Shropshire September 2025
On a sunny September Sunday, our group of nineteen left St Ives to travel to Shropshire for our short holiday – all in good spirits. On the way we visited Compton Verney, a great start, with a lot to see in the galleries, and sculptures to track down in the beautiful grounds.
We reached the Valley Hotel in Ironbridge in good time to relax and refresh before dinner. The staff made us very welcome, and an excellent dinner showed us the further culinary delights we would enjoy in the following days.
Disappointingly, the scenic boat trip on the River Severn from Shrewsbury the next day had to be cancelled for safety reasons, as the river level was too high, and the water too fast flowing following copious rain in the preceding days. But a visit to the Museum of Ironbridge’s Iron Bridge was an interesting and fascinating substitute.
Our next visit was to the National Trust’s Attingham Park. The large Italian-influenced Georgian house has an impressive Nash-designed picture gallery and much else to view. There is a large area of parkland to explore, and the huge walled garden is cultivated and provides fruit and vegetables for the cafe.
The following day saw us visiting the Coalport China Museum, which was most enlightening, showing how the beautiful ceramics were created and developed.
This was followed by a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane. We spent the afternoon in the Blist’s Hill Victorian Town. It was exhausting trying to see everything there, but the traditionally cooked and presented fish and chips were enjoyed by many of us! Some of us also took the opportunity for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage.
Our next day saw us visiting Stokesay Castle; a fine example of a medieval fortified house – truly magnificent.
A brief visit to the bustling market town of Ludlow followed. There are many fine examples of listed medieval and Tudor-style half-timbered buildings, and Sir John Betjeman described it as ‘probably the loveliest town in England.’ It was very satisfying to see a multitude of independent shops – and even a bobby on the beat! We finished the day on the Severn Valley railway from Kidderminster to Bridgenorth, enjoying some wonderful scenery.
Our last day took us to Coughton Court, home to the Catholic Throckmorton family for more than 600 years. We learned about their link to the infamous Gunpowder Plot, and viewed the priests’ holes from the days of Catholic persecution. The house is beautiful to explore, and climbing the ancient stone spiral staircases rewards one with spectacular views of the garden. The Throckmorton family still lives in this impressive house.
And then home, exhausted but uplifted; wonderful visits, good food, and excellent company.
The dry sunny weather (though chilly!) lasted through the whole five days, which definitely enhanced the holiday. A very big thank you is due to Mary Knowles for her patient and faultless management of the whole trip. Our Dews coach driver Elaine joined in with the group each day, and she proved to be a highly skilled driver, great at manoeuvering the big coach in tight spaces and narrow roads.
I do hope we can look forward to another little holiday next year!*
Kay Coope
* which depends on our finding a new Holiday Secretary (Chair).
FELBRIGG HALL
Our visit to Felbrigg Hall, near Cromer in Norfolk took place on Wednesday 7th June. One of the most elegant country houses in East Anglia, the Hall was built in stages beginning in Tudor times. It is set in a vast estate with a lake, a delightful walled garden and a number of marked walks through fields and woodland. Felbrigg was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1969.
Visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral – Monday 20th February 2023
Photo: Andrew Thomson.
Photo: Andrew Thomson.
On a pleasant spring day we greatly enjoyed our visit to St. Paul’s cathedral. It is a spectacular, elegant building, which although great in size, has an intimate feel. The continuity of daily prayer and air of reverence transcend the busy traffic of visitors.
Our urbane guide, with his friendly concern for his charges on all steps and stairs, entertained us with anecdotes and historical details, impressing us with his enthusiasm and knowledge. Everyone felt enriched by the visit.
Judith Armitage
Visit to Cezanne at Tate Modern on same day
Still Life with Fruit Dish, 1879 – 80 (copyright Tate Modern)
It was a luxury to travel by coach as far as St. Paul’s, with only a short walk across the wobbly bridge to reach the Tate’s vast complex of spaces and make our way up to the floor where an excellent exhibition represented the artist’s development over a life-time. The first rooms were assembled to show the artist’s friends and early influences. The rooms beyond presented groups of paintings: still lifes, bathers, Provençal landscapes, and new to some of us, water colours, a medium to which he turned later.
Looking at the same household objects painted in different combinations or studying similar landscapes together, engaged the eye and mind more intensely. His radical departure from conventional perspective makes seas rise up vertically and jugs look misshapen, but what a legacy of rich colour and a new interpretation of form. Cezanne said ‘With my apples I will take Paris by storm’. In the exhibition a fellow viewer said ‘ I think he paints the very essence of apple’, so the artist’s work continues to have the power to challenge and impress in London to this day.The value of an exhibition lies in the arrangement of objects. The Tate’s homage to Cezanne was clear, coherent and educational.
Claire Sarkies
Visit to the Murray Edwards Women’s Art Collection: Monday 21st November 2022
The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall) is Europe’s largest collection of art by women, dating from the early twentieth century to the present day. Established in 1986, with the acquisition of a series of works – Extase – by the American artist, Mary Kelly, it now includes 600 works by leading artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Paula Rego, Lubaina Humid (the first woman of colour to win the Turner Prize in 2017), Faith Ringgold, Tracey Emin and Cindy Sherman. The aim of the collection is to challenge the under-representation of women artists in museums and galleries, and one of the Tracey Emin prints – Believe in Extraordinary – well summarises the ethos of the college.
The Modernist building, with its white brick walls and huge windows, make it an excellent backdrop for modern artworks. Our Hunts Arts group was divided into two and guided by Harriet Loffler (Curator) and Naomi Polonsky (Associate Curator), we were introduced to a selection of artworks by different artists in different media.
Given the time constraints, this could only be a tantalising introduction, but the collection is open to the public daily from 10am – 6pm – and is free – so many of us were determined to return at our leisure, and to alert members who had not taken part in today’s visit to what they had missed.
Ceramic works by Charlotte Hodes and Claudia Clare. Photographer: Wilf Speller.
Jane Woods
Reports (and/or photos) of visits always welcomed! Please send them to the Honorary Secretary, Jane Woods at hauxwell125@gmail.com.
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The Arts Society, Huntingdonshire 