the 6th Duke of Devonshire (National Trust)
7.30pm, Monday 17 November 2014, at the Chiswick Memorial Club, Bourne Place, London W4
An illustrated talk by Carolyn & Peter Hammond, authors of Life in an Eighteenth Century Country House (the Morice letters).
When the sixth Duke of Devonshire inherited Chiswick House in 1811 he commissioned an inventory of its contents. This talk uses the details in the inventory to reconstruct the house as the home of the Duke, his guests and his servants.
Mother Magdalen Taylor
7.30pm, Monday 20 October 2014, at the Chiswick Memorial Club, Bourne Place, London W4
An illustrated talk by Paul Shaw, central archivist for the Poor Servants of the Mother of God Sisters at the Convent in Brentford Butts since 2001. The talk will focus on Mother Magdalen Taylor (1832-1900), the founder of the order in Brentford, whose interesting life included service as a nurse with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea.
7.30pm, Monday 15 September 2014 at the Chiswick Memorial Club, Bourne Place, London W4
An illustrated talk by Howard Simmons, a Hounslow Heritage Guide, Syon House Guide and board member of the Battlefield Trust.
Howard will describe the role of the Duke of Northumberland and his home, Syon House, during the English Civil Wars with particular emphasis on the Battle of Brentford and the follow up engagement at Turnham Green in November 1642. He will explore the themes of loyalty and betrayal, warfare, looting and damage in our locality, and consider the artistic endeavour of Van Dyck and Peter Lely before asking about one of history’s great “what ifs?” that might have seen a different outcome to the Civil War.
