 and once part of the Radcliffe Estate, now a hotel) at 12.30 for 1.00 pm for the Fourth Annual Commemorative Lunch in The Josephine Restaurant to mark the 297th Anniversary of the execution of James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, Viscount Radcliffe and Langley, on Tower Hill, London, on that exact day in 1716. Sat. 23 March GREENWICH HOSPITAL’S NORTHERN ESTATES A Talk at Dilston College Recreation Hall at 11.00 am by John Clark of Featherstone Castle, Haltwhistle, a retired Chartered Surveyor and former Local Agent for Greenwich Hospital, to whom the considerable estates of the Radcliffes, Earls of Derwentwater, were given in 1735 after their forfeiture following the 3rd Earl’s participation in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. John is an expert on their northern holdings and has a fund of stories connected with people whom he has met and incidents that he has found recorded in the archives of the Northern Estates. Sat. 13 April CULLODEN ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL SERVICE Members will meet for the 267th Anniversary of the battle at 10.30 am in the entrance foyer to the Visitor Centre and make their way thence to Culloden Battlefield for the Memorial Service, which commences at 11.00 am.As usual, the Chairman will lay The Fifteen’s wreath at the Great Cairn, where many gather from all over the world in authentic 18th- century Jacobite costume on this day. He would be glad to be accompanied there by other Members, who could then lunch afterwards in the stunning Visitor Centre, where the world- class permanent exhibition is displayed. NB There will be three weekend talks given at the Centre, Friday to Sunday, commencing with one by Professor Christopher Duffy on Friday 12 April at 2.00 pm, which the Chairman and Elizabeth Nicholls will be attending. Sat. 18 May THE BIDDICK DUKE OF PERTH A Talk at Dilston College Recreation Hall at 11.00 am by David Inch, Treasurer and Membership Secretary of the Friends of Durham County Record Office (FODCRO). A keen local historian from Chester-le-Street, he has spent years researching the story of the Drummond claimant to be the rightful Duke of Perth – the 3rd Duke who fought at Culloden and who, according to the history books, died at sea and was consigned to the deep on his way to exile in France. However, a persistent local legend avers that the burial was faked and that the Duke actually landed secretly at Shields and made his way to the remote parts of County Durham – to Biddick, near Penshaw. The story of the ‘Biddick Duke of Perth’, and later court case, immaculately researched by David, is the County Durham equivalent of the Amelia, ‘Countess of Derwentwater’ saga in Northumberland and is equally fascinating. Sun. 23 June VISIT TO TRAQUAIR HOUSE Members will be personally welcomed to Traquair House, near Innerleithen, Peeblesshire, Scottish Borders, by Member Catherine Maxwell Stuart, 21st Lady of Traquair, direct descendant of the Earl of Nithsdale who was captured at Preston and condemned with Lord Derwentwater after the ’Fifteen but who was rescued from the Tower of London to escape execution in a scheme master-minded by his wife Winifred. The cloak that he wore to disguise himself is on display at Traquair. They fled into exile at the Court of James III, where Lady Nithsdale eventually became Governess to Prince Henry Benedict. Members will then be treated to a Talk on THE JACOBITE STUARTS OF TRAQUAIR by Catherine Maxwell Stuart and her archivist, Margaret Fox. (This will be exclusive to Members on our visit.) Signed copies of their latest book will be available for purchase. After a viewing of archival material not normally on display to the public, there will be a tour of Traquair, which is the oldest inhabited house in Scotland with strong links with Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley. Its famous Bear Gates at the top of the avenue to the house have, according to legend, been locked since 1745, and are never to be opened until a Stuart king is restored to the throne. Members will take tea in The 1745 Cottage Restaurant, with peacocks on the lawn, before their homeward journey. Sat. 20 July VISIT TO KIRKHARLE AND BAVINGTON HALL Members will meet at 11.00 am at Kirkharle Courtyard, south of Kirkwhelpington, Northumberland, where the ancestral mansion of the Loraine baronets used to stand. A private tour of his workshop will be given by Stephen Robinson Gay, quality maker of bespoke furniture since 1983. Some may wish to take a level, 20-minute walk to Kirkharle’s St Wilfred’s Church (1331), where Capability Brown, perhaps the most famous landscape gardener in the world, was baptised in 1716. After lunch at The Courtyard at Members’ own expense, a private visit will be made to nearby Bavington Hall, a three-storeyed, seven- bayed mansion of the 16th century (Grade II* Listed), with part of it dating back to 1240, set in 15 acres of gardens. Formerly home of the Shafto family, it was forfeited to the Crown for the part played in the ’Fifteen by William Shafto and his son John Shafto. In 1716 it was bought for £5000 by Admiral George Delaval of North Dissington, probably because William Shafto’s nephew had married his sister, and it was restored to the Shaftos on his death. Bavington Hall’s present-day resident owner, Mr George R. Patrick, who commenced a £1-million renovation of it a decade ago, will give Members a guided tour (fee chargeable) before afternoon tea. Sat. 17 Aug. BIDDLESTONE CHAPEL & CLENNELL HALL VISIT This will be a return visit to Biddlestone Chapel (Historic Chapels Trust), by request, since Members were first guided here in 2005 by Member Dr Tony Henfrey, who will again be our host. Members will first meet in Rothbury outside The Newcastle Arms at 12 Noon and view the preserved doorway nearby of the Three Half-Moons Inn, long since demolished, where Lord Derwentwater stayed overnight before James III was proclaimed king in Warkworth in 1715. After lunch at their own expense, Members will travel in convoy to the R.C. Biddlestone Chapel (individual donations), a Grade II* Listed building, near Netherton, 10 miles away. It is all that remains of Biddlestone Hall, home for over 600 yeas of the recusant Selby family, who had Jacobite sympathies. On the way will be seen the ruins of Cartington Castle, an ancestral property of Lord Derwentwater. After the Biddlestone visit, Members will travel to Clennell Hall, Harbottle, now a country house hotel, which incorporates a pele tower of 1589 in which they will be served afternoon tea. Nearby Harbottle Castle, built in c.1160, was the birthplace of Lady Margaret Douglas, mother of Lord Darnley and grandmother of King James VI and I. If time permits, we will visit St Michael and All Angels Church, Low Alwinton, with Selby and Clennell memorials. Wed. 18 Sept. VISIT TO TYNE & WEAR ARCHIVES IN BLANDFORD HOUSE (THE DISCOVERY MUSEUM), NEWCASTLE Members will view local Jacobite documents after a guided tour of the Search Room, containing archives from the 12th to the 21st century, by Peter Hepplewhite, Learning and Outreach Manager (Archives). Members will meet inside the entrance of The Discovery Museum, Blandford Square, Newcastle, at 1.15 for 1.30 pm, beside Charles Parsons’s Turbinia, the first vessel in the world to be powered by steam turbine and still an impressive sight. Sat. 5 Oct. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL SOCIETY DINNER This event, one of the highlights of our calendar, will take place at Linden Hall, an 1812 country mansion designed by Sir Charles Monck and John Dobson in Greek Revival style, set in 450 acres of private grounds, near Longhorsley (just 8 miles north of Morpeth), at 7 for 7.30 pm, with Jacobite-oriented entertainment. There will be overnight accommodation available. Special Guest Speaker will be Katrina Porteous, who lives on the Northumberland coast. She writes poetry and fishing history, is President of the Northumbrian Language Society, and is best known for her long landscape poems for BBC Radio, which include Dunstanburgh and The Refuge Box. Sat. 26 Oct. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING At Dilston College Recreation Hall at 10.45 for 11.00 am. NB This departure from the usual earlier date and later time of previous years is at Members’ request to avoid possible bad weather and premature darkness that can be experienced in December and earlier. Lunch afterwards nearby will be booked for interested Members. Sat. 9 Nov. DOM AUGUSTINE WALKER, JACOBITE, TUTOR TO THE SWINBURNES AND ROMAN CONNOISSEUR A Talk by The Rt Revd Geoffrey Scott, Abbot of Douai, OSB, at Dilston College Recreation Hall at 11.00 am.