Controversy about statues has raged for centuries. A parliamentary committee tried to stop Nelson’s column – they failed.  Edith Cavell, the nurse executed in World War 1 was treated as a martyr. But her statue’s legend  ‘For King and Country’ is contradicted by a second inscription placed by those who knew her. Then there’s the statue that parliament thought they had melted down – only for it to reappear. Do we even notice these monuments that have caused such controversy?

So, come and find out more. What about the sculptor who got so fed up with his design being interfered with that he ended up sculpting a horse urinating? And who’d have thought a conversation with Oscar Wilde could still cause discord? Meanwhile, standing serenely, are a couple of 19th century generals active in India who might be glad they lived in an era before war crimes tribunals. 

Find all this and more in the epicentre of the city, the seat of power – in and around Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.

Join us for a 2 hour walk, starting from Charing Cross Station.

Click here for an application form.https://www.tasrtw.org.uk/DocumentStore/London%20Walk%206%20July%20booking%20form.pdf

Our group enjoyed a wonderful private tour of some of the highlights of The Wallace Collection.  Our guide was so good - informative, keen to engage with the group and easy on the ear!  What an amazing collection it is, and we saw only a fraction of what it has to offer.  We saw 17th and 18th century cabinetry featuring intricate turtleshell and metal marquetry and some wonderful collections of Sevres porcelain.  We were treated to insights into some famous paintings (Fragonard's The Swing and Jan Steen's Celebrating the Birth are both full of hidden meanings) and of course a close look at Hals' exuberant The Laughing Cavalier.

For anyone with time on their hands in London, a visit to Manchester Square is highly recommended!

We were delighted today to present a cheque for £250 to the children's charity Demelza. This was made possible by our successful application for a Community Grant from Head Office.

Katie Hook, Demelza's Head of Fundraising kindly attended our lecture at Trinity Theatre and accepted the cheque.  She spoke movingly about the work at Demelza and we hope that this small donation will help towards providing art therapy for the children in their care.

We're looking forward to welcoming as many members as possible to a focus group chat over coffee at Trinity Theatre from 11am on Tuesday 9 December.

This is your opportunity to share your views, insights and suggestions for the Arts Society as we plan our future events.

Please reply to elizabethharding@mail.com by 1 December.

On Monday 1 st December we had a most interesting tour of Somerset House.

How many of us when thinking of the venue would immediately have thought of the Public Records Office?

No longer! We learnt that Somerset House has a long history, starting as a Tudor palace with direct access to the River Thames and that it owes its current name to James I’s wife, Anne of Denmark. Demolished in 1775 it was rebuilt under George III, and after a spell as the Tax Authority, evolved to its current use as home to arts organizations, culminating in today's cultural centre. 

Our tour took us from the central courtyard with its Christmas ice rink in place, up into towers and down to the vaults; beneath Somerset House's Great Arch we came across an eighteenth-century Royal Barge; we discovered amazing staircases, the offices of Nelson, and those used by the Tax Authority in Victorian times, and admired throughout the grand, Palladian architecture designed by Sir William Chambers.

Somerset House was well worth the visit, and the feedback was all positive. As one of our party said:  it was quite an insight into a building that most of us knew a lot less about than we thought we did!

Please click here to access AGM Documents

https://tasrtw.org.uk/DocumentStore/ANNUAL%20GENERAL%20MEETING%202025%20Docs.pdf.

Tour led by Sophie Campbell on Monday 29 September 2025

Meeting at eleven o’clock with our super guide Sophie Campbell to make a tour of Spitalfields, we started with a look at the the WW1 war memorial and the Kindertransport statue in Liverpool Street Station, and soon emerged into the busy streets of East London to discover the history and development of the area, its fascinating social history and architectural wonders.

The name of the area derives from the old priory of The New Hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate in the early twelfth century – the area was largely laid to fields for the cultivation of medicinal herbs giving the name Hospitalfields.

We were to see how the creation of accommodation for the poor was continued right up to more modern times, and how waves of new migrants had taken the place of those who established themselves successfully in the area. Huguenot silk-weavers were succeeded by Jews who contributed their tailoring skills, and more recently Bangladeshi people have made their mark with their cuisine. The area is currently home to a vibrant mix of cultures and artists.

At the heart of the area is the Hawksmoor church, Christ Church, and the refurbished Spitalfields Market. The numerous high-rise office blocks dwarf the delightful weavers’ cottages in the heart of Spitalfields, the threat of demolition of these charming old buildings averted in the 60s. We were amused to find a number of bronze elephants in and around the market, there to promote a charity which protects elephants in the wild, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

Our Guide had a depth of knowledge, and a wealth of anecdotes and information to make our visit most enjoyable; she looked after the group with sensitivity and care. We were lucky to have sparkling sunshine all morning, and we all came away with a very positive appreciation of an area not many of us had known before.

On 20 November a party of us visited the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden for a behind the scenes tour. Our enthusiastic guide took us backstage and recounted some of the history behind the theatre . We were then lucky enough to enter the auditorium where we enjoyed a few minutes of a dress rehearsal of Tosca. We saw beautiful costumes and their storage areas as well as those for lighting and scenery.  We watched members of the Royal Ballet in class and the restaurant areas including the lovely Paul Hamlyn Bar converted from the Covent Garden fruit and flower market. The tour gave us some insight on how much expertise effort and financial input it takes to put on each performance. 

I think it's fair to say the the tour was enjoyed by all. 

https://tasrtw.org.uk/DocumentStore/AGM%20papers.pdf

Dear Members

We have now reached the end of our programme year and, as I am standing down as Chair over the summer, I wanted to thank you all so much for your support during my two-year tenure. It’s been an honour and a pleasure to be your Chair and I’m delighted that I can carry on as Treasurer, working with you all and with our wonderful Committee.

At our last lecture, I paid tribute to my Committee friends, saying a fond farewell to Anna Astin (our Hospitality Secretary) who has served our Society so well over many years. I hope that Anna will now be able to relax and sit back and enjoy our lectures and other activities.  Being a Committee member is very much a team effort - arranging our lectures, Study Days, visits and social events - and I am sure I speak for all of you when I say how very grateful we are to all of them for their contribution.

So, the role of Chair will now pass to MaryAnne Lockie, who has been our Programme Secretary for the last three years. I am so happy to be able to hand over to the enthusiastic, knowledgeable and capable person that is MaryAnne and I wish her well.

We also have two new members joining us in the autumn – Elizabeth Harding and Sandy Steeves - who will gradually be inducted into our work and see what future role they may like. I am grateful to them for their enthusiasm and look forward to working with them.

We have three events coming up in the autumn and spring for which booking is now open:

• Visit to Leighton House- in Holland Park, London on 28th September – I can personally vouch for this art museum as the most wonderful place to visit. Jaw-droppingly beautiful mosaics in the Arab Hall and beautiful paintings. We are taking bookings now and full details are on the website. Please contact Jenny Brennan if you would like to book a place.
• A visit to Liverpool from 21st to 25th April next year. This includes a stay in a 4* central Liverpool hotel, a guided city tour, visits to both cathedrals, the Walker and Lady Lever art galleries, Port Sunlight, the Museum of Liverpool, Antony Gormley’s “Another Place” at Crosby Beach and the Albert Dock. And as if that wasn’t enough, there is also a visit to Salford Quays and the Lowry on the way back. The holiday cost is £749 per person for two people sharing, with a single room supplement of £99. The trip will be organised through Tailored Travel and we require a minimum of 20 bookings to make the trip viable. Full information is on our website and you can contact Jenny Brennan to raise any queries. You can also find full details at www.tailored-travel.co.uk - go to View Your Tour and quote rtwd241. To make your booking, please send the booking form and deposit to Tailored Travel directly and inform Jenny that you have done so.
• Our next Study Day will be on Thursday 26th October and will be on the topic of Happy and Glorious: A thousand years of coronations. Our speaker will be Barbara Askew. This Study Day will look at the evolution of the Coronation ceremony from Saxon times up to the present day.  Lecture 1 examines the stages of the Coronation from the Proclamation through to the Homage and gives an account of the fascinating incidents, ill omens and memorable mishaps that have occurred over a thousand years. Lecture 2 gives an account of the different items of Coronation Regalia, explaining their history, ceremonial significance and liturgical symbolism.  Lecture 3 gives an entertaining insight into the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2nd June 1953, the first witnessed by the people via the new medium of television. Information is now on the website and a booking form will be available in September. If you would like to reserve your place, please contact Marilyn Glover.

Contact details for Jenny and Marilyn are in your programme and on the website.

I do hope you all enjoy the summer break and return refreshed to Trinity on 18th September for our first lecture of our new season.

With all good wishes

Jane

Jane Jenner

Chair, The Arts Society Royal Tunbridge Wells

Dear Members

As I write, there are stirrings of Spring in the air – daffodils, primroses and, occasionally, a strange yellow orb in the sky. Like me, I’m sure you are all longing for some warm sunshine after what feels like months of rain and grey skies. And we are two-thirds of the way through our programme year – where has the time gone?!

This will be my final three months as Chair of our Society as I will be handing over to MaryAnne Lockie at the end of June. But before that happens, we have our lectures to look forward to and a midsummer ‘end-of-term’ afternoon tea to enjoy at the High Rocks hotel on 21st June. We are also planning a further visit to the British Library on 6th June following the success of the one held a couple of weeks ago.

Plans are also afoot for next year’s events. We have discovered that trips abroad have become prohibitively expensive, so we are now looking closer to home. Jenny Brennan, our Visits Secretary, is investigating a short trip to Liverpool as well as a visit to Leighton House in London. More details to follow.

I am also in touch with our Consultative Group with a view to meeting later in May to receive feedback about our activities this year and what we might consider for next year. Should anyone wish to join our merry band of consultees, please do let me know either by emailing at chairman.tasrtw@gmail.com or ringing me on 01892 852424.

Your membership renewal letters will be posted to you later in May and I do hope you will not only renew your membership for 2023-24 but also encourage your family and friends to join us. Several Societies throughout the country are having to close, including, sadly, the Tonbridge Society because of a declining membership and the difficulty in finding Committee members. I’m sure our Society will continue to remain both vibrant and viable but please do what you can to spread the word. Included in your renewal letter will be a token to pass to a friend to allow them to attend a lecture for free – a national Arts Society initiative which has proved successful in other areas in bringing in new members.

At the last lecture, I announced a £5 increase in our membership fee (and a £1 increase in our guest fee) which I am sure you will understand is a reflection of increased lecture and venue costs. Our own fee remains comparable with other Kent Societies (and in some cases is lower) and I hope you will agree continues to represent value for money.

It only remains for me to offer a genuine and heart-felt thank you to all our Committee members for their continuing work, creativity and friendship. I am also delighted that Elizabeth Harding will be joining us round the Committee table in June.

I do hope you all enjoy the Easter break – and the warm sunshine when it comes!

With all good wishes

Jane

Jane Jenner

Chair, The Arts Society Royal Tunbridge Wells

We are holding a celebratory end of term afternoon tea on midsummer's day - 21st June - at 3.00 pm at the High Rocks hotel. Information and a booking form can be found by clicking here.

Dear Members

I thought that as we have now come to the end of our programme year, it would be appropriate to say a heartfelt thanks to you all for your support over the last few months. Having coped with pestilence and storms, I hope that the coming year will see us challenge-free!

At our last lecture, I paid tribute to our wonderful Committee, saying a fond farewell to Daphne Darby (our Visits Secretary) and a warm welcome to Diane Reay (our Communications Officer). It is very much a team effort to arrange our lectures, Study Days, visits and social events and I am sure I speak for all of you when I say how very grateful we are to all our Committee for their contribution.

Rather than look back over the last year, which I focused on at the lecture, I would like to take this opportunity to look forward. This coming year will be my second year as Chair but it will also be my last. As you will be aware, I am also the Treasurer and I strongly believe that the two positions of Chair and Treasurer should be held by different people. As we have been unable to find a Treasurer in the last four years of searching, I have agreed with my Committee colleagues that I will remain on the Committee as Treasurer and that the role of Chair will be passed to MaryAnne Lockie, our current Programme Secretary. I am so happy that I am able to remain on the Committee (such lovely people to work alongside!) and to hand over to the enthusiastic, knowledgeable and capable person that is MaryAnne.

I am also keen to recruit at least one more person to the Committee, so please do let me know if you are interested and we can meet for a coffee and chat about what’s involved.

As you are aware, we had to cancel two events this year – the February Study Day and the Afternoon Tea at Trinity in July - because we had insufficient bookings to make the events financially viable. It is such a shame to have to cancel events when colleagues have put so much work into their organisation. We have discussed at Committee the possible reasons as to why these events did not attract the usual support. However, unless we hear from you, our Members, we can only speculate.

So, we have decided to set up a Consultative Group of (hopefully) around six Members with whom we can discuss what works best, what kind of events (walks, visits, holidays, social events) you would like to see offered, how we can improve the recruitment/retention of Members and any other issues that you or the Committee might like to raise. It is hoped that the Consultative Group would meet with some Committee members at Trinity for an hour or so every couple of months during the coming programme year. Oh, and there will be tea/coffee and cake involved!

I do hope some of you would like to join this Group so that we can continue to improve and provide our Members with the service and events they want. If you are interested in discussing this and possibly joining, could you please contact me, either by emailing at chairman.tasrtw@gmail.com or ringing me on 01892 852424? Thank you so much.

I do hope you all enjoy the summer break and return refreshed to Trinity on 19th September for our first lecture of our new season.

With all good wishes

Jane

Jane Jenner

Chair, The Arts Society Royal Tunbridge Wells

Please come and join us for an elegant afternoon tea to celebrate our successful 2021-22 season. 

This will be held at the Trinity Theatre on Wednesday, 13th July at 3.30 pm.

For information and the booking form, please click here

Dear Member

As it’s the beginning of March and, meteorologically speaking, the start of Spring, I thought it would be appropriate to look ahead to sunnier, warmer times. And especially so, as we’ve had a bit of a disappointing start to our year as a Society. We had to hold our January lecture on Zoom and to cancel both our Study Day and our February lecture – all beyond our control, unfortunately, and not quite what we had all had in mind.

However, onwards and upwards! At our last Committee meeting, we discussed how we wanted to provide opportunities for our members to enjoy our Society all year round so we have planned the following events so far, in addition to our annual lecture programme and Study Days:

A virtual tour on Friday, 8th April at 11.00 am. This will be held on Zoom and will be a tour of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam by Sophie Oosterwijk. The fee will be £10 each. Here is a synopsis of the tour:

The Rijksmuseum must be the highlight of a visit to Amsterdam for anyone who loves Dutch art. Its collections are world-famous, but while most people will associate the museum with Dutch painting of the Golden Age – notably the work of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Ruisdael and Hals – it contains so much more. Some 8,000 objects out of a collection of approximately one million are on display, varying from medieval and modern art to applied art and historical artefacts. The Rijksprentenkabinet (Print Room) alone houses some 700,000 works on paper. There is also the Cuypers-designed library and a special wing dedicated to Asian art. And yes, it also houses Rembrandt’s Night Watch, although the Rijksmuseum does not actually own the painting: it is on loan. The building itself is also of great interest. Conceived by the Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers as an elaborate Gesamtkunstwerk full of nationalistic imagery, it was built between 1876 and 1885, but subsequently underwent many changes until the renovation of 2003–13 took the Rijksmuseum ‘back to Cuypers’. This meant restoring the original rich interior décor yet also offering a greater focus on the objects on display. This lecture offers fascinating insights into the Rijksmuseum – its history, building and its varied collections – and explains how some objects came to be there.

I do hope you will want to join us. The information and booking form are available on our website here or you can contact our Visits Secretary, Daphne Darby, at daphnedarby@gmail.com or on 01892 521250.

Our next additional event will be a real live visit – to the newly-refurbished Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House on the Strand. This will be a guided tour and will be held in July. Further details will be announced once we have everything finalised.

In August, we are planning an elegant afternoon tea with music to celebrate the end of our programme year. Again, more information will be announced in the new few weeks.

And finally, following our successful Christmas Zoom lecture last December, we will be offering another festive treat on Zoom on 19th December.

So, a lot to look forward to in addition to our published programme!

I would also like to remind our newer members that we have our Coffee Morning on Monday, 28th March and you should have received your invitation letter. I very much look forward to seeing you there.

Following discussion with my Committee friends, I have decided to continue with the role of Treasurer, as well as Chair, for the time being. However, it is clear that we need to recruit new Committee members to secure our Society for the future. New Committee members are not in any way thrown in at the deep end, and we offer shadowing, support and formal training so there is time to build up knowledge, experience and confidence before taking on any new role. So, please do let me know if you are interested in joining our merry band – I’m always happy to meet informally over coffee for an initial chat.

Our 2022-23 programme is being finalised as I write, and we will be distributing the new printed programmes with the membership renewal information at our May and June lectures.

I think that’s it for now but if you need any information about our programme or our Society, please do get in touch with me or any of our Committee members. We’re always here to help!

Our next lecture will be held on 21st March and will focus on Ethel Rosenberg, with the welcome return of Anne Sebba as our lecturer.

I look forward to seeing you all again later this month.

Best wishes

Jane

Jane Jenner

Chair

Dear Member

First of all, may I wish each and every one of you a joyous and restorative festive season! It has certainly been a very busy autumn “term” for our Society with our return to three live lectures and an AGM at Trinity, our fabulous Ruby lunch, a fascinating Study Day and virtual walk and an upcoming virtual lecture which I am sure we will all enjoy.

It has, of course, been a joy to welcome members back to our live events. The emergence of the new Omicron variant is worrying but as I write, we have little or no information about its impact or whether further restrictions will be put in place beyond the current Plan B measures. We will continue to plan for our live lectures and Study Day and would encourage you all to join us if you feel safe to do so. We all gain so much from being together.

We move into 2022 with a vibrant membership (not quite back up to pre-pandemic levels yet but we’re getting there). The Committee are looking upon this current programme year as a transitional one where we re-establish ourselves and focus on recruiting more members to ensure we can continue our excellent programme and our grant-giving activity for years to come. In January, we will be discussing ways of publicising our Society and our continuing involvement with Magic Lantern and Speech Bubbles who do so much to support children and young people through the arts. I am also keen to look at other ways of supporting Young Arts activities and will keep you all updated as we make progress.

Our support for Trinity has been appreciated by the theatre who have given us our very own seat in the auditorium with a plaque to mark our support. So – form an orderly queue to sit in seat E8! We are all grateful to the staff and volunteers at Trinity for their hard work in ensuring our visits are safely managed and our presentations professionally produced. I with them every success with their festive events and the 2022 programme. What a time they have had of it all.

Your loyal support of our Society is very much appreciated and I would like to offer my very grateful thanks to my fellow Committee Members for their hard work, creativity and friendship.

I look forward to seeing you all again in January.

Keep safe and warm!

Best wishes

Jane

Jane Jenner, Chair

As this Chair’s report essentially covers the year when Sandra Hitching was our Chairman, I am delighted to present a report which has the Sandra Hitching Seal of Approval.

The year saw the pandemic continue to disrupt our lives in so many ways and even now, we are still having to take a great deal of care of ourselves and others. However, we have now resumed live lectures and how wonderful it has been to see our members again in person.

Last year, we held our AGM on Zoom – probably in record time! But the Committee thought we should now resume holding the AGM in person. I have previously recorded my thanks and gratitude to Sandra for energising us all throughout the various lockdowns and so magnificently rising to the challenge of Zoom! All our lectures, study days and walks were held via Zoom and sadly we had to postpone our Ruby Lunch until September 2021. Nevertheless, we offered a full programme of events and kept in touch with our members through phone calls, cards and quizzes and I must thank our Committee members for all their help. I know that Sandra received so many messages of thanks from members over the year and we are so pleased that members appreciated the effort to keep in touch.

We can only hope at this point that there will be no further lockdowns or disruptions to our lives and that we can now resume what we tentatively call “normality”. I appreciate that not all our members yet feel confident to return to lectures in person but so many members have renewed their membership, or joined for the first time, that I am confident our Society will not only recover but go from strength to strength. At end of July, we had 269 members and are nearing that number again as at today, with more enquiries coming in weekly. In the new year, once we have settled back into our routine and after our busy autumn schedule, the Committee will be focusing on recruitment as we feel our Society has so much to offer. Our best method of recruitment will always be word of mouth so I do urge you all to spread the word to family, friends and colleagues and encourage them to join us!

We were so pleased to be able to offer support to Trinity during the lockdowns when they were unable to open as usual. During the year, we donated the profits from our online events which amounted to £725 which supplemented the donation of £1,200 we had made the previous year when we had to cancel our bookings. In return, and totally unexpected, Trinity have kindly offered us a seat plaque in the auditorium. So, soon, one of the seats will proudly bear the name of our Society – I will point out the seat in question in due course! During the year, we also donated £500 to Speech Bubbles, a charity working with Trinity to support Years 1 and 2 pupils, which improves speech, language and communication skills, giving confidence to young children through the magic of drama.

And now a serious matter. As you know, before becoming Chair of our Society, I was the Treasurer. And I am still the Treasurer, which I really did not sign up for! It is not appropriate for the person leading the Society to also be in charge of its finances and also – I’m sure you will agree – it’s not fair. Despite pleas from both Sandra and me, we remain without a Treasurer. I am prepared to continue in the dual role for a while longer but not for much longer. So, if you are at all interested in joining the Committee and being inducted into the role of Treasurer – we can take it very gradually – please do speak to me after a lecture or ring or email me. I would be very sad if we found ourselves in the position of having to look for a new Chair, rather than a new Treasurer.

I really must thank all our Committee members for all their hard work behind the scenes (and indeed, in front of them). Yes, we do work hard but we also have a lot of fun and are a great team. In September, I paid tribute to the work carried out by Andrea Bromley as our Hospitality Secretary and would repeat here what a difference she made to members in welcoming and supporting them and arranging happy events such as our new members’ coffee morning and our lunches. We have welcomed Anna Astin back to the Committee to take Andrea’s place and she has already got into her stride with our Ruby Lunch in September. Thank you, Anna. We have also welcomed Jenny Brennan to the Committee. Jenny is an enthusiastic member and will be developing her role in the coming months. All our Committee members really do go the extra mile to provide an entertaining and informative programme of events and to support our members and as Chair, I so value the contribution each and every one makes. Our Programme Secretary MaryAnne Lockie is, I’m sure, relieved to be able to welcome our lecturers in person, having coped so well with helping them with the challenges of Zoom. So confident is she now that she has even snuck in an extra lecture for you next month – via Zoom, of course. Our Study Days organiser, Marilyn Glover, has the work down pat – not only sorting the arrangements for the lecturer and venue but also producing from her bags all manner of paraphernalia from a laptop to a lectern to purple flower pots (don’t ask) to bottles of wine. Extraordinary! My thanks to Daphne Darby for arranging our virtual walks – she has not yet had the opportunity to organise a real live one but who knows what the next few months will bring. Our Secretary, Jaco Rowlands, keeps us all in order at our meetings and does so much to support each and every member. Last, but definitely not least, I must thank Helen Sanders our Membership Secretary. Helen is the keeper of the history of our Society and she knows all our members. She is always available and works tirelessly to maintain our membership database, prepare our emails to members and – something for which I am eternally grateful – she banks all the cheques we receive. So, that’s our wonderful Committee and I hope they all know how much I appreciate them all.

Nancy Stone is continuing her role in co-ordinating our helpers – members who are unable to give time to the Committee but want to help out at, for example, the Study Days or in selling tickets to events. I have dubbed Nancy our “Lovely Helper Supremo” and if you would like to join her team, please let me know and I can put you in touch with Nancy. My thanks to everyone who is a “Lovely Helper”.

Looking forward to 2021-22, we have a vibrant lecture programme in place. We intend to organise other events, both on Zoom and in person, so do keep an eye out on the website and at lectures for more opportunities to enjoy what our Society has to offer.

Thank you for your continued support.

Jane Jenner, Chair

CHAIR’S MESSAGE – AUGUST 2021

I am delighted and proud to be the new Chair of the Arts Society Royal Tunbridge Wells and to introduce myself to you - our current and future members. I have been a member of our Society for four years and have served on the Committee since November 2018, first as Website Manager and then adding the role of Treasurer. I have been privileged to work alongside dedicated and hard-working (and incredibly lovely) Committee members under the leadership of our esteemed former Chairman, Sandra Hitching. It is somewhat daunting to be following in Sandra’s footsteps but, with the support of the Committee, I feel up to the challenge and am so looking forward to serving our Society for the next three years.

Programme 2021-22

The first piece of news is that we are expecting a return to Trinity for our lectures in September. Our Programme Secretary, MaryAnne Lockie, and I recently met staff at Trinity and discussed their plans for a full reopening with their usual varied programme of events. They are delighted to be welcoming us back for our monthly lectures and I will be able to confirm the arrangements for entry and checking in to the lectures a bit nearer the time. I am sure there will be some of our members who will be cautious about returning to Trinity, and that is perfectly understandable, but rest assured that the Committee will be working closely with Trinity staff to ensure a safe and welcoming return for you. So, watch this space for further news but do put the date of our first live lecture – 20th September – in your diary! 

At the time of writing, our membership renewal letters are being sent to our current members inviting you to join our Society again for 2021-22. We have kept our fee at £40 for the year and are able to offer you a full programme of events. As well as our nine monthly lectures at Trinity, we are holding:

• Study days
  • ​28th October: The Treasures of Ravenna, Urbino and Rimini
  • 17th February: Medicine and Art – Unlikely Bedfellows
• Virtual walk (by Zoom)
  • 25th November: The Albert Memorial
• Extra! Virtual lecture (by Zoom)
  • 20th December: The Magic of Pantomime

There are likely to be additional virtual events during the year and the Committee will be considering the options for resuming our visits and tours. Most of these events are included in our printed programme and full up-to-date information is always available on our website at tasrtw.org.uk. We will of course, contact all members with information on how to book these additional events and information will also be available at our lectures at Trinity.

Ruby Anniversary Lunch

We are also delighted to be able to finally hold our Ruby Anniversary Lunch, postponed from June last year to 30th September this year. The renewal letters sent to members include information about the lunch and how to book. Again, full information is also available on our website. This lunch will be a truly celebratory event – not only of our 40 (now 41!) years as a successful Society but also of our finally being able to meet again in person, something I know we have all missed. One of the most-commented on aspects of our Society is how welcoming and friendly we are and to not have been able to meet up for so long has felt hard. So, please do come and join us at our Ruby Lunch, meet your friends, eat heartily and marvel at the magic of Bertie Pearce!

Committee News

There has been one change to the Committee membership which we were unable to include in our printed programme. Andrea Bromley, our Hospitality Secretary, has stepped down. We are so very grateful to Andrea for all her hard work in developing the hospitality role to make our Society so welcoming for new members and in organising our new members’ coffee morning and our summer lunches. Andrea’s warmth, dedication and humour will be very much missed and we all wish her well.

Anna Astin, who many of you will know, is rejoining the Committee and will take over the role of Hospitality Secretary. I am delighted to be welcoming Anna on board and her long experience of the Society will be something I shall certainly be calling upon!

Membership

Over the next few months, the Committee is going to be working hard to recruit new members to our Society. Inevitably, and like every other local Society, our membership number dipped last year and we would like to bring that number back up. This will ensure our financial viability and the vibrancy of our Society so that we can continue to offer an excellent programme of lectures and events for you to enjoy. So, please spread the word to your friends, family, colleagues and fellow-members of other societies and interest groups – membership information (including the application form) is available on our website at tasrtw.org.uk/AboutUs/JoiningUs or from our Membership Secretary, Helen Sanders.

Search for a Treasurer - Your Society Needs You!

We would also like to recruit a Treasurer for our Society. At the moment, I am continuing with this role but I’m sure you will agree that it is not in the best interests of probity for the Chair and the Treasurer to be the same person. If you are interested in taking on this role (and frankly, if you can read a bank statement and keep simple financial records, you’re a shoe-in!) please do let me know and we can have a no-obligation chat over coffee. As well as ongoing support from me and my fellow Committee members, there is formal training provided by The Arts Society (which is incredibly useful and offers a chance to meet other Society Treasurers and compare notes and ideas).

And finally…

I would like to end by thanking all our members for your continued support over the last 18 months – we have been so touched by your kind messages and encouragement. We couldn’t wish for a more positive and supporting membership – so, thank you. And I would also like to thank our Committee members (and especially including Sandra) for all your creative hard work in keeping our Society going, keeping in touch with our members and providing a full programme of events. What a team!

Warmest wishes

Jane Jenner

Chair

I am reminded of something that the Dalai Lama said “Choose to be optimistic. It feels better”.  Although we have remained optimistic throughout these challenging times, I believe that now, at last, we have more reasons to feel positive about the future. The UK’s vaccination programme has been a phenomenal success, most of you will have had one or even both jabs, we are half way through the Government’s route map to exit the lockdown and Spring has arrived.

We have weathered more than a year of a pandemic which has tested so many in so many ways. All of us in the Arts Society Royal Tunbridge Wells have been deprived of what we love most: gathering together regularly in person with like-minded people to appreciate a wide range of arts, increase our knowledge and be spellbound by extraordinary lecturers. Since March 2020, we have all been on a journey of discovery as we have had to migrate to  virtual lectures and events. The committee and I have been very moved by your extraordinary loyalty and support. In particular, to those of you who do not have an internet connection, we have been delighted that so many of you have renewed your annual membership subscription even though you have been unable to join any of the virtual events. Thank you.

To all of you who have joined the Zoom events, we give you our heartfelt thanks for sticking with us and making us feel that our offerings have been appreciated. In particular, thank you to everyone for generously supporting our three ticketed events, the on-line Study Days in October and February and the Virtual Walk in January. By buying tickets to these events, you have enabled us to make a surplus of £725 which we have donated to our much-loved venue, Trinity Theatre.

Now, we wish to thank you with more than words so we will be inviting you all to join a special one and a half hour guided virtual walking tour of Rome on  Wednesday 26 May. This is additional to our programmed events and free of charge.  We would like to extend the invitation to non-members, your neighbours, family and friends too. The more the merrier! We also hope that some relaxation of the rules on meeting others inside by then should make it  possible for some of you without internet, to watch with others who are connected.  All we will need to know is the email address of the person with whom you will be watching so we can send them a link.

Our intention to hold our delayed Ruby Celebration lunch was thwarted again this year because, as a result of the ongoing restrictions, High Rocks could not commit to any of our proposed June dates.  However, we thought that it would be rather lovely to celebrate our return to more normality in September so we have scheduled a Celebration Lunch  at the High Rocks Hotel on Thursday 30 September when Bertie Pearce, who is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, will be entertaining us.  We are looking forward to socialising together and raising our glasses, both with you and to you.

Our May and June lectures, which complete our 2020 - 2021 season, will be on Zoom. Subscription renewal information together with the programme for 2021- 2022 will be sent out in the Summer and then, in September, we are booked to return to Trinity for our first lecture on Monday 20 September. I cannot tell you how excited we are at the thought of welcoming you back to live lectures and other events, to socialising with you and to catching up on what will then be an 18 months absence.

All journeys have to end sometime and so I wanted to let you know that mine, as Chairman of the Arts Society Royal Tunbridge Wells, will be ending soon.  I am stepping down on 30 June 2021 after four years in which, supported by an exceptional committee, it has been an absolute joy and a privilege to serve as your Chairman.

The wonderful Jane Jenner, who is currently Treasurer and Vice Chairman, is taking over from me and you couldn’t have a lovelier, more competent, safer pair of hands to take you forward into the future.  I know you will give her and her committee the same extraordinary support and encouragement that you have always given me. 

We want to start growing our membership numbers again and are looking for enthusiastic people with fresh ideas who are willing to help run our society. We ask for your assistance in this, so please spread the word. There are various opportunities for people to be involved both on and off the committee. We give our time, but in return we gain so much by being part of a team, knowing that what we do ensures the continuity of this amazing society, making new friends and having a lot of fun too. Anyone who might be interested in being  involved should  get in touch with me, Jane or any committee member so that we can have an informal chat about the opportunities over a coffee. And, by the way, no-one ever gets thrown in at the deep end!

Once again, my grateful thanks to you all.  Please keep safe and well.

Warmest wishes.

Sandra Hitching

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

December 2020

As we approach the end of 2020, I want to take the opportunity, once again, to thank you for your continued loyalty and support. My committee and I have been heartened by your many kind messages throughout this extraordinary year as we have all faced the many challenges created by Covid 19.

We have been delighted that so many of you have connected with the virtual events we have offered since June.  It seems that you have adapted quickly to this Zoom world, have enjoyed joining in with other members and have been very understanding about the occasional hiccup. I think we must all agree that a sense of humour has been an invaluable asset during this time!

Although we continue to be optimistic and are talking to Trinity about when and how we can resume live lectures, we must be realistic about the immediate future.  Therefore, our programme for January, February and March will continue to be online.  This includes our monthly lectures, a Study Day in February and a virtual walk in January, when we can enjoy exploring with a Blue Badge guide without having to travel and brave the winter weather. We will keep the situation under constant review and keep you informed along the way.

We know how difficult it has been for those of you who are not internet connected and yet you too have remained loyal and been prepared to renew your membership, support us and wait for better times.  We are so very grateful and we hope that our occasional phone calls and mailings have helped you to know that you are not forgotten.

Here’s to those better times ahead for us all!

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and a safe and healthy 2021.

Sandra Hitching

Chairman

Last year we had two AGMs, in April and again in October. We planned to hold our annual AGM thereafter in October, having synchronised our administration, financial and lecture years.   No amount of foresight could have enabled us to predict the onset of the Covid19 pandemic nor the impact that it would have on us all.  How could we have known that we would be holding this, our 2020 AGM, via Zoom? Indeed, how many of us had even heard of Zoom in February 2020?

The 2019-2020 lecture year was split in two.  From September 2019 to March 2020, we held our usual live monthly lectures at Trinity: The Emperor Constantine, Victoria and Albert, Coffee: Arabia to the coffee house, Franz Schubert, the East India Company and just a week before lockdown on 16 March, The GPO Film Unit, plus a Study Day focussing on the Magnificent Maya. It was a vibrant and fascinating programme.

Then came a national lockdown on 23 March 2020. Whilst, initially, we were forced to cancel the lectures for April, May and June, we continued to meet as a committee via Zoom and we resolved to do a number of things:

• We decided to pay the Trinity hire fee for the cancelled lectures in an attempt to help them through what we knew would be a very tough time for their sector
• We made a plan to contact as many of our members as we could by phone, starting with those who did not have email, to check on everyone’s wellbeing and keep them informed. As a committee, we managed to speak to nearly all our 365 members at the time, which proved to be a most worthwhile and rewarding exercise.  We often enjoyed extended conversations and, happily, found that the vast majority of our members were well and stalwart
• We resolved not to let our Ruby Anniversary Celebration be entirely ruined and, at least, to hold an event on line to mark the occasion. To this end, we asked Bertie Pearce, who would have entertained us at the High Rocks for the live Ruby Celebration, to join our Zoom event on 3 June, at which he gave a short lecture on Victorian Pastimes, treated us to a little magic and joined in a toast to our society as we all raised our fully charged glasses.  We were delighted that we had about 100 viewers and it was lovely ‘to be together’ again
• My ‘techie’ daughter had helped me with the Ruby event but we were all determined to learn as much as we could about Zoom and the virtual world, we had entered so that we could at least offer a substitute virtual programme.  We held a Coffee with the Committee morning by Zoom in July, when members found out more about each member of the committee and what their role involved. In August, again at coffee time, we viewed and discussed a fascinating video talk on the £20 by Nicola Moorby
• We distributed an art quiz, hoping to amuse you on the August Bank Holiday

On 21 September, we started the new season with a fascinating lecture via Zoom, entitled Art Transported, when Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe gave us a unique insight into the journeys that artworks have made from where they were made to their current locations. As I write this we are looking forward to our lecture on 19 October with John Francis on the Master of Suspense, Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

What a challenge it has been!  But how incredible has been the response from everyone. We have received many lovely messages from you with thanks and appreciation for our efforts.  We want to thank all of you, our loyal and committed members. You have been patient and understanding throughout and have continued to support us as we have been forced to suddenly operate in a virtual world.

Of course, enormous thanks go to my superb committee, without whom our society would not function. Each and every one of them has pulled out all the stops to try to ensure that we provide the best programme we can under these extraordinary circumstances. I am so grateful to you all but I must mention a few people in particular. Anna Astin stepped down from the committee in the Spring, having already organised a wonderful live programme for the first half of the season and we must also thank her for her significant contribution to our society over many years; Mary Anne Lockie is now our Programme Secretary. She has picked up the Zoom baton and run so speedily and effectively with it to arrange the programme for 2020-2021 and she is also our Quiz setter extraordinaire! Helen Sanders, who has been a truly wonderful Membership Secretary for so long, and on whom we rely for her vast knowledge of the society and legal matters; Jane Jenner who is not only Vice Chairman and Treasurer but also makes time to manage our existing website and work on the launch of a new updated website too. It is interesting to note that Daphne Darby has re-joined the committee after being a helper saying one of the reasons was that she missed us! Thanks to Nancy Stone for her contribution as Assistant Membership Secretary. She is leaving the committee now but she is not going far as she will continue to help with registration once we are live again and she is taking on the role of managing and growing our team of helpers.  When it comes to our lovely helpers who have always responded when we have needed them at live events and hopefully will answer the call for help again in the not too distant future, there is a saying that encapsulates the sentiment: “Like the stars you don’t have to see them to know that they are there” 

I know how much our monthly lectures have been missed. We miss Trinity, we miss meeting together, we miss the buzz as we gather for coffee and we miss discussing the lecture and putting the world to rights afterwards and we miss our fabulous Study Days with lunch and wine!  We will be talking to Trinity about how and when we can return., but, in the meantime, our programme has to be virtual and we thank our wonderful lecturers who have also adapted to the situation and learnt how to present via Zoom.

As to our membership, we have lost members since lockdown and will not know the final membership number for a little while yet.  So far, what we do know from feedback, is that the main reasons for not renewing are that many elderly members have become too frail to continue with their membership, very sadly, a number have died and also, a surprising number have moved away from the area, often to be closer to family.

Regardless of this pandemic and its constraints, there are reasons to remain positive. Many members have renewed their membership even though they do not intend to get involved with any virtual events, but they have told us that they will be back at lectures as soon as we return to Trinity. We have fewer members without internet access who can now get involved as family and friends have encouraged them and helped them to ‘get connected’! Providing lectures via Zoom also means that we have been able to schedule an extra one in December when Trinity would not be available and we can forget about braving bad weather to join lectures this season as we join from the comfort of our homes.

Fortunately, we had a very healthy membership before lockdown but we will be putting a lot of effort into finding ways to recruit more members as soon as we can. Of course, you can help us with this by spreading the word and maybe, inviting others to sample our programme before joining. Please let us know if you want to invite someone to join a lecture as a visitor – it is so easy to organise.

Also, we must look to the future and, crucially, to plan for committee succession. So please contact me or any committee member (contact details on the programme) for an informal discussion, without obligation, if you or anyone you know might be interested in getting involved with the running of our society and wants to know more about what we do. I promise you that it is rewarding and a lot of fun!

So, dear lovely members, thank you for your continued support and please keep safe and well.

Sandra Hitching

Chairman

Dear Members

Looking back, I am not sure that anyone could have foreseen the enormous impact that the Coronavirus pandemic would have on our way of life.

Despite the huge negative effect of lockdown on us all as individuals and on our Society, it has been of the utmost importance to us that we continue to communicate with you and try to keep our family of members together. We have tried to reach you all not only by email and via our website but also, especially for those of you without internet, by post and telephone.

We know that the virtual world is no replacement for the real world but we have found that it can be a very welcome opportunity for us to meet and see each other. Following virtual events via Zoom in June, July and August, we have now organised Lectures via Zoom for this autumn, together with a Study Day, our AGM and an additional Christmas lecture.  Immediately it is possible to return to Trinity we will do so, but in the meantime we will continue to try and find ways to add benefit to your membership wherever we can.

Over the last few months, we have had to pay particular attention to our finances as we faced the challenge of lockdown, not knowing when we might be able to resume our lectures. Fortunately, we were in a strong position in March and only one of our cancelled lecturers charged us a (small) cancellation fee. The Committee therefore took the decision in May to support the Trinity Theatre by paying for the venue costs of our cancelled bookings for April, May and June. We felt this was a justifiable use of some of our funds in order to add our support to a much-loved local arts venue and one that is essential to our Society.

Given that we are offering members online lectures and events for the foreseeable future, we have paid for a Zoom licence which will allow us no limit to the number of uses or participants. The cost of this licence has been negotiated on behalf of local Societies by The Arts Society so we are very grateful to them.

We are very proud of the fact that our annual membership subscription is one of the lowest of all UK Arts Societies and although we had been considering the possibility of having to increase it this year, under the circumstances we will not be doing so.

Our finances remain viable for the coming months and we are grateful to our loyal members who have already renewed their membership subscriptions as this will ensure we can continue to offer the variety and high standard of lectures and events that you have come to expect from us. And, of course, we warmly welcome new members – so do spread the word!

The committee and I are very grateful to you for your patience, understanding and support and we look forward to meeting you in person again in the not too distant future.

With warm wishes

Sandra Hitching

Chairman

Dear Members

As you will know, we cancelled our lectures due to be held in April, May and June this year. During this time, the Committee has been meeting online to discuss our options for the rest of the year and how we can continue to provide value and interest to you, our members.

One of our first decisions was to hold an online celebration of our Ruby Anniversary. So, on 3rd June, when we should have celebrated in person at the High Rocks, we hosted a celebration and talk via Zoom by Bertie Pearce, which around 100 of you watched. This event was warmly received and we plan to hold other virtual events whilst we are unable to meet together at the Trinity Theatre. If you would like to see a video of our Ruby Anniversary event, please click on the link sent to you in the email from our Membership Secretary, Helen Sanders. And for a flavour of the event, please click here to see a short video.

We are planning to offer additional online events to our members over the summer. On Monday, 10th August at 11.00 am we are offering a short lecture by Nicola Moorby who will enlighten us as to the mysteries of the new £20 note. We will then be able to discuss the video and enjoy general conversation. A link to this lecture will be sent to all members shortly.

We await news as to when Trinity will reopen and what restrictions might be put in place for attending events. The Committee believes that returning to Trinity for our lectures will not be possible for some time and has therefore taken the decision to offer our September and October lectures online via Zoom. This means that our Annual General Meeting, scheduled for 19th October, will also be held online. Details of how to access these will be sent to all our members in due course.

Sadly, we have taken the decision to cancel our Study Day with Nicola Moorby scheduled for 29th October. However, we are going to replace it with a virtual Study Day, via Zoom, when Nicola will be giving two lectures on Turner and Constable with plenty of time for questions.

All members will be contacted regarding membership renewal and with details of our online events, and we will also be telephoning our few members who do not have internet access.  It is really important to us to do everything we can to help keep our Society family together.

If you wish to discuss any aspect of our programme or your membership, please contact me or any Committee member.

Thank you for your patience and continued support.

Please keep safe and well.

Sandra Hitching

Chairman

As we sadly had to cancel our lunch on 3rd June to celebrate our ruby anniversary, we held an online event with a lecture from Bertie Pearce which many of our members joined live. Many more members have viewed a full recording of the celebration via the link sent by our Membership Secretary, Helen Sanders. Now we are pleased to share here this video clip (click here) with everyone to provide a flavour of what was a most entertaining event. We hope you enjoy it.