Village Hall Talks at Wootton-By-Woodstock
 



The project was conceived to raise funds to renovate the village hall in Wootton-by-Woodstock, which was built almost entirely from timber over eighty years ago. Few who have attended the talks would disagree that the evenings have been an engaging mixture of serious insight and comedic observation and we think we are catering for the current thirst for live events in smaller venues.

All proceeds to the Ukraine Humitarian Appeal



The Prue Leith Talk

7.30 pm Friday March 22nd 2024

Dame Prue is a businesswoman, journalist, novelist, cookery writer and broadcaster. She is currently a judge on the Great British Bake Off and The Great American Baking Show - and we warmly welcome her back for a much-anticipated appearance after her previous evening at the Wootton Talks

Earlier in her career, Prue's restaurant, Leith’s, was awarded a Michelin Star and she is a past winner of the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year. Prue has been a director on many boards, including British Rail and Whitbread and she chaired The School Food Trust - tasked with improving school meals.

She was the instigator of the Fourth Plinth contemporary sculpture project in Trafalgar Square and was an advisor on the Government's Hospital Food Review.

Prue is Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and Patron of Chefs in Schools, as well as Dignity in Dying. In 2023, she and her son, Daniel, made a Channel 4 documentary on assisted dying called Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip. Her new series, Prue Leith’s Cotswold Kitchen, is due to be aired in February 2024.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us


(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

 

The Roger Tempest Talk

7.30 pm Friday April 19th 2024

Roger is custodian of the former Broughton Hall, near Skipton in Yorkshire - where the Tempest family have lived for centuries. At his last appearance in Wootton ten years ago, Roger detailed ambitious plans for the 3,500-acre estate and, since then, much has happened. The estate is now called Broughton Sanctuary and National Geographic Magazine has placed it on its prestigious "hip list" as one of the world's 30 most interesting places to visit

As well as now being the UK's leading wellbeing retreat, Broughton is the focus of one of the most ambitious rewilding projects, with the aim of planting 350,000 trees - and a mission to protect and enhance the diversity of wildlife and natural habitats on 1,100 acres (app one-third) of the estate and to reconnect visitors with the natural environment. A reduction in sheep grazing has been undertaken and the tree planting is sitting alongside areas of former arable land and buffer-strips, which are being set aside to allow the natural regeneration of trees and shrubs

The Broughton estate supports a diversity of important habitats – from meadow pastures to ancient woodland, heather moorland and freshwater habitats. These habitats already support a range of species, including kestrels, hares and otters - and the rewilding project aims to breathe new life into the landscape and provide high quality opportunities for wildlife and people.

Former stables and other out-buildings have been converted and over 50 businesses are now based on the estate, including Silver Cross Prams and a leading hydrology company, with 200 staff on site. Many see Broughton as the blue-print for the way ahead for similar large estates - and the key to survival.

Period dramas and Bollywood movies are still filmed around the main house at Broughton - but Roger and his partner, Paris, have also spent a huge amount of time and energy developing an area called the Avalon Wellbeing Centre, acknowledged as one of the best in the world Among a wide range of activities, there is wild swimming, a woodland sauna, a Garden of Cosmic Origin, a Fire Temple Experience and a Hermit Hut, as well as the Avalon Pool Suite. They have also uncovered a Bronze Age Cairn Circle, situated on the moor top, for quiet solitude, and this is also the location for Moon Bathing and meditation "There’s this sort of surge in energy towards saying, ‘How are we actually living? How do we live our lives?’ And it’s all here, "says Roger. "Last year we had mental health gatherings, Guatemalan Mayan elders. It just goes on and on. And you can see what it's doing to people....broadening their experience of life.”

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us


(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

 

The Peter Radford Talk

7.30 pm Friday May 17th 2024

As the Olympic Games are about to begin in Paris in July, we welcome Peter Radford, a British athlete who competed at 100 and 220 yards and broke world records and won medals at the Rome Olympics. This was made even more remarkable as Peter had been seriously ill as a child due to a hole in his kidney

Peter first broke the world record for 220 yards in May 1960, with a time of 20.5 seconds, at the Staffordshire Championships in Wolverhampton. Later that year, he represented Great Britain in the 100 metres and 200 metres at the Rome Olympics, where he won the bronze medal at 100 metres. He then teamed up with fellow British athletes to finish third in the 4×100 metres relay.

Peter won a second Commonwealth Games Gold medal in Peth, Australia, as a member of the England 4x100 yards relay team] and represented Britain as a quarter-finalist at both 100 metres and 200 metres at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Following Tokyo, he retired from competition, due to a recurring knee ligament problem but, at that time, and for at least another two decades, he was the most successful sprinter in Birchfield Harriers' history. He remained in the sport and became Executive Chairman of the British Athletics Federation, and was the founder-professor of the Chair in the Department of Physical Education at Glasgow University - as well as later the Professor of Sport at Brunel University. He was also instrumental in introducing drug-testing procedures for athletes.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us


(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

 

The Susie Dent Talk

7.30 pm Friday June 14th 2024

Susie is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated 30 years as a co-presenter and the resident word expert on Channel 4's Countdown, and she also appears on the show's comedy sister 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio about words featured in the news. She has contributed to discussions on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Word of Mouth, Saturday Live, More or Less, Today, and on Radio 5 Live's Breakfast and Drive programmes. She has made guest appearances on many TV programmes including BBC Breakfast, Newsnight, This Morning, Test the Nation, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Not Going Out, and The One Show.

Susie answers notes and queries about words and phrases in weekly columns in the Radio Times, The Week Junior, the I newspaper, and Why Now. She has written for the Independent on Sunday, the Telegraph, and the Times, and is the author of several books, including her latest, An Emotional Dictionary: Real Words for How You Feel, from Angst to Zwodder, published in 2022.

Susie is a spokesperson for Oxford University Press, and has been a judge on the Costa Book Awards and on the Academy Excellence Awards. She regularly delivers key-note speeches to both small companies and major corporations on language and communication.

Susie lives in Oxford, where she has developed a passion for cycling - Lycra or no, she is never without her little black book for jotting down any new words picked up in the wild.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us


(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

 
 


All Talks Start
At 7:30pm

Tickets Cost
£10 For
Everybody

Max Capacity
100

Postcode
OX20 1DZ


John Lloyd & John Mitchinson Talk, Summer 2009

Local Links

Woodstock Book Shop

The Killingworth Castle

Adrian Arbib Photography

Robin Laurance Photography

Ashmolean Museum

The Bodleian Library

Woodstock U3A - University Of The Third Age

Woodstock Music Society

Woodstock Literature Society

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