12th What We've Been Up To.Weeks Ending 18/05/2014

We always have mixed feelings when one of the volunteers moves on; even though, in most cases, they are going to take up permanent work or to broaden their horizons. This is what has happened to long-time supporter Jill Hepplewhite who is moving to London with her husband. Jill has always been an integral part of all the events put on at the Town House and we shall miss her. We wish her and her husband all the best.

Although Jill has left, it is now well on the way to summer and our latest batch of interns have come to join us.  Every year students from other parts of the world come to do internships at the Town House and provide valuable contributions to all our projects.

We now have: Marine, Nicolas and Ombeline from France; Roberta from Italy, Brenno from Switzerland and poor Floriane from Martinique. The adjective ‘poor’ is added because, so far Floriane, flying straight from her sunny homeland, has been feeling the cold terribly and didn’t even take off her gloves for the first few days: even when working on the computer.

Having realised that we have no take-home reminders for visitors, we are currently in the process of producing a Town House pamphlet.  These will provide visual reminders as well as answering many of the questions regarding financing, reconstruction, aims and progress, so that visitors realise that our interests and work encompasses such a broad and varied spectrum.

While the current exhibitions are drawing towards their completion, many people here are preparing for the Silhouette and Costume Exhibition which will be held during August.  The launch for this exhibition will be held on July 31^st with a Wine and Cheese night for which tickets will soon be available.  Members of the public will then be able to visit each Friday, Saturday and Sunday until September 14^th.

Also available throughout the summer months will be our Teas and Tours: in addition to the guided tours and wealth of information they provide, groups are able to arrange for tea and cakes to be served by our volunteer corps.

The first group to take advantage of this scheme this year will be a local chapter of the W.I.  In fact there are so many women  coming that the group will be split in two and will come on both the 8^th and the 10^th of June.

One of the things our new pamphlet makes clear is that the Town House itself receives no direct funding.  Accordingly, in order to accommodate our proposed groups of school children, we shall have to provide materials ourselves.  So, if anyone has any old crayons, paints, pencils, paper, or bits and pieces that could be used as decoration, please don’t bin them.  We should be delighted to take them off your hands.