Brass bands at Ironbridge

NOW in its 13th year, the Ironbridge Gorge Brass Band Festival will take place over the weekend of July 9/10 on The Green at the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, Shropshire. 

The free family event showcases some of the finest brass bands from Shropshire and the surrounding counties; this year there will also be a special guest band from Germany giving the festival an international flavour. With some 20 bands performing, it’s the largest, non-competitive brass band festival in the country.

Performances begin at 10am on both days and continue until 5pm on Saturday and 6.30pm on Sunday. Bar drinks and light refreshments will be available to purchase.

A ticketed charity gala open-air concert in aid of the Severn Hospice, Brass Night of the Proms, will take place on Saturday evening. It will feature the Ifton Colliery Band and the Band of the Royal Signals.

Festival chairman Neil Fury said: ‘The #IronbridgeGorge #BrassBand #Festival is now established as one of the major events in the brass band calendar. Its popularity has increased among both the players and the public every year since its inception and more and more bands are asking to play in the relaxed atmosphere of the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, which has kindly hosted the event for us.’

To book tickets for the charity evening concert, priced at £10 per person, call 07583 279 608. For full details, go to www.ironbridgebandfestival.co.uk.

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Picture Credit: jour164</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com

Design and Desire: The Great Exhibition of 1851

A FREE exhibition at the Coalbrookdale Gallery in Ironbridge, Shropshire, aims to bring the excitement of the Great Exhibition of 1851 to life. 

Opening on March 21 and running until February next year, Design and Desire: The Great Exhibition of 1851 will use objects and images to tell the story of one of the most influential events of the 19th century, laying the foundations for a century of invention and modernity.

Held in the revolutionary glass and iron 'Crystal Palace' in London’s Hyde Park, the Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first international show of manufactured products. After its closure, many of the exhibited objects were used as the first collection for the South Kensington Museum which opened in 1857, and later became the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Rather than focus solely on the 100,000+ objects from the British Empire and around the world, this display will also consider 1851 exhibition’s impact on the popular imagination of the time. It will explore the reaction to the event in popular periodicals, prints and caricatures, its social and economic impact, and the ways in which the event was commercialized in the form of souvenirs.

www.ironbridge.org.uk

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Try a break in the woods

WOODLAND-BASED lodge breaks for those looking to make the most of the great outdoors has been introduced by domestic holiday specialist Hoseasons.

Available to book now - www.hoseasons.co.uk/lodges - for the start of next year, Wanderwood offers nature escapes at six locations in England and Scotland: Norfolk, Surrey, Somerset, Shropshire, the Lake District, and the Northern Highlands.

The lodges are pet-friendly and come with complimentary binoculars, and umbrellas WiFi is also included, and hot tubs feature at all locations.

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Garden delights . . .

COMBERMERE ABBEY ESTATE in Whitchurch, Shropshire, is hosting a series of Open Garden Afternoons this summer, providing a rare chance to see this privately-owned historic estate.

They will be held on August 26, and September 23.

Visitors will be able to explore the estate’s Victorian walled gardens and glasshouse, its pleasure garden and garden wood, fruit tree maze, and lake.

The estate’s team of gardeners will be on hand to answer questions and share tips.

Tickets are priced at £5. Gates will open at 1pm, with the last entry at 4pm. Dogs and picnics are not permitted.

The abbey was built in 1133 as a Cistercian monastery. Now a family home, it is a venue for weddings, corporate events, and has ten holiday cottages.
www.combermereabbey.co.uk

AN open-air gallery of contemporary sculpture in the grounds of a Georgian mansion is the centrepiece of the first of an occasional series of visitor trails published by Congham Hall Hotel, near King’s Lynn, Norfolk. 

The Magnificent Seven… Norfolk #Gardens – the hotel's illustrated trail – features the collection, which is on display at nearby Houghton Hall.

The 90-mile self-guided circuit of the seven gardens begins with Congham Hall's herb collection. Others include Gooderstone Water Gardens, a naturalistic re-interpretation of a wet meadow, and Sandringham Gardens, a chronicle of the changing tastes in horticultural design over the past 150 years.

The trail can be download online or obtained from the hotel's reception desk.
www.conghamhallhotel.co.uk

GARDENERS and walkers – and #gardeners who like walking – might be interested Adagio's Channel Isles walking tour of the gardens of Guernsey, Sark, and Herm.

Highlights include strolls in St Martin to #SausmarezManor with its sub-tropical gardens, a ferry ride to Herm to meet the head gardener for a private tour of the island's gardens, and a private tour of the #LaSeigneurieGardens on Sark, with its Victorian glasshouse, hedge maze, and stone walls.

The company’s UK manager, Amber Parish-Smith, says: ‘We couldn't miss out on visiting both the small islands of Sark and Herm for a day each. Traffic is prohibited on the islands, so horse-drawn carts, cycling, and walking are the ways to get around. It really does feel like you are stepping back in time when one visits these islands.’ 

Price are from £1,155 per person, including return flights, transfers, half board at a three-star hotel on Guernsey.   www.adagio.co.uk

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Picture Credit: Combermere clocktower by Espresso Addict - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Gooderstone Water Gardens, Gooderstone, Norfolk - geograph.org.uk - 794060 by David Mills. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Sark-aerial by Phillip Capper - Sark, Channel Islands, 17 September 2005. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Shop for Xmas in Shropshire

GET a taste of Christmas at the Gorgeous contemporary craft fair held at Enginuity, one of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums in Shropshire, on November 22 and 23.

Craftspeople and artisans from across Shropshire and the West Midlands will showcase –and sell – handmade designs … jewellery, glassware, ceramics, textiles and metalwork, plus handmade wrapping paper, cards, and crackers. The county’s renowned food producers will also be there.

Now in its tenth year, Gorgeous is held in association with the Shropshire Guild of Contemporary Craft, which promotes the work of designers and craftsmen in the region.

Young visitors can get into the creative spirit by taking part in pewter casting workshops or laser cutting small Christmas tree decorations in Enginuity’s Fab Lab (activities cost from £2.50 per activity, plus admission).

The fair builds on Ironbridge Gorge’s heritage of creativity; the place where early industrialists mined for raw materials to make iron, tiles and porcelain goods, many of which are displayed at the museum sites.

Entry is £2.50 per person (under 5s go free).

For further information, contact the Ironbridge Visitor Information Centre on 01952 433 424 or go to www.ironbridge.org.uk

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Picture Credit: "Ironbridge-Gorge" by Chris McKenna via Wikimedia Commons

Free festival

THE free Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Festival takes place on September 20 with heritage talks and walks, a craft and food market, street entertainment, and family activities from 12noon until 5pm.

 www.visitironbridge.co.uk/worldheritage

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Best in brass

THE Ironbridge Gorge Brass Band Festival takes place on July 19 and 20 on The Green at Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron. 

Now in its 10^th year, the free family event showcases some of the finest brass bands from Shropshire and surrounding counties. With some 17 bands performing, it’s the largest, non-competitive brass band festival in the country.

Appearing for the first time this year will be The Cheshire Constabulary Band, with their Corps of Drums, the Rugeley Power Station Band, and a 50-piece trombone choir from Germany.

www.ironbridgebandfestival.co.uk

www.ironbridge.org.uk

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