AGM Week-end at Winchester 15th - 17th April 2016

Crimean War Research Society (2014) AGM Weekend Winchester 15th to 17th April 2016

MEMBERS AND FRIENDS PROGRAMME

Assemble at Mercure Wessex Hotel (in central Winchester alongside the Cathedral) and walk to nearby Winchester College. Our Guide will concentrate on the military monuments including the Crimean War Memorial (by William Butterfield, 1858) and the War Memorial Cloister (by Sir Herbert Baker, 1922-4) which is not included on usual tours. Please note that we need at least 10 participants for this bespoke tour to go ahead. 15.00 Tea in Winchester Cathedral Refectory. 15.30 Tour of Winchester Cathedral by Chris Maxse, a Winchester Blue Badge Guide who himself has family connections with the Crimean campaign. The Cathedral is famed for its monuments, second only to Westminster Abbey. The finest Crimean monument is to the 97th Foot. (For details see The War Correspondent, October 2008, at pp. 40-44)

19.00 Informal dinner at Mercure Wessex Hotel. Members to book dinner independently with the hotel, when they check in.

Saturday 16th April There will two alternative tours this morning. than 11th March] 09.15 Leave Mercure Wessex for Peninsula Barracks for a guided tour of the barracks complex followed by visits to the museums of the Royal Green Jackets and of the 11th Hussars. Both feature important Crimean War collections. We shall also view the Great Hall of Winchester Castle, before taking Tea and Coffee in the Peninsular Café (the former guardhouse of the barracks). This tour involves an uphill walk from the hotel and taxis will be available if needed. It will be led by an accredited Blue Badge Guide, Tony Newing, an ex-Royal Marine, who has a particular interest in military history.

 9.15 Leave Mercure Wessex for a one mile walk beside the River Itchen to The Hospital of St. Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, comprising a Norman church and 15th century almshouses set in unspoilt water meadows. This walk inspired John Keats to write his ode ‘To Autumn’, Anthony Trollope based ‘The Warden’, first of his ‘Barsetshire Chronicles’, on St Cross, and it continues to inspire film and television producers (most recently for the BBC adaptation of ‘Wolf Hall’). Though this is intended to be a walking tour, taxis will be available if needed. Tea and Coffee will be served in The Hundred Men’s Dining Hall at St Cross and there will be a guided tour led by one of the 13.00

Both tours return to the Mercure Wessex for lunch in the Wykeham Suite, which has an uninterrupted view of Winchester Cathedral (at 556 feet, the longest Gothic cathedral in Europe).

14.00 Talks preceding the AGM ‘ Military Men of Feeling’ by Professor Holly Furneaux of Cardiff University ‘Some Sepulchrous Stories’ by Mike Hinton

15.00 Tea Break

15.15 AGM – (only paid up members can attend)

17.30 Evensong in Winchester Cathedral – an optional extra, to hear some of the finest choral singing in England.

 19.00 Meet in the Kings Bar at the Mercure Wessex.

19.30 AGM Dinner in the Wessex Restaurant at the Mercure Wessex.

Sunday 17th April 10.00 Leave the Mercure Wessex for a walking tour of Winchester, led by Chris Maxse.

11.30 (approximately) AGM Weekend finishes. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------