Bentley Priory Museum

Easter Holidays: RNLI 200 Stained Glass Windows
2024-04-10 10:00 - 16:00, 2024-04-12 10:00 - 16:00, 2024-04-13 10:00 - 16:00 (Europe/London) | Bentley Priory Museum, Mansion House Drive, Stanmore, HA7 3FB, United Kingdom
Easter Holidays: RNLI 200 Stained Glass Windows
Create your own stained glass window to take home and add to our commemorative window marking the 200th anniversary of the RNLI and their role in rescuing Battle of Britain aircrew.
Friday 29 March – Saturday 13 April, all day.
Museum Open Days – Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays + Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Included in Admission or Membership.

Remembrances of War
2024-04-10 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-12 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-13 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-17 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-19 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-20 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-24 10:00 - 17:00, 2024-04-26 10:00 - 17:00 and 13 more dates
Paul Joyce has provided the opportunity for Bentley Priory Museum to present, for the first time, his unique collection of pictures inspired by his memories of The Second World War. His paintings combine personal impressions of earth-shattering events with received images, which we have scarcely recovered from eight decades on. His claim to be the sole remaining artist still dealing with the emotional and psychological effects of a conflict which ended with the only time nuclear weapons have been used in battle, is probably accurate. We are pleased to present these unforgettable events, honed by his particular vision, to the public as a premiere event.
Paul Joyce’s work is held in many private and public collections, including: The Royal Collection of Queen Elizabeth the Second; The Department of the Environment, The Arts Council of Great Britain, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, London, The Tate Gallery, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, The National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, The American Film Institute and The Library of Congress, as well as a number of institutions and universities in the UK, Europe and the United States.
LUCIDA PRODUCTIONS HOMEPAGE

Friday Morning Talks: 'Up close to the Nuclear Bang' - Brian Pearce and Brian Edwards
2024-04-26 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for our Friday morning talk, where Brian Pearce will talk us through Operation Grapple, the first British tests of a thermonuclear weapon.
In 1957 Brian Pearce was a midshipman and then a sub lieutenant serving on HMS Narvik. Narvik played a leading role in Operation Grapple, the first British tests of a thermonuclear weapon, on Malden Island in the South Pacific. Although a seaman officer, upon arrival at Malden Island, Brian joined the team of meteorologists charged with tracking the possible and then actual direction of any fallout from the tests.
Operation Grapple established Britain as a world nuclear power and earned it a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations.
This era of history has become clouded with intrigue as the powers involved in the nuclear weapons race have sought to re-frame the narrative of how the events unfolded.
In this talk Brian gives first-hand insights into the lead up to the tests, the tests themselves and the aftermath of the tests, immediate and long term.

This talk will take place onsite in the Museum’s Learning Centre and is included in Museum admission or Annual Membership.
Advance booking required – please reserve your seat via the link below.
Reserve Your Place

FULLY BOOKED -Friday Morning Talks: WW2 Codebreaking and Intelligence - People and Places - with Ron Koorm
2024-05-03 11:00 - 12:00
Please note that this talk is now fully booked. If you would like to be put onto a waiting list for any potential places, please contact enquiries@bentleypriorymuseum.org.uk
Join us for our Friday morning talk, where Ron Koorm will talking to us about some of the key people and places involved globally during the 2nd World War.
Ron was commissioned to write a glossary on WW2 codebreaking in three parts, the first for release in summer 2024 is subtitled ‘People and Places’. This is not just about what happened in the UK, but also across Europe, and the world at the time. It aims to give a better understanding and balance to the reader and researcher of what really happened in the build-up to the war, the war itself, and some post-war developments. Some of the research on People and Places impacting on gathering intelligence from the enemy and trying to break the enemy ciphers will be discussed in this talk.
Although there will be famous people and places included, others will be much less known to the public. Thus, people who operated codebreaking machines at outstations, engineers, mathematicians, military officers, Y-station personnel, politicians, and others all played a part, and many of them were outside the UK. Some were inventors and innovators, either of machines or of systems and processes. A brief selection of people and of places will form part of this talk, and may give those attend the inspiration to find out more, in their own time.
The build-up to D-Day, June 1944, is an interesting period, inasmuch intelligence gathering and decoding enemy messages became critically important to the allies. The activities and preparation proved largely to be successful, but it was not all plain sailing. It could have so easily gone wrong, so risk and reward had to be considered in detail, and balanced.
Part of the content of the talk will discuss some of the options that the Allies had at the time, and also the enemy perspective of the allies, too.

This talk will take place onsite in the Museum’s Learning Centre and is included in Museum admission or Annual Membership.
Advance booking required – Please note that this talk is now fully booked. If you would like to be put onto a waiting list for any potential places, please contact enquiries@bentleypriorymuseum.org.uk

Friday Morning Talks: London's Industrial Past - With Mark Amies
2024-05-24 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for our Friday morning talk, where Mark Amies returns by popular demand to talk about London’s Industrial Past.
London was once a hive of manufacturing industry producing an enormous variety of products from biscuits to fighter aircraft. Sadly since the 1960s so much of that industry has disappeared, with much of it leaving the UK altogether. Referencing his book of the same name, the author, Mark Amies will talk about the familiar names, many still with us today, whose goods were once made in the capital. The presentation will include a varied selection of images that should be of great interest.
As a special for the talk, he will mention a few factories that were in the local area, not mentioned in the book.
Mark may be familiar to some who came along to his talk about aircraft manufacturing in North West London, last summer.
This talk will take place onsite in the Museum’s Learning Centre and is included in Museum admission or Annual Membership.
Advance booking required – please reserve your seat via the link below.
Reserve Your Place

Intelligence and Invasion Stripes
2024-05-25 10:00 - 16:00, 2024-05-27 10:00 - 16:00, 2024-05-29 10:00 - 16:00
May Half-Term: Intelligence & Invasion Stripes
Saturday 25 May – Saturday 1 June, on Museum open days*.
Find out more about the RAF’s role in the D-Day Landings in June 1944 with themed activities in the Museum’s galleries.
*Museum Open Days – Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays + Bank Holiday Monday, 27 May
Included in Admission or Membership.
