This year’s AMS Autumn Visits expand heritage beyond buildings with malting, milling and artisan skills on show at Fulham Palace, Brixton Windmill, the Moravian Church in Chelsea and Warminster Maltings.
Visits are open to members and their guests. Numbers are limited, and demand likely to be high, so please reply on the form posted to you or email membership@ancientmonumentssociety.org.uk. We welcome new members who would like to join us on our visits – simply click here to join now.
Payment by cheque or bank transfer will be requested once places are allocated. Please do not send payment until you have been successful in gaining a place.
Thursday 11 October 2pm FULHAM PALACE, LONDON
We will have an exciting opportunity to see an important Grade I listed building in the midst of a revealing programme of works. Formerly the Bishop of London’s summer residence, Fulham Palace was the largest domestic medieval moated site in England. Surviving buildings date from the early C16, the east range was rebuilt early C19 and a Butterfield chapel added in 1886-7, altered 1950s. Today, Fulham Palace is run by Fulham Palace Trust, a registered charity established in 2011. The Tudor Quadrangle and Great Hall are undergoing a £3.8mil conservation project (of which £2mil comes from the HLF).
£15.50 per person to include a tour followed by tea and cake in the Drawing Room Café
Friday 2 November, 2pm BRIXTON WINDMILL, LONDON
Built in 1816, Brixton’s windmill produced flour under sail until 1864. In 1902, new steam machinery was installed in the same mill building, which operated until the 1930s until the site fell into a cycle of refurbishment followed by neglect and vandalism. It was placed on the Buildings at Risk register in 2002 but has now been repaired and overhauled by Owlsworth IJP to mill flour once more – electrically.
Please note: optional tours, in small groups, will involve climbing steep ladders to the upper floors.
£15 per person to include a talk, tour, guidebook, tea and cake (made with Brixton Flour)
Wednesday 14 November, 2pm, MORAVIAN CHURCH, CHELSEA, LONDON
The site was part of the Tudor garden and the stables of Sir Thomas More, d. 1535, who built Beaufort House on the River Thames. In the 1920s, two Chelsea artists, Ernest and Mary Gillick, were inspired by the history of area to create a heraldic ‘pageant’ of the eleven noble families who took over Beaufort House and estate after the execution of Thomas More. The pageant has been restored with funding from the Heritage of London Trust. There will be a talk by local historian Ian Foster followed by a visit guided by the Trust’s Director, Nicola Stacey.
£10 per person to include a talk and tour followed by tea and biscuits
Wednesday 21 November, 2pm WARMINSTER MALTINGS, WILTSHIRE
Warminster Maltings in Wiltshire is one of only three maltings in England making malt in the traditional way by the flooring method. Malt is one of the prime ingredients in beer-making, so this visit will complement that to Fuller’s Brewery last year. At Warminster, the malt is produced in the original mid-19th century stone buildings (listed grade II*). We will see the process from steeping the grain in cisterns, to germination on the floors and finally to kilning, although the original E.S. Beavan patent kilns are no longer in use. (There is a direct train from Waterloo to Warminster Station; the Maltings are under a mile.)
£15 per person to include tour and afternoon tea
