Tag Archives: Winchester Discovery Centre

Win Guide to January

It’s a new year in the UK’s number one city. Here’s our guide to starting your 2017 in the finest Wintonian style:

1upThe Railway Inn has a weird and wonderful selection of events on offer to tempt city folk out this month.  The weekly free Poetry Platform runs on the first Tuesday of every month, Winchester’s longest serving poetry open mic. This month’s event is on 3 January at 8.30pm. Or for the gaming community, 1 Up Retro Video Gaming night is Winchester’s first pub-based retro video games event. From Master System to the Gamecube there will be classic games available every week, with tournaments and leader boards. 1 Up will run every Friday from 8.30pm, starting on Friday 6 January and entry is free. Hip Hop duo, Dr Syntax and Pete Cannon will be live on 20 January from 8.30pm.  For more details, visit the website here.

wsc-web-content-event-or-film-banner-splendiferous-science-2Winchester Science Centre will be hosting BBC Bitesize science presenter Jon Chase for a Splendiferous Science Weekend, 14 – 15 January.  Participants are invited to delve into the whoopsy waffling worlds of Roald Dahl, to make James and his Giant Peach fly or discover George and his marvelous medicine. The shows will run for an hour at 11am and 2pm, and booking is advised.  The Winchester Science Centre’s science experts will also be demonstrating their own favourite Roald Dahl themed science throughout the day so there’s plenty for young people and their adults to enjoy.  For more details, visit the Science Centre website here.

imageFancy taking up a new skill?  The Discovery Centre will be running a beginner’s workshop for budding Taxidermists on Saturday 21st January, 12-4pm.  Mabel Edwards will lead students through a practical session to create a life-like mount of a mouse.  To find out more or to book a place, visit the Discovery Centre website here.

platform-4Winchester’s Platform 4 will be previewing Invisible Music: Variations on a Theme, a new project at the Theatre Royal on 24 January with tickets available for free. The project is a sound-piece inspired by a series of interviews with Winchester’s lip reading group. Booking is advised, so visit the Theatre Royal website for details here.

For more theatre, img-5107-a4-landscape-website-crop_1_origwhy not book to see the Chesil Theatre’s  Blood and Ice by Liz Lochhead, 21 – 28 January, directed by Alec Walters. Four young romantics compete to write a spine-chilling tale. Two of them are England’s greatest poets, the third a rebellious runaway, and the fourth, free-thinker, Mary Shelley. For more details or to book tickets, visit the website here.

Winchester Cocktail WeekDon’t forget to book your tickets for next month’s Winchester Cocktail Week, 6-12 February.  Probably to most decadent way to fall off the wagon, 26 different cafes, bars, restaurants and shops in Winchester will be offering discounted signature cocktails and hosting special events and parties. For more details and to book, visit the Cabinet Rooms website here.

Wishing everyone a prosperous and happy 2017. We’ll be tweeting more updates @Win_Guide throughout the month.

Win Guide to August

Dino Fest 2015
Dino Fest 2015

Don’t be alarmed but the Dinosaurs are back and they have chosen to base themselves in Hampshire. It’s Dino Fest 2015, a monumental year of “roarsome” events for budding palaeontologists, eager explorers and their parents who may be looking for rain-proof indoor fun. Winchester is offering Dinosaurium at the City space, Winchester Discovery Centre for free. It’s an opportunity to see local artists create creatures from paper, card and other materials. There will be an Edwardian specimen jar with a ‘real-life’ dinosaur to examine. If you fancy going further afield, there are plenty of events happening across the county including Milestones Museum Basingstoke, SeaCity Museum, Southampton, Westbury, Eastleigh, Andover and Salisbury. If you go to more than one event you can collect stickers to enter some competitions, with prizes including an annual family culture card for Hampshire, or a torch-lit trail of the Dinosaur Gallery – a live science show at the Natural History Museum with a Museum expert at midnight.

Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium is offering extended opening hours, from 10am – 5pm for the whole of august, to provide plenty of educational entertainment for the summer holidays. To carry on the Dinosaur theme, you can book to see Dinosaurs at Dusk, in the largest stand-alone 360 degrees planetarium cinema in the UK, where you can lie back an watch moving images of dinosaurs above your head.

Running Horse, Littleton
Running Horse, Family Fun Day

Head to the Running Horse in Littleton on Saturday 15th August, where there will be a ‘Family Fun Day’ including a bouncy castle and face-painting for children in the garden from 1pm. Whilst we’re in the village, Littleton Pre-School celebrates its 40th birthday this year and welcomes children from 2 years, so don’t forget to get your child registered for September.  Based at the Millennium Memorial Hall which is set in the idyllic countryside grounds, it is a perfectly crafted space for indoor and outdoor play and learning. The pre-school is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday between 8:30am and 12:15pm, with extended sessions available until 3pm on and Wednesday.

Chesney Hawkes at the Railway Inn
Chesney Hawkes at the Railway Inn

Remember Chesney Hawkes? The Railway Inn will be giving you a chance to spend an evening with him on Friday 14th August at 7.30pm as he leads you through his musical journey with Percival Elliott and Anthony Starble. Of course, music fans might be at the Boom Town Festival, from the 13th – 17th August on the Matterley Estate. This may well be the Festival’s last year on the Estate due to planning restrictions, however the 2015 edition is set to go ahead.

The Hospital of St Cross
The Hospital of St Cross

The Hospital of St Cross Gardens will be open as part of the NGS Gardens Open for charity on Sunday 30th August, 2-5pm. Admission £4, children free. Or you can take a tour of the walkways and Church Tower on the 21st August at 7pm, tickets £20. The Hospital is one of England’s oldest continuing almshouses, founded in 1136 by Henry of Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror.  It is the oldest charitable institution in the United Kingdom. It’s worth making a day of it by walking through the water meadows and rewarding yourself with some summer food and drink at the Wykeham Arms, or browsing at the Kingsgate Village shops: P&G Wells Booksellers, Cornflowers Gift Shop, Kingsgate Books and Prints and Kingsgate Wine and Provisions.

Graze Festival
Graze Festival

The brand new Graze Festival makes it debut on 30th August in Hazeley Fields, Twyford, offering local foods, pop up restaurants, music and performing arts (supplied by Hat Fair) with proceeds raised going to support local charities. There will be a dedicated kids area too, so plenty for the whole family to enjoy.

Win Guide to January

It’s official. Christmas is over, New Year’s Eve passed in a blur of bubbles and bongs and a grey, dreary January has nudged its way in to break up the revelry.

Parkrun
Parkrun

So how to combat the winter blues? Well, to work off some of the festive indulgence and get involved in some outdoor fitness, why not join in with Parkrun every Saturday at 9am in the North Walls Recreation Ground? It’s open to all runners, from nervous beginners to spandex-clad pros, and it is an entirely free community endeavour to get people outdoors for a 5k run against the clock. All you have to do is register (once only is all that’s necessary) and bring along your printed bar code so you can get your time. It’s about fun rather than pressure, so not a bad way to get fit without the commitment of a gym membership if that isn’t your thing.

THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES
THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES

If you aren’t quite ready to let the festive theme go, then you could consider Jeff Goode’s ‘The Eight: The Reindeer Monologues’ by local theatre company Gallows Productions on 12th & 13th January at the Theatre Royal. The shows are dark and definitely adult in content so not a family panto affair. Tickets are a fiver or £7 with some mulled wine thrown in for those who aren’t on the wagon for January – or feel like falling off.

The Winchester Chamber Orchestra New Year concert takes place on the 10th January at St Paul’s Church. The programme includes Mozart’s piano concerto, Haydn’s symphony number  103 and Brahm’s St Anthony Variations. Later in the month the Winchester City Festival choir will be performing a concert on 31st January at St Swithun’s School. The programme includes Tsunami Requiem by Chris Williams, a dramatic commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Asian tsunami.

Cllr Eileen Berry, Mayor of Winchester
Cllr Eileen Berry, Mayor of Winchester

The Office of the Mayor of Winchester is one of the oldest mayoralties in England. The city was first given permission during the reign of Richard the Lionheart to create the role. The current Mayor, Cllr Eileen Berry, is the 815th on the historical roster and she has a busy start to the year. There’s the 6th annual Mayor’s Charities Quiz Night at the Winchester Guildhall on 9th January. Tickets are available from the Tourist Information office. Or, further up the hill, she’ll be opening her Mayors Choice art exhibition at the Discovery Centre featuring important local work from 31st January.

Twin Wild at The Railway
Twin Wild at The Railway

The Railway Inn has a great line-up of live music and comedy for January. Acts include rock quartet Twin Wild on 29th January, described by BBC Radio 1’s Edith Bowman as “The love child of Bastille and Biffy Clyro”. Or why not pop along to Roots and join in with Winchester’s longest running open mic night? Entry is free every Monday at 8.30pm and all levels of artists are welcome, from seasoned pros to first time gig’ers. Alternatively, banish the Sunday blues twice a month with the Late Train open mic comedy night. Again, entry is free with a donation bucket.

Plenty to do on a budget to brighten up a drab, cold January.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition

Matt Denton's Mantis Robot, part of the Winchester Science Festival 2014
Matt Denton’s Mantis Robot, part of the Winchester Science Festival 2014

As I made my way to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, currently showing in the gallery of the Winchester Discovery Centre, I was startled to come across a mantis. Not an insect, but rather a massive, six-legged robotic walking machine designed by Matt Denton, founder and chief designer of Micromagic Systems. This unexpected encounter seemed like an appropriately fitting preface to an exhibition exploring how we attempt to capture nature.

The images in the exhibition have been selected from 43,000 entries by an international jury chaired by Jim Brandenburg. The quality is, not surprisingly, extremely high.  Each photograph on display in the large, well-lit and air-conditioned space is captioned with information detailing not just how each picture was taken but also the wildlife caught by the lens.  A lovely way of engaging with the varying interests of viewers.

Michael 'Nick' Nichols, The President's Crown
Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols, The President’s Crown

Technically speaking there is some astonishing work here, like Michael Nichols‘ award-winning The President’s Crown. This giant from California’s Sequoia National Park carries a load of some two billion leaves. Nichols’ photograph of it digitally combines 126 images. It took a year to plan and seven months to shoot – an impressive undertaking, yes, but then the tree itself is 3,200 years old! Also remarkable are the contributions of various young photographers, including in the 10 years and under section.

Jasper Doest, The Netherlands, 'Snow moment'
Jasper Doest, The Netherlands, ‘Snow moment’

Among some really striking and beautiful images are Snow Moment, winner of the Creative Visions prize.  Jasper Doerst has captured a Japanese macaque jumping in a mysterious swirl of snowflakes or Richard Packwood’s ‘The greeting’ (Nature in Black and White) which could almost be a line drawing.

The exhibition isn’t sugar-coated. Some categories encourage us to think more deeply about our relationship with the environment. There are moving and serious images like, for instance, one of a shark with a hook in its jaw or Brent Stirton’s powerful and upsetting view of the ivory trade.

You don’t discover the over-all winners until the end of the exhibition. This is as it should be. Each photograph deserves to be enjoyed in its own right and, really, the idea of choosing the ‘best’ from such a wonderfully varied, sometimes touching selection must have been quite a task. Do go and immerse yourself before 21st September, when the exhibition closes. The images, however, will linger long after that in the mind’s eye.

Cost: free

Helen Paskins is a Winchester-based professional orchestral and chamber musician who has worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BSO and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. 

The Winchester Science Festival

Matt Denton's - Mantis Robot
Matt Denton’s – Mantis Robot

Fancy seeing Winchester engineer Matt Denton‘s two tonne Turbo Diesel-powered Mantis robot – the biggest all-terrain operational hexapod robot in the world? Or how about deconstructing the Hat Fair with Dr Ken Farquhar as he explores the science behind juggling, circus and the like. Perhaps you’d like to launch into some rocket science with Lucy Rogers?  If you haven’t already guessed, Winchester is readying itself for a scintillating science-tastic take-over at the Discovery Centre 25-27 July, with the return of the annual Winchester Science Festival, launched in 2012. The festival will feature science, music, comedy and hands-on exhibits all weekend with plenty on offer for the whole family.

The Ugly Animal Preservation Society
The Ugly Animal Preservation Society

Friday’s programme is geared towards younger science fans. Terry Harvey-Chadwick’s Fire Show at 10am will feature some explosive demonstrations with his brand of ‘fun science’. At 11am, step-aside Superman, Channel 4’s Simon Watt will be taking a closer look at genetic mutations and revealing that we might be closer to the X-men than we thought with his talk ‘Mutants. What Are they Like?’. Winchester Science Centre’s Alex Boxley will be talking us through the universe at 3pm and at 5pm award winning Dr Mini Saaj will be exploring Nature-Inspired Robots For Science & Medicine. Adults can pop along in the evening to Frogs and Friends, a comedic talk with The Ugly Animal Preservation Society’s professor of comedy, Simon Watt. And its worth noting that all the festival evening events are for 15s and over.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Saturday’s programme starts at 10am when Dr Radu Sporea assisted by Andrew Pye will lead us in a participatory look at modern photography with hints and tips for practitioners. At midday, Dr Jock McOrist will be making the elusive String Theory accessible for everyone. After lunch there are two opportunities to listen to the extraordinary astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. To round off the day, Bright Club Guildford will present an evening of comedy, music, art, research, science and performance. On Sunday, budding Bear Grylls‘ can take a journey into the extremities with Prof Mike Tipton exploring physiological and psychological responses to harsh environments. Sally Le Page will be leading us on a lighthearted romp through the bizarre world of animal sex lives with Secrets of Sex. The festival reaches its climax with Being 747, where science meets music in a pop rock group inspired by the work of David Attenborough.

The Mobile Planetarium
The Mobile Planetarium

Various exhibits will be on offer on-site throughout the festival, including the Mini Professors, free group science sessions for pre-schoolers with songs and experiments. The Soton Astrodome c/o the University of Southampton will be running a mobile planetarium hourly all weekend from 11.15am. Shows are free but advanced booking is advised. The National Oceanography Centre will be bringing along the PufferSphere, a glowing 2m digital globe, which shows complex climate and weather systems.

Ticketed talks are available online with SEE Tickets  where you can book a full festival pass, daytime or evening passes or just for specific talks. Children accompanied by an adult go free all weekend and there are some free events in the programme. For full programme listings which may vary visit winchesterscifest.org.

Winchester Science Festival
Winchester Science Festival

Winchester Science Festival is run by the not-for-profit Winchester 
Science Foundation who aim to champion and celebrate science with the public, raise the profile of women in science, promote science education and science communication and raise the awareness of Hampshire science.