A History of Shire Horses in Pembrokeshire with Mark Cole

On Thursday 21st February at 7.30 pm, Mark Cole from the Dyfed Shire Horse Farm will be giving a talk on ‘the rare story of a rural love affair with the Gentle Giants that has lasted for generations on (his) family farm’. Mark’s ancestors first worked on the land in Eglwyswrw in 1849 and this talk will embody its rich history right up to the present day, including the sale of ‘Dyfed Celt’ to the Queen’s Household Cavalry with whom he works on events such as Trooping of the Colour.

Tickets are £5 and refreshments will be available.

 




Female Artists of the 16th & 17th Centuries

Titian, Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci are Renaissance painters whose names are instantly recognisable.

This talk with Terry John looks at some of the lesser known artists and asks why history has largely forgotten the work of female painters.

Tickets are £5 and refreshments are available.

This talk forms part of the #WOWW project; celebrating equality in heritage and supported by PLANED Arwain Sir Benfro 2020 and Heritage Lottery Fund #lotterysupported





Christmas is Cancelled: A Talk by Terry John

Join us on Wednesday 12th December at 7.30 pm for a festive evening with speaker Terry John.

The perfect antedote to these turbulent times, ‘Christmas is Cancelled’ looks at the ways in which we celebrated at a time when the country was gripped by civil war- What did people do when festivities were banned altogether?

This talk explores the suppression of Yuletide and how the jollity survived. There will also be cake!

Tickets are £5 and refreshments are available

Loss and Learning: The Legacy of the Great War

On Saturday 10th November we will be holding a FREE open day to commemorate the centenary of the end of WWI.

There will be an opportunity to re-visit the exhibition of local soldiers and view an updated archive of their experiences. Sandra Benham-Pellowe will be on hand to share and discuss her extensive research, with particular emphasis on individual accounts and research techniques.

With access to letters, photographs and first-hand witness accounts of historic events, it promises to be a poignant reminder of the lessons to be learned from the lives lost and the voices of those who survived.

Refreshments will also be availble throughout the day.

The First World War: Challenging Popular Perceptions- A Talk by David Llewelyn

On Wednesday 21st November at 7.30 pm, David Llewelyn will be giving a talk on The First World War: Challenging Popular Perceptions. This forms part of our season of events to commemorate the centenary of the ending of WWI and offers an insight into the personal perspectives of individuals involved.

‘As a nation and society we view the war through the prism of art, literature, television, film etc. In this talk we look at it through the prism of history instead. The results may surprise.

We follow the progress of the war looking at each year and how it differs from the others. As part of this we look at names of places and events that we may be familiar with like the Somme, Ypres, etc. and put them in context to see how they all relate together, why they happened and what were their consequences.

As it was a World War we also expand considerably on the events in France and Flanders to look at what was happening in other areas such as the Eastern Front, the Balkans, the Middle East and the war at sea. Again we see how they relate together to give us an on overview of the whole conflict.

We look at the reasons for why the casualties were in fact so high and why the war played out the way it did.

At the end we cover some points of note that may give us some new things to consider or even view the conflict in a new light. We consider just what it was all about.’.

Tickets are £5 and refreshments will be available





The Siege of Pembroke Walk

12.30pm Monday 17th September 2018

Terry John has agreed to do a fundraising walk and talk to benefit the Museum and he’d like you to join him! He’ll guide us around the streets of Pembroke telling the story of the Siege of Pembroke in 1648 .

The Bloomfield Bus will be picking up from Bloomfield at 12.30. If you’re making your own way to Pembroke, please meet Terry at the Commons Car Park (opposite the library) at 1pm.

The walk will be mostly on the flat (with one short hill back up to Main Street) and be no longer than about a mile.

There’ll be an opportunity to socialise over refreshments in The Cake Shop before the bus picks us up to return to Narberth at 4.30.

Tickets: £10 walk and bus or £6 walk only (does not include refreshments)

Tickets can be bought by clicking the button below, by contacting the Museum on 01834 860500 or by calling in.


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An Evening of Poetry with special guest Alison Brackenbury

On Thursday 27th September at 7pm, we will be hosting an evening of poetry with special guest Alison Brackenbury.

Alison is a widely published, award winning writer, whose family tree has strong roots in Wales. She appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She will be reading from her latest book, Aunt Margaret’s Pudding, is inspired by recipes collected by her grandmother. She explains:

‘This is my latest, very special book. Its ingredients come from another book: a small, black oilskin notebook written by my grandmother, Dorothy Eliza Barnes – Dot. I knew Dot as a shepherd’s wife, but in her Edwardian youth she had worked as a professional cook. Here were her recipes, begun a century ago: ‘Puzzle Pudding’, ‘Feather Cake’…

I closed Dot’s book and began to write poems. They are not nostalgic. In the 1930s, she fed the unemployed men who tramped round the Lincolnshire farms. The poems of ‘Aunt Margaret’s Pudding’ have been widely published in journals (including ‘The Spectator’ and ‘The New Statesman’). Few things reach deeper into our lives than food!

‘Aunt Margaret’s Pudding’ also offers, in prose, Dot’s eventful life, with its sorrows, its humour, (and chimneys, cleaned with gunpowder!). Readers who do not care for poetry have pored over this. They have also appreciated an ingredient which is unusual for a poetry book: recipes!

A selection of Dot’s original recipes appear as illustrations, in her own meticulous handwriting. There are also carefully updated and tested versions, which can be used successfully even by cooks as erratic as me, who do not immediately know the equivalent of Dot’s ‘sharp oven’ in Centigrade. I particularly recommend ‘Flamberries Pudding’, veined with luscious jam… Please do not burn your mouth!’

Praise for Alison Brackenbury:

‘Brackenbury’s empathetic poetry reflects this unique and very tasty slice of social history’. Jane Anderson, The Radio Times.

‘What Sweetness – ’ as ‘a mouth-watering programme’. John Waite on ‘What Sweetness Touched Your Tongue?’ Radio 4’s ‘Pick of the Week’.

‘A beautiful and evocative account of a life told through the language of food’. Kim Salmons in ‘The Observer’

Alison’s reading corresponds with Narberth Museum’s Women of West Wales (WOWW) project; a 3-year celebration of women’s history funded by Arwain Sir Benfro’s LEADER programme and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The evening will conclude with an opportunity for local poets and enthusiasts to share their own poetry on the theme of ‘my Grandmother’.

Five minute slots can be reserved by emailing [email protected] or calling 01834 860 500.

Tickets for the evening can be purchased below at a cost of £5 per person. Refreshments will also be available on the night.




John Poyer: The Cockatrice & The Egg

At 7.30pm on Thursday 12th July, Terry John will be giving a talk on John Poyer,  a Welsh soldier in the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War. Poyer was a merchant and the mayor of  Pembroke town in 1642, before becoming Governor of Pembroke Castle.

This intriguing talk will explore his exploits during the civil war. Tickets are £5 and booking is advised.