The Harwich Centre Guild

Outing - Blenheim Palace
2022-04-20
Details from a committee member

Oban Holiday
2022-04-26 - 2022-05-03 | Muthu Alexandra Hotel, Muthu Alexandra Hotel, Oban, Scotland, United Kingdom
For details please see a committee member.

Arsenic’s Toxic Legacy: People, Places and Peppermints
2022-05-04 10:00 - 12:00 (Europe/London) | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
“Arsenic’s Toxic Legacy: People, Places, Pests and Peppermints” with Neil Dickinson is a look at how, during the 19th and 20th centuries, arsenic and its compounds appeared to offer marvellous solutions particularly in the spheres of medicine, fashion, design and pest control so long as an increasingly blind-eye was turned to the problem of its dreadful toxicity

Comic Verse I wish I’d Written
2022-05-11 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
“Comic Verse I wish I’d Written” with Erik Punaks

Horatio, Lord Nelson
2022-05-18 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
“Horatio, Lord Nelson” with Mark Mitchels

The Notorious Whistlecraft Family of Rickinghall
2022-05-25 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
“The Notorious Whistlecraft Family of Rickinghall” with Pip Wright
The Whistlecrafts of Rickinghall were known as a notorious family of poachers — their court appearances ran into the two hundreds. … Whistlecraft: The true story of the poachers in Rickinghall, is a novel told from the viewpoint of Joe Whistlecraft.

More Cello Tales
2022-06-08 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
“More Cello Tales” with Hattie Bennett

Outing - Waddeston Manor
2022-06-15 | Waddesdon Manor
Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. Owned by National Trust and managed by the Rothschild Foundation

AGM
2022-06-22 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
Our Annual General Meeting – for details please see a committee member closer to the date.

Outing - Mystery Tour
2022-07-13
A coach trip, but where to?

Enrolment
2022-09-07 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
A new year and a full programme!
We’ll be taking the deposit for our holiday (17 May 2023)

Jumbo
2022-09-21 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
How Colchester got its Famous Water Tower with Peter Jones

Around the world in 23 years
2022-09-28 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
Linda Scoles tells her story

History of Playing Cards
2022-10-05 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
This week Colin Hopper will tell us about the history of playing cards

Postponed: Frauds & Fraudsters
2022-10-05 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With David Clarke
This talk has been postponed and will be replaced with History of Playing Cards

Coming back to butterflies
2022-10-12 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With Neil Dickinson

Churchill's S.O.E. spies
2022-10-19 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With historian Dr Hugh Frostick

No meeting
2022-10-26

Chasing the sun across Turkey
2022-11-02 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With Jenny Gibbs

Creating my garden from a field
2022-11-09 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With Jane Bastow

Outing - Poll Hill Garden Centre
2022-11-16 | Poll Hill Garden Centre, London Rd, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN14 7AD, United Kingdom
Speak to a committee member for details

Essex County Hospital updates
2022-11-23 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
Adam Wightman, Project officer at Colchester Archaeological Trust, provides updates on the Essex County Hospital site plus recent excavations in and around Harwich & Dovercourt

Christmas Lunch
2022-12-07
Details to be confirmed

A French love affair of over 30 years
2022-12-14 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With Cherry Mullins
The tale of how one woman’s love affair developed and grew, living and working in France. Told through slides and laced with stories of encounters with French men and women and her passion for everything French.

The mysteries of Easter Island
2023-01-11 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
With Chris Parfitt

La Veuve Clicquot
2023-01-18 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
La Veuve Clicquot: The woman behind the wines
by Paula Short

Living with the Paranormal
2023-01-25 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
New: Living with the Paranormal with Judith Hood
I was 14 when I saw my first spirit as a full apparition or so I thought; recently I have discovered it was happening even earlier than that. Throughout my life I have experienced things which are generally considered to be paranormal. It has been ten years since I discovered exactly what it was that was happening to me. This lighthearted talk will explain how it felt to suddenly realise just how different I am and what occurred to prove just how real it all is. Many of the tales are startling and most certainly thought provoking.

This replaces: WE’LL MEET AGAIN: An evacuee’s story.
Billy Jackson, a pearly king from Bethnal Green, vividly describes what life was like when he and his sister were evacuated to an East Anglian farm at the outbreak of WW2 and the horrors of the blitz in London. A 45 minute performance piece/story

The 1953 floods - 70 years on
2023-02-01 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
Exactly 70 years after the East Coast Flood, Historian David Whittle looks at the devastating event.

Bishops and Brothels (Southwark, London)
2023-02-08 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
Gary Egerton presents ‘Bishops and Brothels (Southwark, London)’

Two Suffolk Artists
2023-02-22 10:00 - 12:00 | United Services Club, Harwich, Essex, CO12 3NS, United Kingdom
TWO SUFFOLK ARTISTS
Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable
With Mark Mitchels
Throughout the world the work of these two artists offers a view of England which is still largely unchallenged. Their paintings adorn the walls of the world’s finest galleries, but they also are instantly familiar to us through a host of reproductions. For generations they have defined what we mean by the term masterpiece. Both artists had a clear sense of purpose, and they both had to overcome considerable obstacles before they could be accepted by their peers. Gainsborough rose to become the portrait painter of high society, including the court of George lll, but he only ever wanted to paint the Suffolk countryside. Constable chose to paint the subjects which interested him, even if the public did not share his enthusiasm for landscapes and rustic scenes. His determination to paint as he wished ensured that he remained relatively poor and neglected, and his attitude towards the art and artists of his age was based on painful experience! This lecture does more than just tell the story of their lives, it also provides a gallery of their finest work.
