Our most recent 'Day of Special Interest' was held on the 20th March 2026 had three lectures on “Art Nouveau and Art Deco”. It was held at The Warwickshire Country Club, Leek Wootton, CV35 7QT. Following tea/coffee on arrival, there were two lectures in the morning:

The first lecture was “The Origins of Art Nouveau Architecture”. This covered the origins and astonishing flowering of this highly decorative style that flourished briefly around 1900. The second lecture was: “Art Nouveau Architecture around the World”. This looked at the influence the style had in different countries.

After two-course lunch with wine or soft drink, the third lecture was entitled “The World of Art Deco”. This looked at how Art Nouveau evolved into the style that defined the jazz era and the golden age of Pre-War Hollywood musicals.

The presenter was Ian Gledhill who began his career as an engineer, designing extensions to the London Underground. He has spent most of his working life in the theatre as a director, set designer and opera translator. He is an accredited Arts Society lecturer and has over 20 years experience in giving talks on a wide range of subjects.

Image: Martin Hornbrook

The Day of Special Interest held on Friday 21st March 2025 at The Warwickshire Country Club was given by The Reverend Dr. Nicholas Henderson on the Topic “How to Read the English Country Church”

In May 2024, Nicholas Henderson had given a Wednesday lecture on Part 1 of “How to Read an English Country Church”. At this Day of Special Interest, he continued this topic with three lectures.

The morning sessions covered The Normans to The Tudors and into the establishment of Protestant England visible in Church structure.

After a two-course lunch the afternoon session covered The Georgians and Victorians to the present day.

The speaker was entertaining, and the venue provided its usual high standard catering and welcome.

Image credit: St Peter's Church, Barford - Keith Roberts LRPS

The last Day of Special Interest was on Friday 18th October 2024 and we had three lectures on “Sport and Play – the ethos, architecture and artefacts of the British at play”. 

The first lecture was “A Healthy mind in a Healthy Body” – how the Victorians made us all jolly good sports – a light introduction to the subject, and the second lecture was: “Making a Stand – sporting architecture, list it or lose it?” – there are currently over 316,000 listed buildings in England, but only a tiny proportion of those are related to sports or recreation.

The third lecture, “A Load of Old Balls” – how has the design and manufacture of balls evolved? Why were some games eg. lawn tennis and ping pong made possible only in the mid-19th century and why are rugby balls such an odd shape?

The presenter was Simon Inglis who studied History and History of Architecture. He specialises in the history, heritage and architecture of sport and recreation.