Presented by Caroline Shenton

This is the gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain’s national heritage during our Darkest Hour. As Hitler’s forces gathered on the other side of the Channel to threaten these islands, men and women from London’s national museums, galleries and archives forged extraordinary plans to evacuate their collections to safety.

Utilising country houses from Buckinghamshire to Cumbria, tube tunnels, Welsh mines and Wiltshire quarries, a dedicated team of unlikely heroes packed up their greatest treasures in a race against time during the sweltering summer of 1939, dispatching them throughout the country on a series of secret wartime adventures, retold in this talk.

Doors open at 6.00pm for drinks and light supper. Current exhibitions in the West gallery are also available to view and the Riverside Terrace can be enjoyed when weather permits.

Lectures begin in the Minghella Theatre at 7.30pm and finish by 9.15pm. We ask you to be seated by 7.25pm.

Guests are also welcome at a cost of £8 cash at the door and there is free entry for Young Quay members and students.