Susi Rice from Brilley, will tell of her turbulent early life, from when her family lived in Berlin before the war, to the present. 

She will describe her family background and events in Berlin, pre-1933, when the threat of Nazism drove the family from Berlin to Teheran.  With a brief return to Berlin, they then fled to Italy, followed by a harrowing journey to England.

Susi will describe the trials faced by her Mother as an alien when war broke out in 1939 and will give a vivid description of people and events from 1939 until her Mother’s death in 1949, including a description of life in the remarkable refugee boarding school which she and her sisters attended. 

She will end her talk with “Where we are now”.  With the current worldwide political situation regarding refugees, this should be a highly potent talk, from one who faced similar persecutions nearly sixty years ago.

There will be wine and canapés after the talk.

Sonia Hammond, the well-known professional cellist from Newchurch and Adrian Crick, a guitarist from Hay, come together to perform an evening of eclectic originality.  From completely different artistic backgrounds, they have been developing a repertoire which shows each of their musical traditions through the prism of the other.  In another universe, where Bach had wanted a rhythm guitar for his Sarabande, Django Reinhardt wrote burlesque waltzes and the Mexicans sang about snow, it all might have turned out a bit like this programme.

The playlist will include some re-imagined Bach, a samba, some curiously arranged folk-tunes, a three-legged polka and an urban blues with background traffic added.

Sonia and Adrian have been working on this new music for a year and will be recording their first joint album this spring.

The recital will conclude with a full reception at Huntington Court with drinks and canapés.

Allan Lloyd, the historian and former Head of Upper School of Lady Hawkins’ School, Kington, will give a fascinating talk on four hundred years of the school from its turbulent foundation to the present day.

Who was Lady Hawkins?  How did the school come to be founded in 1632?  Where did the money come from and why?  Who served the school for a combined period of 100 years from 1717 – 1771?

Lady (Margaret) Hawkins was the fifth generation of Vaughans to be born at Hergest Court circa 1550. She married Sir John Hawkins, an Admiral of the Fleet and became a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I. Having been born and brought up in Kington, she stipulated that from her will, a free school be opened for the male children of the town and thus, the school has been in existence ever since, living through good periods and dark periods. Many new facts will be uncovered which have never been spoken of before.

This illustrated and revealing presentation is the result of decades of research by Allan Lloyd, who himself spent forty years serving the school as the longest serving master since 1717. This has resulted in a book by Allan Lloyd of the same title as his talk. This evening promises to be absolutely fascinating, not only for former pupils but the community as a whole, where history is continuing to be made.

There will be wine and canapés after the talk.

The historian, Mari Fforde of Clyro, will be talking about the history of ‘Kington Camp’ and how the now crumbling remains of the concrete and brick huts on the Hergest Road, served as a vital home to huge numbers of British, Polish and American troops during the war. 

Kington Camp housed exhausted, battle worn British battalions who had returned from Dunkirk. It was the site of two vast US military hospitals, where GIs, wounded in the frozen battlefields of the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge, were cared for.  It was a resettlement base for many Polish military units, who, having fought for Europe’s freedom, found their homeland occupied by the Soviet Union. It also became a home for many who found themselves displaced after the war.

Mari Fforde will bring the human stories of the people and their descendants who still live here, to life. 

Unpublished archive film was recently discovered which shows Kington in 1945. The footage features the Kington Camp military hospital and Hereford on VE Day.  An American soldier, Corporal Clarke Morgan, who was posted to the 107th Hospital in Kington in 1944, took this remarkable film.  The film shows the hospital in Kington and also features a bus ride to Hereford for VE Day celebrations. Surprisingly the footage is also in colour and shows the US troops packing up to leave Kington and then boarding the Queen Mary for their return to New York. While crossing the Atlantic a huge airship sails overhead. This is caught on film along with shots of the ship pulling into New York Harbour, with the Statue of Liberty standing proud.

The footage, described by the Senior Curator at the Imperial War Museum as ‘the stuff of dreams’ has now been acquired by the Imperial War Museum and forms part of their collection where it will be digitised and stored safely.

This, we consider, is an event, not to be missed.  Due to the large expected numbers, the talk will take place in Huntington Village Hall.

There will be wine and canapés after the talk.