NEWS FEED
An exhibition and a range of arts performances will all be taking place at the Priest’s House Museum & Garden in Wimborne this Saturday (19 November) between 10am to 4.30pm.
It will be the final event of the Somerset & Dorset Railway’s anniversary year. Admission to the museum and the performances on 19 November will be FREE.
The end of an era came 50 years ago when the Somerset & Dorset Railway – the main line of which ran from Bath to Bournemouth – finally closed. The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust has been commemorating this anniversary throughout 2016 and the exhibition is part of the Trust’s innovative and ambitious project marking the anniversary, supported by a £58,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Priest’s House Timetable on 19 November:
2pm and 3pm Curator of Memories
Artist Kate McStraw’s stories enable audiences to connect with the beloved, lost – but not forgotten – Somerset & Dorset Railway. The curious travelling museum houses a collection of local histories from the glory days of the S&D, ready for you to explore. Find out about the Shillingstone Rose, the infamous Barber of Bath and the WWII Cover Girl, as the Curator of Memories shares her favourite stories with you! Audiences are then invited to ‘deposit’ their own S&D memories and to find out more about the other objects in the collection. See Kate’s website at www.museumofmemory.org.
2.30pm and 3.30pm The Quangle Wangle Choir
All aboard and hang on to your hats – The Quangle Wangle Choir from Weymouth are coming! They will entertain you with a lively and informal programme of songs and poems about travel – especially by train. With a repertoire ranging from The Grateful Dead to Flanders and Swann, with many stops in between, there’ll be something for everyone. Their interpretation of Flanders’ and Swann’s affectionate tribute to the great age of steam – The Slow Train – is not to be missed.
4.30pm Rag & Bone
The Lost Railway is an outdoor show for all ages commemorating and celebrating the rich heritage of the Somerset & Dorset Railway and its closure. It features live music, lighting effects, moving imagery, songs and stories. Audiences watch, wander in and lose themselves in evocative sounds of the railway.
The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust’s travelling exhibition has visited some 30 or more venues along the former Somerset & Dorset routes.
Displays explore the impact of the railway on local communities from its development, through its working life, since closure and also highlight issues on the future use of the trackbed for public access, sustainable transport, railway restoration and local heritage.
The project has kept alive the spirit, history and heritage of the railway as a major cross country rail route, its importance to the communities through which it passed, and the social impact of its closure. The Trust has not simply been looking nostalgically backwards but has enthused and informed younger people and children who may have family connections or live along the line.
The exhibition displays will remain at Priest’s House Museum until the 29 November.
