Archive for the ‘NSW Branch News’ Category

26
Nov

BIENNIAL CONFERENCE IN ALBURY

   Posted by: Dorothea Preis

The Biennial Conference in Albury

Back by popular demand!

The highly popular Biennial Conference is on again!  After consultation with other branches, the date has been set for Friday, 11 September 2020.  So pack your bags to join us at the Albury Manor Hotel for a day of fun and interesting talks – not to forget Ricardian fellowship!

The Biennial Conference started out as a one-day event of the NSW Branch to give also its members from further afield the chance to meet up.  However, over time it has grown and is now equally popular with members from all the other branches of the Richard III Society in Australia and New Zealand.  (It is not to be confused with the Australasian Conventions, which also take place every second year, but is a 2-day event. The next one will be in Adelaide, SA, 21-22 Aug. 2021.)

The Biennial Conference will be organised by Helen and Denise, who did outstanding work on the two previous Albury Conferences in 2016 and 2018.  The Albury Manor Hotel offers not only comfortable rooms, but also has a medieval inspired ambience.

We would be happy if you can join us for a Welcome on Thursday, 10 September.  Friday will be a full day of talks with dinner in the evening.  Departure will be on 12 September, but of course you are welcome to take part in a tour with other attendees.

At present this is just to keep you informed so that you can keep the dates free in your diary for 2020.  We will share further details as they become available.

 

5
Oct

Annual General Meeting 2019

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

An invitation for all Members and Friends of the

NSW Branch of the Richard III Society

Annual General Meeting 2019

Our Annual General Meeting for 2019 will take place on Saturday, 12 October 2019,at 2.00 pm at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts280 Pitt Street, Sydney CBD.  

We will be electing new (or returning) members of the Executive Committee. The program will be our Scrabble Speakers, with selected members presenting their offerings on various Ricardian topics of interest.

Please remember that renewals for membership of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society are due by 1 October 2019.  However, should you prefer to pay your renewal for the 2019/2010 Ricardian Year in person, you may do so at the meeting.  Please come prepared with the membership form completed to accompany your payment.

 

31
Aug

Preparing for the AGM on 12 October 2019

   Posted by: Dorothea Preis Tags: ,

A note to all members and friends of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society.

Nomination Forms for the committee and Subscription Renewal Forms have just been emailed to all members and friends of the NSW Branch who have supplied email addresses.

Should you not have received yours – or wish to join the NSW Branch – please contact the Membership Secretary and we will come back to you.

16
Aug

Bosworth Service: 25 August 2019

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags:

St James’ Church

Our annual service at Anglican Church of St James on King Street, commemorating the Battle of Bosworth, will be held this year on Sunday, 25 August 2019 at 11 am.  NSW branch members Rhonda and David will be reading the lessons.

Members will convene for lunch nearby afterwards.

We hope you will be there to honour Richard III.

2
Aug

General Meeting: Saturday, 10 August

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

Our next general meeting will be on Saturday, 10 August 2019, at 2pm at the Sydney Mechanics Institute, Level 1, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.

We are fortunate to have as our speaker for this meeting the University of Sydney Honorary Research Associate in History, Judith Bonzol, who will speak on her chosen topic of “Cunning Folk: popular medicine and magic in the time of Richard III”.

Dr Bonzol is widely published in the academic press and has a long time interest in the medical attitude towards supposed demonic possession and supernatural illness in early modern England. This will be an outstanding program you should try not to miss!

1
Jun

Book Club in June

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley

The next meeting of the NSW Branch of the Richard III Society will take place on Saturday, 8 June 2019, at 2 pm at our usual venue, The Sydney Mechanics’ Institute of Arts, Level 1, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.

The program for our branch meeting in June will be a book discussion!

Everyone who wishes to can actively participate. You can tell us about, or comment upon, a favourite Ricardian (or related) book you have read or a new find you are excited about.

There is so little time over afternoon tea to talk together, so the Executive Committee thought we could try having a meeting where we could discuss books with each other.

For those members undecided about which book to read we had suggested Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England, (or Isolde Martyn’s The Devil in Ermine which was sadly hard to find). But any book you want to share with us will be warmly welcomed!

Leslie & Doug McCawley will be facilitating the discussion, in a very casual, unstructured and unpressured setting. We hope you will come!

1
Apr

General Meeting 13 April 2019

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags: , , ,

General Meeting 13 April 2019

Berkhamsted Castle

Our next General Meeting will be held on Saturday, 13 April 2019, at 2 pm at the Sydney Mechanics Institute, Level 1, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney.

Our featured speaker will be our own long-serving executive committee member Dorothea, who will take us on a visit to Richard III’s mum, Cecily, at her long-time residence of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. She will tell us about the town and the castle, starting from its pre-conquest origins to the present day.  The castle was very significant in the development of the town.  Along the way, you will meet some of its colourful residents.

Please join us for this most interesting sounding program!

You might also like to watch a YouTube video with an Animated Tour of Berkhamsted Castle here.

28
Jan

February General Meeting

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags: , , ,

Our first general meeting of the year will take place on Saturday, 9 February 2019, at 2 pm at our usual meeting rooms at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts.

Our featured speaker will be our long-serving executive committee member and treasurer, Judy Howard.

February General Meeting

The Siege of Constantinople in 1453 (Wikimedia Commons)

In her talk, “The Byzantine Empire from the end of the Fourth Crusade to defeat by the Ottomans in 1453”, she will be exploring this fascinating Christian civilization, the end of which had many social and political reverberations throughout Europe and Britain.

Please also remember that the next biennial Australasian Convention of the Richard III Society will be held Friday, 9 August, through Sunday, 11 August 2019.  This year it will be hosted by the Victorian Branch and will take place in Melbourne.  For more information is available from our publications officer, Dorothea.

5
Jan

Visit from Richard III member from Somerset branch

   Posted by: Rhonda Bentley

Louisa and her husband Alan, visiting from the UK, had lunch with a few members of the society in November. Louisa joined the society a few years ago and regularly attends their meetings and outings. Their meetings are held in Wells Town Hall – we would know it as the exterior of the Warleggan Bank from the current series of Poldark.

Wells Town Hall in Christmas spirit (Photo courtesy of Louisa Purcell)

Louisa is also part of the Richard III Society’s Somerset Branch research team working with Philippa Langley and the Missing Princes Project. This involves sourcing original documents from the period at Wells City archives, Wells Cathedral archives, the Somerset archives in Taunton as well as at Glastonbury Abbey, Longleat House and at The National Archives at Kew. The team is trying to find any information about the sons of Edward IV, particularly during the reign of Richard III. They are hoping to find new information in local records that have not been accessed before.

Philippa Langley highlighted a few lines of enquiry to be followed up, including researching Dr John Clement who married Sir Thomas More’s adopted daughter Margaret Giggs. This line of research relates to a theory that messages may have been hidden in a portrait of Sir Thomas More’s family by Hans Holbein, linking John Clement to Richard of Shrewsbury, the younger son of Edward IV. Two men called John Clement were located in the city of Bath (Somerset) in the first half of the sixteenth century, and the research group was tasked to see if there was a link to John Clement in London.

The team is also researching John Gunthorpe (d. 1498), who was the Dean of Wells, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and Dean of the Chapel Royal during Richard’s reign, and may have been in London during the suspected time of the princes’ disappearance. He certainly seemed to spend more time in London than in Wells.

Louisa is also involved in the Milles Register of PCC Wills (Prerogative Court of Canterbury) project, where researchers work in pairs to decipher, transcribe and where applicable translate wills from the period 1487 – 1491. Some wills are in English, some in Latin and some in both. The society had previously looked at York Wills and the Logge Register of PCC wills.

She mentioned a palaeography web tutorial as useful to learn how to read the old handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800.

Louisa was so interesting to talk to and it was great to catch up with a fellow Ricardian. We are lucky that volunteers like Louisa are able to be involved in so many research projects.

24
Nov

December Branch Meeting

   Posted by: Leslie McCawley Tags: ,

Our December Branch Meeting will take place on 8 December 2018 at 2 pm at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, CBD (for a map go to our Upcoming Events page).

Our featured speaker for the last meeting of the year will be our own long-time branch member and long-serving executive committee member, Lynne Foley, who will give a presentation on some of the more colourful Christmas customs of the Ricardian era.

Please join us for this festive time of year!