Monday 10 February 2025 at 7.30pm
You’re the Bank Top, you’re in first class - Niall Hammond and Peter Gibson
We’re the top. We’re the Colosseum. We’re the Nile. We’re the Tower of Pisa, the smile on the face of the Mona Lisa. We’re Garbo’s salary. We’re a Shakespeare sonnet, a Fifth Avenue bonnet. We’re Mahatma Gandhi… Yup, we – Darlington – are up there with Cole Porter’s list of world superlatives. Indeed, it’s being put about by zealots of this year’s bi-centenary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway that Porter strove to fit “Locomotion No 1” between “the nose on the great Durante” and “Dante’s Inferno”. But it wouldn’t scan. Tonight, for those of us sometimes baffled by the finer points of railway lore, the rival claims of being the world’s first railway, the first powered by steam and the first passenger-carrying line will be examined before that historic inaugural journey through Darlington in 1825 is affirmed as an event that changed the world. Mr Hammond, trustee chairman of the Friends of the S&D Railway, will show us the buildings, the new and the restored historic, that are to house the great 200 anniversary show. Although 21st-century logistics ruled out a 1925 and 1975-style cavalcade this time, there’ll be plenty of steam for purists to salivate over. The National Trust is a client of this archaeologist- turned-heritage consultant. Mr Gibson, a solicitor who became MP for the town in 2019, will give the latest on the “new” Bank Top as re-development of the mainline station nears completion. As a politician he’s well-placed to comment on Darlington’s role in one of the world’s most important economic and industrial revolutions.
You’re the Bank Top, you’re in first class - Niall Hammond and Peter Gibson
We’re the top. We’re the Colosseum. We’re the Nile. We’re the Tower of Pisa, the smile on the face of the Mona Lisa. We’re Garbo’s salary. We’re a Shakespeare sonnet, a Fifth Avenue bonnet. We’re Mahatma Gandhi… Yup, we – Darlington – are up there with Cole Porter’s list of world superlatives. Indeed, it’s being put about by zealots of this year’s bi-centenary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway that Porter strove to fit “Locomotion No 1” between “the nose on the great Durante” and “Dante’s Inferno”. But it wouldn’t scan. Tonight, for those of us sometimes baffled by the finer points of railway lore, the rival claims of being the world’s first railway, the first powered by steam and the first passenger-carrying line will be examined before that historic inaugural journey through Darlington in 1825 is affirmed as an event that changed the world. Mr Hammond, trustee chairman of the Friends of the S&D Railway, will show us the buildings, the new and the restored historic, that are to house the great 200 anniversary show. Although 21st-century logistics ruled out a 1925 and 1975-style cavalcade this time, there’ll be plenty of steam for purists to salivate over. The National Trust is a client of this archaeologist- turned-heritage consultant. Mr Gibson, a solicitor who became MP for the town in 2019, will give the latest on the “new” Bank Top as re-development of the mainline station nears completion. As a politician he’s well-placed to comment on Darlington’s role in one of the world’s most important economic and industrial revolutions.
Monday 10 March 2025 at 7.30pm
A Taste of Splendour - Andrew Prince
When someone special comes to dinner you put on a bit of a show. It has been ever thus – as Andrew Prince will show us. Throughout history, he explains, eating together has evolved “in form, function and purpose”. Well, yes, in our lifetime it was always the respectable norm for the family, at least once a day, to sit together “properly” around a table. As it still is, we’re confident, for you and yours. Andrew is here to talk about, and marvel at, dining on a grand scale. Elaborate rituals have developed over the millennia, particularly in ancient Persia and Rome, culminating in the glittering and opulent state banquets of Versailles and imperial St Petersburg. In those days, Russian tables of vast length were put to more friendly use than having a Kremlin dictator glowering alone at one end. Even if, as we learned from a lecturer years ago, Catherine the Great‘s agent drove a hard bargain for the magnificent 1,000-piece dinner service she ordered from Wedgwood.
This talk will show how power-banquets in the world’s capitals displayed – and still do – the taste, wealth, influence and political strength of the host nation. We shall see much fine silverware sparkling beneath the chandeliers. Andrew knows bling. He designs crystal jewellery and a few seasons ago showed us a dazzling collection including splendid pieces made for Downton Abbey; members tried on tiaras worn by naughty Lady Mary and the formidable dowager countess.
A Taste of Splendour - Andrew Prince
When someone special comes to dinner you put on a bit of a show. It has been ever thus – as Andrew Prince will show us. Throughout history, he explains, eating together has evolved “in form, function and purpose”. Well, yes, in our lifetime it was always the respectable norm for the family, at least once a day, to sit together “properly” around a table. As it still is, we’re confident, for you and yours. Andrew is here to talk about, and marvel at, dining on a grand scale. Elaborate rituals have developed over the millennia, particularly in ancient Persia and Rome, culminating in the glittering and opulent state banquets of Versailles and imperial St Petersburg. In those days, Russian tables of vast length were put to more friendly use than having a Kremlin dictator glowering alone at one end. Even if, as we learned from a lecturer years ago, Catherine the Great‘s agent drove a hard bargain for the magnificent 1,000-piece dinner service she ordered from Wedgwood.
This talk will show how power-banquets in the world’s capitals displayed – and still do – the taste, wealth, influence and political strength of the host nation. We shall see much fine silverware sparkling beneath the chandeliers. Andrew knows bling. He designs crystal jewellery and a few seasons ago showed us a dazzling collection including splendid pieces made for Downton Abbey; members tried on tiaras worn by naughty Lady Mary and the formidable dowager countess.
Monday 7 April 2025
AGM at 6.45pm with lecture at 7.30pm
Albert and his life with Queen Victoria - Jan and Richard Crouch
The image most of us have of the queen comes from flattering portraits and screen portrayals of the young Victoria and the later photographs of the black-clad ‘Widow of Windsor’. The main image of Albert, if we ignore the romanticism of TV and film, is of the dour, prematurely middle-aged Prince Consort. Based on research from both English and German sources, Richard and Jan hope to paint a more complete picture of this complex and quite remarkable man. Albert was the “spare” younger son of one of the small statelets which comprised the Germany of the first half of the 19th century. His homeland, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had an area not much greater than the Isle of Wight and annual revenue less than the £30,000 our parliament grudgingly voted Albert on his marriage to Victoria. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, however, punched above its weight in the European royal marriage market of the time and from the cradle Albert was earmarked as a possible husband for his first-cousin Victoria. He became a man with a mission; indeed, as we will hear, several missions.
Richard taught in grammar and comprehensive schools for ten years, six of those in Germany. The next 30 were in the Civil Service including 14 years in charge of several prisons. Jan’s career was in schools, the NHS and the Civil Service. In retirement they have indulged a passion for history – researching their illustrated lectures on subjects from food in two world wars to the social history of the Third Reich to aspects of our past royal family. They live in Eaglescliffe.
AGM at 6.45pm with lecture at 7.30pm
Albert and his life with Queen Victoria - Jan and Richard Crouch
The image most of us have of the queen comes from flattering portraits and screen portrayals of the young Victoria and the later photographs of the black-clad ‘Widow of Windsor’. The main image of Albert, if we ignore the romanticism of TV and film, is of the dour, prematurely middle-aged Prince Consort. Based on research from both English and German sources, Richard and Jan hope to paint a more complete picture of this complex and quite remarkable man. Albert was the “spare” younger son of one of the small statelets which comprised the Germany of the first half of the 19th century. His homeland, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had an area not much greater than the Isle of Wight and annual revenue less than the £30,000 our parliament grudgingly voted Albert on his marriage to Victoria. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, however, punched above its weight in the European royal marriage market of the time and from the cradle Albert was earmarked as a possible husband for his first-cousin Victoria. He became a man with a mission; indeed, as we will hear, several missions.
Richard taught in grammar and comprehensive schools for ten years, six of those in Germany. The next 30 were in the Civil Service including 14 years in charge of several prisons. Jan’s career was in schools, the NHS and the Civil Service. In retirement they have indulged a passion for history – researching their illustrated lectures on subjects from food in two world wars to the social history of the Third Reich to aspects of our past royal family. They live in Eaglescliffe.