Shandy Hall, Coxwold

National Gardens Scheme - Moth trapping and identification
20 April 2012
Shandy Hall Gardens
This year, the garden at Shandy Hall, Coxwold, former home of 18th-century writer Laurence Sterne, celebrates 30 years of opening to the public for the National Gardens Scheme. To mark the occasion the National Gardens Scheme has presented a Green Gage tree. The Green Gage was mentioned for the first time in a literary work in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, which was written at Shandy Hall.

National Gardens Scheme openings this year are the evenings of Friday April 20th and Friday June 15th, 6.30 – 8.30pm, when moth identification and release will take place in the company of moth recorder Dr Dave Chesmore. Over 180 different species have been identified in the gardens. You are welcome to come and learn more about these beautiful but rarely seen creatures at 19.30 when moths caught the previous night will be identified and released and the trap set for the following night.
Entrance fee £3 adult £1 child. (full details in The Yellow Book) All admission charges are donated to the National Gardens Scheme.
Normal opening hours for the gardens are 11am- 4.pm daily (except Saturdays) from 1st May – 30th September.
For a full list of moths caught at Shandy Hall go to our blog www.shandyhallmoths.blogspot.com

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Precious Cargo : Eliza Draper An Absent Presence
29 Apr - 29 June 2012
Shandy Hall Gallery
The Precious Cargo project focuses on an interpretation of the “absent presence” Laurence Sterne, the 18th century vicar had with his “muse”, Eliza Draper, before and during her long sea-voyage to India in 1767. Eliza’s half of the correspondence no longer exists although spurious versions were published in the late 18th century. Responding to the published letters (and perhaps the counterfeit versions), artist Carolyn Thompson, will create an installation within the room in Shandy Hall (not normally open to the public) that Sterne intended especially for Eliza - although she never came to live or stay there. Although absent from Sterne and absent from the house she was ever-present in his mind during the last months of his life

Precious Cargo is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme Stories of the World which is led by Arts Council England in partnership with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

For more information visit our 'mini-site' laurencesternetrust.org.uk

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Hope Shortens all Journies
04 May 2012
St Michael Church, Coxwold, York, YO61 4AD
A welcome return visit to St Michael's Church, Coxwold by Coope, Boyes and Simpson where they will perform a selection of songs traditional and contemporary, set against the story of Laurence Sterne’s relationship with Eliza Draper.

'Hope Shortens all Journies' tells the story of an affair of the heart, a series of intimate letters, a locket and a sea voyage from England to India in 1767. This collaboration between the Laurence Sterne Trust, Georgina Boyes and the group continues an exploration into music and text that resulted in 'Songs of Freedom and Oppression'.

The exhibition Eliza Draper : Absent Presence will be open in the gallery at Shandy Hall before the concert.

Concert begins at 7.30pm (unreserved seating).

Tickets £10.00 per person in advance. To book call 01347 868465 or laurencesternetrust.org.uk

Rum and ginger wine will be served in the interval.