Hampshire Record Office (Sussex Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8TH Tel 01962 846154) Last Thursday Lectures 1.15 - 1.45 pm - Admission free, but donations welcome.

27 July - 'Their Past Your Future': a selection of films about the Home Front 1939-45. Presentation by David Lee

31 August - 'Was your ancestor a soldier?' An introduction to the records of army ancestry by Heather Needham

Milestones Museum and the Willis Museum

Both have a series of events during the next few weeks intended for families.

Museum of English Rural Life , Reading University.

Until 27 August the museum has an exhibition 'Action women: the real story of the Women's Institutes'. Tel 0118 378 8660 or www.merl.org.uk

Winchester Cathedral

An exhibition: 'Cracking the Code - The Holy Mystery beyond The Da Vinci Code' (until 21st July). This exhibition invites visitors to think about some of the main ideas and symbols in the 'Code'. Enquiries: 01962 857202

The Normandy Veterans Association have a 5 day trip to Arnhem leaving on 14 September. Cost is 465 pounds. There are two places left. Details from Bob Brown 01189 816109

Last month's TADS Meeting 21 June 2006

Filming 'Pride and Prejudice' at Basildon House, Lower Basildon, Berkshire By Neil Shaw, House Steward (extraordinaire)

How do you make a Stately Home unstately? Allow in a film crew.

Think an eclectic group of actors (including Keira Knightly, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench, Rosamund Pike, Paul Macfadyen etc.); 250 extras; 90 film crew; a BAFTA-seeking production team with some quite professionally scary females; miles of cables; bundles of bubble wrap; countless packing crates; dozens of dust sheets; spiders' webs of scaffolding; a collection of classy cameras costing 750,000 pounds each and heavy with it; 200 candles; lighting systems likely to overheat; propped-up ceilings; fragile mirrors, boxed-in with aircraft fuselage 'aerolam'; foam, polythene, polystyrene, plywood....; banisters bandaged with protective products; 'Tyvec' plastic-like paper protecting your delicate Regency wall covering; faux rain (provided by Reading Fire Brigade); faux marble; ten tons of extra crunchy driveway gravel; carpenters and set-builders everywhere; material and tissue paper wraps for your precious Octagon Room carpet rolled pile outwards and heaved out of a window to be scissor-lifted to a room below; contact lenses all round (where applicable!); canteens; continuity girls; make-up ladies in flashily fashionable clothes .... Work them all from 6am into the night for 8 weeks, and what have you got?

'Pride and Prejudice'

Films cost a lot,

Why not BUILD a set?

Too expensive!

Why let a film crew in? Think mega-bucks!

So said our lecturer, Neil Shaw.

Thus was the National Trust property of Basildon Park (House) interestingly transformed and transfixed in the late summer of 2004.

Basildon Park House is a beautiful 18th century Palladian Mansion built between 1776 & 1783 by John Carr for wealthy Francis Sykes. It's set in extensive parklands on the Berkshire Downs and near the River Thames.

The house interior is notable for its original delicate plasterwork, elegant staircases and Octagon Room. The house fell on hard times in the early part of the twentieth century but was rescued, restored and filled with pictures and furniture by the Iliffe family in the 1950s. The family still lives in part of the house.

Florist-turned-HouseSteward, Neil had about 60 TADS' members spell-bound with his knowledge, authority, anecdotes and AURA! Jane Austen, Hampshire's middle-class Regency novelist, 1775-1817, wrote 'Pride and Prejudice' in 1813. The film was premiered in London and 'Basildon-ites' were thrilled to be invited, feted, recognised and thanked. So all's well that ends well. Visitor numbers have gone from 45,000 per annum to 65,000 and rising. Just as well, it costs 350,000 pounds to run the house each year.

What about the human cost to Neil and his workers' nervous systems, after they stashed away the VICTORIAN and MODERN furniture, paintings, chandeliers etc. and lived out the 8 weeks' filming on tenterhooks? Good news again. Nothing broken, nothing missing, no discovery of dry or wet rot, conservation techniques honed and the film crew evaporated like mist, leaving happy hoteliers and shop keepers in that part of Berkshire.

This house is certainly living. And lived-in: the Wartime requisition plus POWs; Harwell scientists; a sprinkling of aristocrats; and now since 1978, the National Trust, which has restored it all to its 18th century Regency splendour once more.

Thank you, Neil, for your careful, cautious energy and attention to detail.

Rosemary Bond

Members

The dig is in progress. There is a public open day on Saturday 5 August. An entry fee in the form of a donation is required. TADS have not arranged a visit this year but you are invited to join the Basingstoke Archaeological and Historical Society on their visit at 6.30 pm on Thursday 10 August. Meet at the dig site. A collection will be made.

Committee News

TADS Coach Outing on Saturday 23rd September

The outing will be to the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum and the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum. Both have cafes. Departure will be at 8.45 am from St Paul's Church. The cost 25-26 pounds per person. Book now - 10 pound deposit to David Day, 33 Pelican Road, Pamber Heath. Tel 01189 700909

Wanted, an Archivist

Alan Cooke our archivist is leaving the country later this year, and we need a replacement for him. He says the job is not particularly onerous, but does require some computer work using the Excel spreadsheet. Full training given. Details from Alan on 0118 981 4006.

Stop press: post now filled - Thanks to Peter McNulty for agreeing to fill this position.

Project Meetings

Open house to anyone interested; next meeting 30 September - please contact 0118 9701578 if you plan to attend. The current projects are:

Updating the Layout of "The History of Tadley" (1913) by Florence Davidson; Projectnews 12 - local Houses of interest; The Proposed 'Tadley' Canal (1825-6); Locating the Medieval Village of Tadley