Skip to main content
Category

Events

A poster advertising Living History Weekend 2022 at The Devil's Porridge Museum.

Living History Weekend 2022

By Events

Saturday 30th July – Sunday 31st July 2022

All Activities Free with Admission into the Museum.

 

Get an insight into what life was like during World War One and World War Two with our living history weekend.

 

 

The Scottish Home Front Living History Society will give people an insight into how both civilians and soldiers lived during the Second World War by using the equipment, vehicles, and clothing from that time. They will help to make the past feel more tangible by showing the equipment working and demonstrating how it works and what it felt like to use. You will get to handle many of the objects, which will help to bring the past to life.

They will also have some suffragette reenactors to give an insight into the struggles of women protesting for the right to vote and how this affected their everyday lives.

 

Five people dressed as Suffergettes outside.

 

On War Service will be offering the opportunity to learn about First World War with an insight into medical care during that time. They will be inside the museum in uniform to share their enthusiasm and show you some medical equipment and domestic treasures from the time. Over the weekend they will be providing short specialist talks on the Spanish Flu Pandemic, the Role of the VAD and WW1 Hospitals in Dumfriesshire, and the Treatment of Shell Injuries. You can see the full talk programme for the weekend below.

 

 

You can learn more about On War Service on their website here: https://onwarservice.org.uk/onwarservice/homepage.html 

 

A photo form the 2019 Military Vehicle Event.

We hope this Living History Weekend event will build on the success of our Military Vehicle Weekend in 2019. You can read more about this here>

 

Another photo of a Military Vehicle Weekend event at The Devil’s Porridge Museum in the past.

Scotia Crafters 2022 infomation poster.

Scotia Crafters 2022

By Events

10am – 4pm

Monday 18th July 2022 – Thursday 28th July 2022

Looking for the perfect handmade gift, or perhaps just that special something?

We’re delighted to have the Scotia Crafters back inside The Devil’s Porridge Museum for 2022. They will be exhibiting and selling local quality made crafts.

Free admission into the Scotia Crafters 2022 exhibition.

(Admission prices will still apply for anyone visiting to look around The Devil’s Porridge Museum).

Find out more about our other summer holiday events below.

For Young People>

Living History Weekend>

Canary Girls poster for online talk which happened in 2022.

Canary Girls Online Talk

By Events

Thursday 9th June 2022

Canary Girls – the forgotten heroines of WW1 and WW2

 

Learn about the important role that munitions workers had in both World Wars & the Canary Girls project which campagins for a memorial to them in the FREE online talk.

 

Book your place and learn more here>

The talk will :-

• Introduce a Canary Girls project, started in Cumbria, campaigning for a memorial to the munitions workers, mainly women, of both World Wars in the National Memorial Arboretum.

• Explain what the women were actually doing in the factories in both world wars; where the nickname Canary Girls came from and the risks they faced daily.

• Look at the precedents they set in challenging gender roles and social class in fashion, sport, factory design and working conditions for women.

• Consider why they are called the forgotten heroines and finally, look at how they have been and are being remembered.

The talk will be given by Valerie Welti. After over 30 years as a teacher in London, in her retirement in Cumbria she has taken on various voluntary roles. One of which, with the Canary Girls Memorial Project, has reignited her interest in history.

THIS IS AN ONLINE TALK. THE ZOOM LINK WILL BE SENT OUT ON THE DAY.

Coronation Crown Making activity poster for an event at The Devil's Porridge Museum in June 2022.

Platinum Jubilee Celebration

By Events

Join us to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee at The Devil’s Porridge Museum!

 

Friday 3rd June 2022

Coronation Crown Making

Join us to make a free paper crown to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.

Places are limited. Book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

 

Monday 30th May – Sunday 5th May

Free Colouring In

Young people visiting The Devil’s Porridge Museum or eating in the cafè during the Jubilee week will recieve some free colouring in, while supplies last.

We would be delighted to see some of your completed colouring. You can share it with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Book your visit to The Devil’s Porridge Museum online here>

 

 

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters online talk poster

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters.

By Events

24th May 2022.

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters: From Queen Victoria to HM Factory Gretna.

Book your place and learn more here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-life-of-the-drummond-sisters-from-queen-victoria-to-hm-factory-gretna-tickets-328938863997?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

We’re delighted to announce our first event that is happening both in person at The Devil’s Porridge Museum and online on Zoom. Tickets cost £3.

Hear the story of the god daughter of Queen Victoria who became the first female Marine Engineer in Britain and the first woman to be accepted into the Institute of Marine Engineers.

From a quiet early life at Megginch Castle Perth-shire she went on to serve an engineering apprenticeship in Perth & Dundee, overcoming the early prejudice of the engineering world to sail as 2nd Engineer on both Arctic and Atlantic convoys during World War 2 receiving commendations for her action under enemy fire.

With her sister Jean, who had worked at the munitions factory at Gretna during World War One producing ‘The Devil’s Porridge’, she also established the ‘Victoria Drummond Canteen’ in Lambeth which provided food to victims of the London Blitz throughout World War Two.

The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters talk will be given by Neil McGarva, who as well as spending 40 years working in the Nuclear Industry has also been involve with the Devil’s Porridge Museum since it started 25 years ago as a small exhibition in a local church, and is currently the museum secretary.

If you chose to attend The Extraordinary Life of the Drummond Sisters talk online the Zoom link will be sent out on the day.

Tickets for those who choose to attend the talk in person at The Devil’s Porridge Museum will be sent out on the day.

Gardening club poster from 2022

Gardening Club

By Events

Gardening Club will continue on Saturday 28th May 2022.

From 10 am – 12 noon

Ever fancied growing your own food?

If so come to gardening club to help to grow fresh produce in The Devil’s Porridge Museum’s Dig for Victory Garden. Learn new gardening skills and have fun!

Please book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

Art Club poster from 2022.

Beginners Art Club. CANCELED

By Events

Beginners Art Club!

Unfortunately, this event is now CANCELED and will no longer be taking place.

Thursday 5th May – 2nd June.

10:30 am – 12 noon

Beginners art club classes cost £4 per class or £20 for 5 weeks.

Ever wanted to improve your art skills and do something fulfilling? If you are between 18 and 99+  please come and try our Beginners Art Club at The Devil’s Porridge Museum.

With the advice of art professional, Jack O’Hara you can draw hands, faces, landscapes, glasses, bottles, flowers- or bring a photo/picture that inspires!

Please phone The Devil’s Porridge Museum on 01461 700021 to book a space.

Unfortunately, this event is now CANCELED and will no longer be taking place.

Above: Jack O’Hara

 

 

Egg-cellent Easter Events!

By Events

Join us at The Devil’s Porridge Museum from Monday 4th April to Monday 18th April for a variety of egg-citing FREE Easter events for young people, which are perfect for 5-12 year olds!

Read more about our fun Easter events and activies below.

 

Monday 4th & 11th April

Chocolate Creations

10:30 am to 12 noon

Join us to make chocolate nests at The Devil’s Porridge Museum!

Places are limited. Book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

 

Tuesday 5th & 12th April

Crafting Creatures

1 pm – 2:30 pm

Join us at The Devil’s Porridge Museum to create baa-illiant lambs and pom pom chicks.

Places are limited. Book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

 

Wednesday 6th and 13th April

Spring Bag Printing

10:30 am to 12 noon.

Come along to The Devil’s Porridge Museum to create a spring themed design and print it on your own drawstring bag! With local artist Jack O’ Hara.

Places are limited. Book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

 

Thursday 7th & 14th April

Easter Bunny’s Story Time

10:30 am to 12 noon.

Hop along to The Devil’s Porridge Museum to enjoy some lovely stories with the Easter Bunny!

Places are limited. Book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

 

Friday 8th & 15th April

Egg-straordinary Egg Painting

1 pm to 2:30 pm.

Get creative at The Devil’s Porridge Museum and have a crack at egg painting! What egg-straordinary designs will you create?

Places are limited.Book your place by phoning: 01461 700021

 

Monday 4th to Monday 18th April

Egg-citing Easter Egg Hunt

This Easter young people can take part in a very egg-citing Easter egg hunt during their visit to The Devil’s Porridge Museum!

Can you track down all the colourful eggs around the museum and spell the word to earn your chocolate treat?

Booking online to visit the Museum is essential to avoid disappointment when we are busy. You can book your visit here: https://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/product/tickets

Some soldiers carved into stone.

Online Talks 2022

By Events

The Devil’s Porridge Museum is pleased to continue it’s popular programme of online talks and events for 2022. These online talks are all about  a subject which links to local history or the themes of the Museum. All events are free.

Tickets are now avalible for the following online talks.

 

From the Western Front to the Scottish National War Memorial

Tuseday 12th April 2022.

Book on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-the-western-front-to-the-scottish-national-war-memorial-tickets-308135971987?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

 

The story of illustrator Morris Meredith Williams and his wife and creative collaborator, sculptor Alice Meredith Williams ARBS.

 

In the run-up to the First World War, artists Morris and Alice Meredith Williams were leading a quiet life in Edinburgh. He was illustrating books and teaching drawing at Fettes College. She was making small, often whimsical, sculptures in clay and bronze, and designing stained glass windows.

 

The outbreak of war changed everything. Morris spent four years in the army, three of them in France – first in the infantry, then the artillery and finally, in a camouflage unit. When not on duty, he filled pocket-sized sketchbooks with detailed pencil drawings of his fellow soldiers and their surroundings. Alice’s work slowed down until, in 1917, she was asked by the Women’s Work Sub Committee of the Imperial War Museum to model a collection of 3D plaster panoramas of the roles played by women during the war. The Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer was impressed by them and invited her to collaborate on a war memorial for a town in South Africa. It was Alice’s first large-scale work and led to commissions for the Paisley War Memorial and for the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle. Here, the marriage of Morris’s painstaking draughtsmanship and Alice’s brilliance as a sculptor produced the remarkable the frieze around at the centre of the memorial.

 

This talk will be delivered by Phyllida Shaw.

Phyllida Shaw studied history and French at Lancaster University and has worked for 35 years as a researcher, writer and facilitator in the arts and voluntary sector. She inherited the First World War sketchbooks and letters of Morris Meredith Williams from her great aunt (Williams’ second wife). She is the author of An Artist’s War. The art and letters of Morris and Alice Meredith Williams (The History Press, 2017) and Undaunted Spirit. The art and craft of Gertrude Alice Meredith Williams (Independent Publishing Network, 2018). She has given talks on these two extraordinary artists for the National Archives, the Royal Society of Sculptors, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, the Western Front Association and literature festivals in Henley, Lichfield and Taunton.

This event will be held via Zoom and a joining link will be sent on the day.

Some of the Devil's Porridge Museum's Cordite Club sat at tables with a Easter basket craft.

Cordite Club

By Events

Our Cordite Club is fortnightly lunchtime club for retired people who take part in bingo or tombola and an activity which changes each time.

For more infomation about this please email: info@devilsporridge.org.uk

 

Translate »
BOOK NOW