Talks & Tours
Get more from your visit by coming along to one of our tours. Book your place online or call the Box Office on 01234 718044. Use the promotional code HIGGINS30 to remove any transaction fee.
© Despair and Promise by Vicky Lindo and Bill Brookes
16 July, 20 September
12 - 12.30pm
£3.50, concessions £2.95 – Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a half hour tour of some of the highlights of Edward Bawden & Me. Use the promotional code HIGGINS30 to remove any transaction fee. For concessionary rate please call the Box Office on 01234 718044.
17 September, 10am - 11.30am
£12.90, concessions £10.35 – Booking Essential
This session is the perfect opportunity for Bawden fans and those new to the subject to have an up-close look at the extensive Edward Bawden collection. Works from the collection, including some that have never been on display before, as well as old favourites, will be introduced by The Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art. Use the promotional code HIGGINS30 to remove any transaction fee. For concessionary rate please call the Box Office on 01234 718044.
Cecil Higgins Art Gallery at 75 – Celebratory Tour
25 July 2024, 3pm – 4pm CANCELLED
£3.50, concessions £2.95 –
On the 25July 1949 at 3pm Cecil Higgins Art Gallery opened its doors for the first time. Join us to celebrate 75 years of Mr Higgins’ remarkable collection and learn more about its origins in this special tour with Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art. For concessionary rate please call the Box Office on 01234 718044.
24 August 2024 10am-4pm
Tickets £15/person (including teas/coffees)
(Booking essential. Please use the promotional code HIGGINS30 to avoid paying any transaction fee when booking your place).
A one-day conference to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the siege and subsequent destruction of Bedford Castle in the summer of 1224. There are five speakers arranged and each session will include a time at the end for questions.
Programme
10.00am – 10.30am: Arrival, teas/coffees
10.30am – 11.15am
What was happening in 1224? Professor David Carpenter (King’s College, University of London)
As the talk will show, the siege of Bedford was a pivotal moment in English history. It affirmed the recovery of royal power after its collapse in the civil war following King John’s rejection of Magna Carta; it led directly to the loss of Poitou, leaving Gascony as the dynasty’s one remaining continental possession; and it played no small part in making hostility to foreigners a key ingredient of English national identity. The fall guy was the castellan of Bedford, Falkes de Bréauté, who, so his enemies said, had risen from peasant stock in Normandy to be the equal of an earl. The talk will explore the personality of this remarkable man and consider why Falkes’s exile and the hanging of the Bedford garrison were such unique events.
11.15am – 12pm
The siege of Bedford Castle Dr James Petre (Tutor, ICE, University of Cambridge)
The siege itself, nominally led directly by sixteen-year old King Henry III, involving a large army and a very considerable array of military equipment, began on 20June. The castle was surrounded and bombarded. Impressively, its defenders resolutely resisted, being only gradually beaten back from the outer defences to the core of the castle complex. Finally, fully eight weeks later, on 14 August, with their defences breached and burning, they surrendered and almost to a man were executed. This was one of the major sieges in England in the medieval period. It is remarkably well documented in government records and very near contemporary narratives. From these sources, set against the castle’s likely appearance then at its zenith, the talk will attempt a reconstruction of the progress of this great siege.
12pm – 12.45pm
Siege weapons and techniques in the early 13th century Dr Peter Purton (Castle Studies Group)
The exceptional survival of documentary and chronicle sources for Henry III’s siege and capture of Bedford castle in 1224 has enabled many detailed reconstructions of what happened over the years. This paper will re-examine the evidence in the light of what can be established from the widerstudy of siege warfare of this period in an attempt to identify the capabilities and limits of the weapons used by Henry III’s army here, and therefore what role these had in influencing the course and outcome of the siege. There is much popular mythology surrounding, in particular, the artillery available to medieval commanders, as reflected in blockbuster film epics but also seeping into less populist narratives. Despite recent scholarship in this area, much continues to remain unknown. It will be seen how close it is possible to get to the truth of what happened at Bedford 800 years ago.
12.45pm – 2.00pm: Lunch break allowing delegates to tour the castle remains. Delegates are free to make their own lunch arrangements – there are a number of cafes, restaurants and public close to The Higgins Bedford.
2.00pm – 2.45pm
Castles like Bedford! Bedford, a first-rate fortress Ben Murtagh MA, MIAI (Castle Studies Group)
Ben is a buildings archaeologist and castellologist based in the southeast of Ireland. He has a special interest in comparing the known defensive features of Bedford Castle with those of castles elsewhere in Britain and beyond, such as in France, Ireland and as far away as the Middle East. Archaeological investigations to date would indicate that the castle in 1224 had some advanced and up to-date features, which might help to explain the difficulties and time taken by the young King Henry III in taking this close-by nuisance and in effect affront to his royal authority.
2.45pm – 3.15pm: Tea/coffee break
3.15pm – 4pm
“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see” – the archaeology of the castle Jeremy Oetgen (Albion Archaeology)
What can we learn of the final siege of Bedford Castle by analysing the artefacts and other physical remains that endured its destruction? In the 1960s very little of the once massive fortification was visible – thanks to the ‘successful’ siege and Victorian urban growth. Sixty-five years of archaeological digs have now re-exposed tantalising remains of structures. But does this ground-truth the history of the conflict?
To book your place please telephone the Cultural Services Box Office 01234 718044 - (line open Tuesday - Saturday 10am to 4pm), or click here, Use the promotional code HIGGINS30 to remove any transaction fee.