Fairfax House lectures and events (From York Press)

Fairfax House lectures and events

9:25am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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THE 2010 lecture series run by Fairfax House, York, will begin on Thursday evening with Behind Closed Doors with Amanda Vickery.

At 7pm, she will unlock the homes of Englishmen and women to provide a panoramic account of private lives in Georgian England.

Peter Thoday, presenter of the BBC series The Victorian Garden, will visit Middlethorpe Hall, York, on April 25 at 2pm to give a talk on the history of The English Walled Kitchen Garden, followed by a garden tour.

In Clocks, Cogs & Wheels, on May 25 and July 27 at 7pm at Fairfax House, horologist David Barker will reveal the intricate details of the Noel Terry collection of clocks.

Furniture historian Adam Bowett will take a closer look at the Noel Terry collection in his English Furniture talk at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on June 8 at 7pm, and the same venue will accommodate Professor Mark Hallett’s look at The Art Of Sir Joshua Reynolds on July 5 at 7pm. The University of York professor will focus on the portraiture of this celebrated Georgian artist.

A new series of Fairfax House events will welcome antiques expert John Bly, from BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow, and Conal Gregory, master of wine and erstwhile MP for York, on October 22 at 7pm, for a Georgian Antiques & Wine Dinner, an evening of wine and anecdotes at Bedern Hall.

Fairfax House After Dark on October 27 and 29 at 7pm will offer an unusual candlelit tour led by the Lord Fairfax and his household staff.

Drink and food will feature heavily in the 2010 programme. Sommelier Richard Goodacre will explore Lord Fairfax’s cellar, holding wine-tasting sessions to examine Wines for a Georgian Cellar on April 15 and Champagne and the English Gentleman on May 11, both at 7pm.

In Death By Chocolate, on September 18 at 7pm, food historian Ivan Day will offer the chance to sample and see how chocolate was originally made. On September 19 at 3pm, at Middlethorpe Hall, he will explore the art of ice cream-making in the 18th and 19th centuries, when unusual flavours enjoyed by the Georgians included musk, parmesan cheese and burnt ice cream.

The Silver Screen Week will return to Fairfax House for a second year from September 26 to October 3, when romantic, dramatic and comedy classics from 1939 to 1945 will be shown, such as Casablanca, Meet Me In St Louis and Goodbye Mr Chips.

Family events are planned too. On August 6 at noon and 3pm, costumed characters including Lord Fairfax and his servants will reveal what it was like to live in a Georgian townhouse in the 18th century in Children’s Day: Meet The Fairfax’s. Molly, the scullery maid, will take visitors through the house for the Christmas storytelling sessions, Winter’s Tales, on December 12 at 11am and December 19 at 11am and 4pm.

For more information, visit www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk