The Armitt Museum
Wednesday 20th September 17:30-19:00

About the speaker
Dr. Rosalind Rawnsley, co-author of the recent extended biography of Canon Rawnsley, examines the enduring influence of John Ruskin on all aspects of Rawnsley’s life and work. From the Keswick School of Industrial Arts to the foundation of the National Trust join us in examining the fruitful relationship between these giants of the 19th-century

The Armitt Museum
Tuesday 26th September 14:00-16:00

About the speaker
Born and bred in Cumbria, Sue Allan has worked in local radio, TV, and for arts organisations in the county as well as writing for Cumbria Life magazine, for which she is still a regular contributor. For many decades Sue’s involvement in folk music was mainly as a performer but in more recent years she has concentrated on academic research and bringing the folk arts, customs, and dialect in Cumbria to a wider audience.

The late Victorians and Edwardians had a passion for patriotic celebrations incorporating Romantic ideas of ‘Merrie England’, complete with maypoles and Morris dancing, and revived picturesque ‘ancient’ customs like rush bearing. Many Cumbrian towns and villages were encouraged to develop their own May Day celebrations and carnivals, encouraged by such local luminaries as John Ruskin and Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley.

In this illustrated talk, Sue Allan looks in particular at the Keswick May Day ceremonies supported and sponsored by Canon Rawnsley and then focuses on the Morris dances performed at carnivals in West Cumbria, which she has researched for over forty years via written sources, former dancers and members of her own family. Sources for these dances include borrowings from Lancashire Morris traditions, early twentieth-century books on Cotswold Morris dancing, and the influence of two individuals: Canon Rawnsley and west Cumbrian dancing master Oliver Cowper.

The Armitt Museum
Wednesday 4th October 5:30 – 7pm

TICKETS: Adults: £8 Children £4

John Townsend is a retired Chartered Surveyor and commercial property Auctioneer. He has been collecting Magic Lanterns, slides, and everything related to them for the past fifty years. He is Vice Chairman of the Magic Lantern Society and continues to conduct charity auctions. He started collecting when he was aged 18 after visiting an antiques fair in Grasmere with his father. Having spotted three hand-painted slipping slides and pointing them out to his father, unbeknown to him at the time, his Dad bought them for him and they became his next birthday present! And then the collecting started!

The Armitt Museum
Tuesday 24th October 2pm – 4pm

TICKETS: £5

On a cold March morning in 1851, three Americans boarded a stagecoach bound for Ambleside. Lots of Americans were visiting the Lakes by the 1850s, but these three travellers were not your average tourists. They were celebrities. Their names were William Wells Brown, William Craft and Ellen Craft, and they were not headed to Ambleside just to enjoy the scenery. They were campaigning to abolish slavery in the United States. But why were Brown and the Crafts in Cumbria? And what drew them to Ambleside in particular? What light, moreover, does their visit shed on the region’s historical links with the United States? Come along to this talk to find out.

About the speaker:
Chris Donaldson is Senior Lecturer in Cultural History at Lancaster University, where he is also co-director of the Regional Heritage Centre.

The Armitt Museum
Tuesday 25th October 5:30pm – 7pm

TICKETS: £15

“Sometimes, you know, you see him, and sometimes you don’t. It’s just as he pleases. I think: he’s there, but he has some power over your eyes…”

M R James first wrote his ghost stories to perform to friends in Kings College Cambridge in the year leading up to World War One. Now, over a century after their first publication, Nunkie Theatre Company has bought two of the eeriest and most entertaining back to life in this gripping, candlelit one-man show.

Lost Hearts was among the first stories the author wrote and it offers one of his most memorable villains, the predatory scholar Mr Abney. It is paired here with perhaps James’s most poignant and personal work: A Warning to the Curious, in which a young archaeologist is haunted and hunted by the guardian of an ancient treasure.

The English seaside has never looked so menacing.

“Lloyd Parry’s mastery of the role is itself an act of possession.”
The New Yorker

Performer Robert Lloyd Parry has been touring several shows based on the works of M. R. James around the UK since 2007, and he appeared as the author in Mark Gatiss’s acclaimed BBC Documentary: “M R James: Ghost Writer.” He has also adapted and performed works by H G Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Saki and H P Lovecraft.

About the speaker:
Chris Donaldson is Senior Lecturer in Cultural History at Lancaster University, where he is also co-director of the Regional Heritage Centre.

The Armitt Museum
Tuesday 27th October 10 am – 1 pm

TICKETS: £10

Follow in the footsteps of Beatrix Potter and join us on our hunt for FUNgi. Paul Nichol, county recorder and founder of Cumbria Fungi Group, leads a guided walk through Skelghyll Wood on a fungi hunt inspired by Beatrix Potter’s incredible scientific illustrations and her passion for all things mycological. The walk will finish at the Armitt Museum with the chance to see some of Beatrix Potters’s original fungi illustrations.

The walk will start from the Stagshaw Garden car park and end at The Armitt Museum. The route through the woods involves some steep inclines, the ground may be wet and slippery and as it will be October, the weather may be cold. Please take this into consideration and wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

The closest parking to Skelghyll Wood is the car park for Stagshaw Garden, National Trust; however, this car park has limited space. Other parking is available in Ambleside and at Waterhead, and there is a footpath along the lake side of the A591, which leads to Stagshaw Garden and Skelghyll Wood. Please be aware that many car parks in the area are pay and display.