Museum of Bath at Work presents BBC film - The Dead Past -from 1965

As part of the Museum of Bath's Autumn Film Programme a film made by the BBC in 1965  is being shown with free admission - a fable, of a sort. The film will be introduced by the Director Stuart Burroughs and followed by a Question and Answer session to discuss the themes.

The film will shown at the Museum of Bath at Work, Julian Road BATH BA1 2RH

01225 318348 / mobaw@hotmail.com

The Dead Past .- A Fable for Historians

Wednesday December 3rd 7.30 p.m.

Free Admission Refreshments

In the near future an historian applies to use advanced technology to 'view the past' on a screen in 'real time'. When his request is turned down and he refuses to keep quiet, no one anticipates the consequences. If everyone could  see the 'real' past would we get more than we bargained for?

First shown in 1965 as part of BBC TV's Out of the Unknown series.

Women in the First World War

I first heard Paula Kitching speak at the HA Conference in York last year. Paula was a late substitute for another speaker who was ill. When I saw that her subject was going to be Women in the First World War I was disappointed - women doing great work at home, supporting, supplying and covering for the men at the front ... it's very important and, yes, it helped persuade more people in the UK that women should be given the vote, but I felt that it was a very familiar subject.

And then I heard Paula. He talk was not about women on the home front at all but about four remarkable women who were with the fighting men overseas. These are great stories, and it was a pleasure to ask Paula to come to Bath to tell them.

Paula Kitching speaks on Women in the First World War at the Friends Meeting House, York Street, on Thursday 23 October at 19.30.

Members’ Visit to Downside Abbey Archives and Library

An addition to our usual programme this season is a visit to the archives and library of Downside Abbey.

Downside Abbey has been in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, about 13 miles southwest of Bath, for 200 years. Downside is the Mother House of the English Benedictine Congregation, which claims continuity with the original Benedictine corporation of the thirteenth century.

Downside Abbey houses the largest monastic library in the United Kingdom. It contains more than half a million volumes, built up over 400 years from the time of the monastic community’s foundation in Douai, France. The main focus of our tour will be the rare book collection, which consists of 45,000 texts dating from 890 to 1829. Members will be able to see these rare volumes and to hear about their history and importance.

Our tour will be led by Dr Simon Johnson, Keeper of the Abbey Archives and Library. Simon will speak to us about the history of Downside and its collections, and we will then go to the Edmund Bishop Room, the main repository of the rare book collection. We will be able to see medieval books of hours, antiphonals, papal bulls, the recusant collection and Gatty’s ‘sundialiana’ as well as the seventeenth and eighteenth century collections.

We will be able to tour Francis Pollen’s renowned library building, opened in 1972 and recently refurbished using funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors. It is on six floors with access by lift for those who need it.

The visit will begin at 19.30 and should last about an hour.

Next year's HA Annual Conference

Next year's HA Annual Conference will be held at:

Bristol Royal Marriott Hotel

Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May 2015.