Events

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”

Friday 17th February

Our Changing World:
The Dinosaur, the Dodo and the Dormouse with Museum on the Move
Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shrewsbury
Join the award-winning Museum on the Move for an interactive, multi-sensory exhibition that uses specimens and objects from museum collections to explore the process of extinction. Handle dinosaur bones, use a microscope to look at trilobites and stand next to a Mammoth’s thigh bone.
What happened to the dinosaurs? Why did the Dodo disappear? How can you help rare and threatened animals today? 10am-4pm, Drop in for free, no booking required.
Darwin’s dinosaurs
Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shrewsbury
Make your own dinosaur to take home, using scrap materials and your own imagination. Lesley McKnight joins Shropshire Wildlife Trust to lead these energetic family workshops for families.
10am-12pm & 1.30pm-3.30pm
£3 per person • Advanced booking is essential as places are limited
Make a fossil
Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shrewsbury
Liz Etheridge, Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s
very own geologist will be sharing her passion for fossils and helping you make your own plaster cast of a trilobite, crinoid or ancient shark’s tooth. It’s messy fun, so please come prepared!
10am-12pm & 1.30pm-3.30pm • £3 per person
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited

11th-18th February

Darwin’s Shrewsbury Tours
Take a guided walking tour of Darwin’s Shrewsbury.
Daily at 2pm. Meet at the Visitor Information Centre at Rowley’s
House, Barker Street. Adults £4.50, Child £2.50
Numbers are limited so booking in advance is essential 01743 281200 or guided.tours@shropshire.gov.uk
Darwin’s Love…and the beauty of the River Severn
As it is Valentine’s Day, come and relax on board Sabrina and let our local Blue Badge guide, Pam Powis, provide an entertaining, informative and memorable commentary about Darwin’s own love life and the close union between the Darwin and Wedgewood families. The River Severn loop in Shrewsbury is one of the most stunning in the UK and there is no better way to appreciate it than via Sabrina.
Duration: 1 hour • Departure: 4pm • Boarding point: Victoria Quay
(By Welsh Bridge, SY3 8LH) • Adult: £8 / Child: £4
Tel: 01743 369 741 • Email: info@sabrinaboat.co.uk
Website: www.sabrinaboat.co.uk

Saturday 11th February

Walk in Darwin’s footsteps
Preston Montford Field Centre, Montford Bridge, Shrewsbury Charles Darwin spent most of his childhood exploring local wild places, particularly along the River Severn near Shrewsbury. Join us on a guided walk around the grounds at Preston Montford to experience the magic of this area in winter and look for signs of early spring. 10am-12pm
£2 per person • Advanced booking is essential as places are limited
Sunday 12th February
Darwin Birthday Toast and Walk
Morris Hall Courtyard, Shrewsbury
After drinking your annual toast to Charles Darwin in the Morris Hall Courtyard, join Jon King (founder of the Darwin Festival) on a guided tour of town centre sites that the young naturalist knew well. 12pm-2pm • Free
The Darwin Memorial Lecture 2012
Dr Jim Endersby, University of Sussex
Walker Theatre, Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury
‘Sympathetic Science: Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker and the passions of Victorian Naturalists’
Jim Endersby is the author of the prize winning ‘A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology’ and ‘Imperial Nature:
Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science’.
Dr Endersby is also the editor of the most recent edition of Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’. His lecture will be aimed at a general audience and looks behind the scenes at the friendship of Darwin and Hooker, their correspondence, the novels they read and their reaction to family events and tragedies such as the deaths of children.
2.30pm • £10 per person
Please call Box Office (01743 281281) • mail@theatresevern.co.uk
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited

“There is grandeur in this view of life…”

Wednesday 15th February

Film: Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (90mins)
The Hive- 5 Belmont, Shrewsbury.
Suitable for a family audience.
KinoKulture, Shropshire Wildlife Trust and The Hive are proud to be hosting a screening of this wonderful, award-winning film. Insects are often greeted with a shudder in the Western world but in Japan these tiny creatures are a source of admiration and enthralment.
Meet the film-maker
American naturalist and filmmaker, Jessica Oreck, spent six weeks in Japan filming the country’s fascination with insects.
Take part in a Skype Q&A with Jessica
in New York at 4.30pm
3pm-5pm • Adult £5 • Child (under 16) &
Shrewsbury Film Society members £3
The Hive box office: 01743 234970 – early
booking is always advised! DVDs and
posters will be available to purchase for
£9.99 on the day.

Friday 17th February

Exploring Darwin’s Garden with Nick Baker
Join TV’s Nick Baker on an exploration of Charles Darwin’s garden in the heart of Shrewsbury. Learn more about Darwin’s life and his fascination with the natural world.
10am-12pm • £3 per person
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited
Shropshire Wildlife Trust 50th Anniversary
Keynote speech by Nick Baker
Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shrewsbury
Nick Baker is well known as a TV presenter and natural historian. Nick talks about the early influences that shaped him and highlights ways in which we can all inspire a new generation of enthusiastic naturalists. Nick will be signing copies of his natural history books after the talk.
1pm-2.30pm • Suitable for a family audience • £5 per person
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited

Saturday 18th February

Meadow Arts Darwin Festival Symposium
Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shrewsbury
Meadow Arts in conjunction with Cardiff University is hosting this symposium to accompany their contemporary art exhibition ‘House of Beasts’ at Attingham Park (National Trust) Shrewsbury. It will explore the cultural, philosophical and ethical significance of human-animal relations as portrayed in the exhibition by bringing some of the artists involved into conversation with leading academics on human-animal relations. The aim of the symposium is to engage with emerging sensibilities and the questioning of human/nonhuman animal relations. Its objective is to offer complementary perspectives to Darwinian and other scientific perspectives on nonhuman animals.
9.30am-5pm • £15 per person (includes lunch)
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited

Sunday 19th February

Curators’ tour of House of Beasts exhibition
Attingham Park (National Trust), Shrewsbury, SY4 4TP
An opportunity for symposium delegates to join the curators of the House of Beasts exhibition and Attingham Park’s curator and conservator, for an exclusive tour of the House of Beasts exhibition.
9.30am-12.30pm • Free for delegates
Advanced booking is essential as places are limited. Book your places via Mandy, email: mandy@meadowarts.org

Café Si at The Shrewsbury Coffeehouse

Give your grey cells a good work out with a series of evening events at The Shrewsbury Coffeehouse.
Each café is FREE, informal and innovative. We’ve managed to get some pretty inspirational speakers too. Come along for a coffee and see what you think.
Please book your places direct with Shrewsbury Coffeehouse

Monday 13th February

Dr Jeremy Pritchard
Dr Jeremy Pritchard is a scientist with a Twitter feed and a Facebook fan page. He has been described as “awesome”; his ability to defend evolution has “flair few can muster”. Join us for a lively evening of
evolutionary chat covering randomness, Boeing 747s and Kylie Minogue. 7pm-9pm

Tuesday 14th February

Butterflies of Llanymynech talk by Dr Simon Spencer
There is a site straddling the English and Welsh border that is a nationally important haven for over half of the UK’s butterfly species. Learn more about the butterflies of Llanymynech and the pioneering work being undertaken to protect them. Dr Simon Spencer works for Butterfly Conservation and has lived on an organic smallholding in Wales for more than 30 years. He has been fascinated by butterflies since his childhood. 7pm-9pm

Wednesday 15th February

The Natural History of The Marches
The Welsh Marches are a mixture of mountains and moorlands, farms and wooded river valleys. Andrew Allott, author of the recently published New Naturalist title Marches, brings together a wealth of material into a beautiful presentation celebrating our local wildlife. 7pm-9pm

Thursday 16th February

Darwin and Twitter
Would Darwin have used Twitter? You may laugh, but social media has proved to be a powerfully effective means to spread new ideas and change the way we think. Can social media dissolve boundaries to create “biospheric” thinking and communication?
Jon King, founding director of the Shrewsbury Darwin Festival is presently the senior eCommunications Officer at Shropshire Council. 7pm-9pm