News

Thirty three members of TASG left at 8.30a.m from Grayshott by coach and were driven straight to Brighton,   arriving at 10.20 in time for our visit to the Royal Pavilion (aka The Brighton Pavilion). We were dropped just outside this impressive palace with its Indian-inspired domes and minarets designed by the theatre designer and architect Paul Nash. Once inside and armed with our audio guides, ...

Well known author, broadcaster and Antiques Roadshow expert Mark Hill spoke passionately about the pioneering art of glassmaker Michael Harris in this lecture. Pre-1960s glass making and glass artists were separate roles. Glass was only made in big factories as it was an expensive process and there was no formal training. Michael Harris (1933-1994) was a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and was ...

Our May lecture, celebrating the centenary of the 1925 Paris Expo, was given by Pamela Campbell- Johnston who specialises in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art. This Expo was set up to show case the new Art Deco movement which was developing in the early 20 th Century, moving on from the Art Nouveau movement. It was primarily aimed at showcasing everything French. The ...

Giving his talk subtitled “TfLL - Transforming London’s Looks” author, broadcaster and documentary film maker Mark Ovenden described how London had grown quickly from the 18th Century onwards. The first railways such as the Surrey Iron Railway (1803) and the first commuter railway were built around the city but did not help people get across London. As steam train designs developed, the solution was to ...

On Wednesday 12th March the society enjoyed three outstanding lectures from Antonia Gatward Cevizli. The breaching of the city walls by troops under Mehmed II in 1453 signaled the end of the once glorious Byzantine empire.  Hagia Sophia, the principal church of the Eastern Christian world, became a mosque and Mehmed set about rebuilding the city as a centre of the Muslim faith. An interesting ...

By the mid 19th Century, Britain was the largest economic power in the world and at the forefront of industrial design. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first of its kind and was designed to showcase this. It was established by Prince Albert, who was a pioneer in the area of polymath, and Henry Cole, a civil engineer, who had persuaded Albert that an ...

Dr Lydia Goodson, art historian and lecturer specializing in material culture in Renaissance Italy gave us a delightful talk about the “business” of marriage and the exchange of courtship gifts in 15th Century Perugia. For the propertied classes, marriages were of economic and political significance: it was an expensive and protracted business negotiation. The objects exchanged signified wealth and imagery, love did not come into ...

For our first lecture of 2025, which is also the 40th Anniversary year  of  the founding of the Arts Society in Grayshott,  Paul Rabbitts gave a remarkably comprehensive talk on the creation, development and history of the eight London Royal Parks. These comprise  Bushy, Green, Greenwich, Hyde Park, Marylebone which became Regent’s, St James’ and Richmond Park. Greenwich Park was the first area to be ...

Author, lecturer and London Blue Badge guide Vicky Bailey gave a lively lecture describing how Christmas used to be just for the rich up until about 1812. The Christmas tree became popular after Queen Victoria and Albert were seen to have one with their family. Henry Cole, the inventor, worked with Rowland Hill on the introduction of the Penny Post in 1841 and started sending ...

We were delighted to welcome back lecturer, author and artist Douglas Skeggs for this Special Interest Day on the rise and fall of the Medici. Using a wide range of pictures illustrating paintings, sculpture and architecture, he enthralled the audience of 46 members with the history of the most prominent and successful members of the Medici, the wealth, power and political  influence they accrued throughout ...

How do we look at paintings? Nowadays most of us gaze upon Old Masters in Museums and Art Galleries. We don’t think of why it was painted or where it was to be hung. Art historian and lecturer Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe opened our eyes on how to look at old paintings the way they would have been seen in the past. Then, people took their time ...

The term “Green Man” which describes the disembodied heads with foliage coming out of their mouths, noses, eyes and ears found inside and outside many British Churches was actually only coined in 1939 - so declared author and lecturer Imogen Corrigan in her highly knowledgeable, humorous and intriguing lecture. Before that they were only known as “foliate heads” visible in Anglo-Saxon and medieval churches and ...