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Rousham is 12 miles north of Oxford, and Chastleton is four miles from Moreton-in-Marsh. Both are exceptional houses set in celebrated gardens, both have remained in the ownership of the same families for nearly 400 years. Chastleton was acquired by the National Trust in 1991. ROUSHAMThe landscape garden at Rousham should be a place of pilgrimage f...
The Friends' tour to the Bata Museum and former company town at East Tilbury was a great success despite transport problems due to the current strike. In gloriously sunny weather we were guided around the town by the enthusiastic volunteers from the museum. There was time for lunch and a visit to Coalhouse Fort overlooking the Thames before our ret...
Sir John Tusa - ‘MY LIFE WITH BATA’ John Tusa came to Britain in 1939 with his family at the age of three from Zlín in Moravia where his father had worked since the age of sixteen in the famous Bata shoe factory – a Bata baby. By the 1930s Bata of Czechoslovakia were the world’s leading manufacturer of footwear and factories were increasingly estab...
Louis XIV was a life-long enemy of the Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Bohemia, Leopold I and Charles VI. The armies of his successor Louis XV occupied Prague in 1741. Thereafter, however, the Bourbons became allies of the House of Austria. During the French Revolution the resort of Teplitz/Teplice in Bohemia became a residence of many emigrés, in...
Červený Dvůr is a historic estate that was once the summer residence of the Schwarzenberg family and is now a sanatorium. In 2022, participants will be helping to complete work on the two gatehouses, working on the facade, the plaster and the final coat. During the week there will be the opportunity to visit some of the region’s houses and castles....
The working holiday: participants will work on the site of the UNESCO pilgrimage church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora, designed by the famous Baroque architect J.B. Santini-Aichel. Tasks may include simple building work, painting and simple ground work. No prior skill is required. Volunteers will be working alongside Czech participants. Duri...
The visit was led by Peter Jamieson and Peter Ruback and started at on Kensington High Street outside the Design Museum. The walk celebrated some of the best mid-century and Brutalist buildings in an area best known for High Victorian architecture. We started outside the Design Museum which was formerly the Commonwealth Institute, by Robert Matthew...
The 1950s-70s saw a renaissance in Czech glass design that re-established the Bohemian region’s global reputation in this area. From behind the Iron Curtain, skilled designers pushed the boundaries of 20th century glass design and produced unique art glass masterpieces that went on to inspire visually stunning, highly innovative and commercial rang...
Martyn Bond, a former foreign correspondent specialising in European affairs, spoke about Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, better known on the Continent than in Britain. Few anywhere know that the man whom Hitler damned in Mein Kampf as a ‘cosmopolitan bastard’ travelled on a Czechoslovak diplomatic passport for twenty years between the two W...
A talk by Milan Svoboda from the dining room of the Château of Konopiště on reconstructing a dessert banqueting table, service à la française style, and the culture of dining and table setting in 17th and 18th centuries. A Baroque table with its pomp and monumental decorations boldly reflected the splendour of the surrounding gardens and architectu...
