Remembering Ken Stradling

 On a recent visit to the RWA, as we passed the Ken Stradling Collection premises; a miniature Kettle's Yard, I thought about Ken Stradling, and how old he might be now. We visited the collection as a Friends' group in July 2014, during that visit, Ken showed us around and talked about how he had been MD of The Bristol Guild, which involved travelling round Europe buying delightful things, many of which he would buy for himself. Here's the blogpost from 2014, and a photograph of Ken from that post, among the ceramics and coloured glass he loved so much:

When I looked him up, I discovered he had died this year on 31 July, aged just over 100, and thought I would recall via this post how much we appreciated the visit, and what a special place the Ken Stradling Collection is. It's well worth looking at the website for more information on Ken Stradling. I have booked Cleo Saunders from the Ken Stradling Collection to come and talk to us about Ken and his legacy on 28 June. It's also worth reading his obituary in the Guardian

I'll add a few photos of  the building which anyone familiar with Bristol will recognise, it's 48, Park Row, BS1 5LH

Below a ceramic teapot

and the inside of the shop

a poster now out of date, the website will give you opening times and more information about visiting

I thought I'd also include the building which used to be His Master's Voice in Bristol with a carved dog above the doorway. The dog, called Nipper, was apparently born in Bristol

Christmas meal

 It's always difficult to arrange talks in December because people are so busy socialising, we decided to have a Friends' social instead. Apart from trips, there have been very few opportunities for Friends to meet up face to face. A computer screen prior to a Zoom talk isn't very sociable, so it was excellent to use the opportunity of a Christmas meal to talk to each other for the first time in almost 3 years. 

We chose to eat at Fabios on Bath Road,  where the service and food was excellent. I'd thoroughly recommend it as a place to take a group, here are some photos taken on the night:

A lovely evening, thank you to all those who came along and made it such a memorable evening.

November talk

Our November talk was to have been given by Richard Osgood, but he has had to reschedule and is coming to talk on 25 October 2023. Angela Atkinson, FSMAG committee member looking after our website content wrote this about Richard:

'Back in 2019, Richard Osgood won the Current Archaelogy Live’s, Archaeologist of the Year award.

Richard is the co-founder of Operation Nightingale – that’s an initiative that uses archaeological fieldwork to aid recovery of wounded veterans.

‘Operation Nightingale is a military initiative developed to use archaeology as a means of aiding the recovery of service personnel injured in recent conflict, particularly in Afghanistan. 

The huge range of sites on Salisbury Plain, many of them remarkably well-preserved within the Ministry of Defence training area, has provided an ideal opportunity for Operation Nightingale to engage in archaeology.

For over two decades Wessex Archaeology has been helping the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and its predecessors protect sites on Salisbury Plain, excavating and recording them where necessary, for example in advance of construction of new hard tracks which allow modern tanks and heavy equipment to be transported across the Plain …’

We look forward to his talk next year very much, meanwhile we have been given permission to use this photo of Richard with Prof Alice Roberts:

We will be releasing details of our whole 2023 Pearl Anniversary talks programme in the New Year