Programme

Our 2023 programme: 23 Feb: '1926' - our speaker is our Chairman, Martyn Lockwood. 23 Mar: Annual General Meeting. 27 Apr: 'John Ray' - Jennifer Rowland. 25 May: Napoleonic Invasion Plans - Neil Wiffen. 22 Jun: 'Jersey under the Jackboot: the occupation of Jersey during WW2' - Patrick Griggs. 27 Jul: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd (c1540-1623): A Local History' - Andrew Smith. 26 Oct: 'The Prison at Hill Hall' - Anne Padfield. 23 Nov: Pre-Christmas meeting. Talk to be confirmed. Admission: Members £1, Non-members £5 Annual Membership: £15 (Family: £30)

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Capability Brown: A Masterpiece. Thursday 28 July 2016

Blenheim in May
Our next meeting will be on 28 July, and an interesting talk in prospect about “Capability” Brown to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth.  His greatest work was at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, but he was also busy across Essex. 

‘Capability Brown. A Masterpiece’. Simon Cranmer.

The Group will also be at the Toot Hill Show on 6 August, an event widely publicised locally.


We look forward to seeing you.

Friday 1 July 2016

1st July 1916: The Opening Day of the Battle of the Somme

The Revd. Edward Reeve, rector of Stondon Massey, kept a diary called ‘Notes for a Parish History.  In it he wrote his observations of the First World War from his study in what is now Stondon Massey House.


“1st July 1916: As I write, the reverberation of the great guns and explosion of mines are shaking the windows of the Rectory and of all the other houses, I suppose, in the southern and south-eastern counties of England.  There is evidently a very heavy bombardment in progress."