It has been a busy winter with two major highlights: being awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for ‘Meet the Huguenots’, a primary school educational programme, and being invited to stage the 5th Huguenot Festival.

The 2018 programme gets underway in April with a range of events which we hope you will enjoy and support.

We have three private viewings planned: to the French Protestant Church, the Society of Genealogists, and the Goldsmiths’ Centre.

This will be followed by a 90-minute walk led by Guy Rowston to hear about the Huguenots of Soho, meeting at 2pm outside the Church in Soho Square.

Thursday 26th April, 12noon Most of us are interested in ancestry so this private visit to the Society of Genealogists Library in Goswell Road should be very popular and also it’s free but booking is essential.

Thursday 12th July, 12:30pm Spaces are limited for this very special visit to see artisans at work - a truly rewarding experience so do book early. On our one-hour tour of the Goldsmiths' Centre in Clerkenwell we will see engravers and silversmiths at work. Donation £5: More Info. The visit will be preceded by a 90-minute walk led by David Evans at 11am, meeting outside Farringdon Station.

Saturday 21st July The visits to four Huguenot towns last year were hugely enjoyable, as we learnt from local experts more about the work and lives of the Huguenots in different parts of the country. This year our focus is on Rye, where Dr Jo Kirkham, curator of the East Street Museum, will tell us about the town and its Huguenots connections. If you have never been before do take this opportunity to visit, you will not be disappointed – Rye is beautiful, charming, historic, and one of the Cinque Ports. 

Huguenot Month

October 2018 has been designated Huguenot Month. Supported by the City of London Corporation, we have developed a programme that we know you will appreciate.

Walks

Responding to your requests, this year we have added more weekend walks. Click here for information on walks in Soho (Sunday 22nd April), Spitalfields (Sundays 29th April and 27th May) and Greenwich (Saturday 12th May) 

Saturday 9th June, 2pm If you miss Julian Woodford’s talk on London History Day, do join the Journeymen Weavers’ Houses walk with Julia Kuznecow. These weavers toiled long hours in their homes, which were the first live/work buildings and the first to be built for a specific trade. You will see some of the few remaining examples of Journeymen Weavers’ Houses in Spitalfields on this 90-minute tour.

Meet outside Shoreditch High Street station at 2pm. Donation: £10. 

Meet The Huguenots

We Were Asked

Q. Is Spitalfields the only part of London that has ever had a silk industry?

A. According to mulberry authority Dr Peter Coles, “silk weaving, growing mulberries and rearing silk worms don’t of course always go together. Spitalfields weavers would have used imported raw silk thread most of the time. However, there is evidence of a ‘mulberry garden’ in Whitechapel in the 17th-

18th centuries, just south of today’s Mulberry Street (More Info). And, in 1718, when John Appletree of Worcester decided to launch the Raw Silk Undertaking, he chose Chelsea as a perfect site for a mulberry plantation to feed the silkworms. Unfortunately the company failed, and Appletree was bankrupt by 1724.” More Info.

Q. Where can I start tracing my Huguenot ancestry?

A. Historian Robin Gwynn has estimated that one in six English people are descended from Huguenot refugees, so the new service offered by the Huguenot Museum in Rochester is a great starting place. A short consultation is included in your entrance ticket and if you would like to delve deeper a two-hour session costs £15, slightly more if undertaken remotely. Contact Cat Dennis on info@huguenotmuseum.org or 01634 789347, or to plan your trip visit

www.huguenotmuseum.org. 

We also recommend Dr Kathy Chater’s excellent Tracing Your Huguenot Ancestors, More Info.

Q. We know about Field Marshal John, Earl Ligonier, and Henri de Massue, Earl of Galway, but are there any descendants of Huguenots that received military recognition in recent times?

A. Perhaps Sir Peter de la Billiere, Commander in Chief of British Forces during the Gulf War, is the most well-known. We are aware of Huguenot descendants who were awarded DCOs and VCs in World War One that appear in Cazalet’s 1921 Roll of Honour. 

To gain access to this research and the invaluable archives of the Huguenot Society, you need to become a Fellow and join: More Info

We Were Told

On the 30th June there will be a service to celebrate the 300th Anniversary of the French Hospital being held at the French Protestant Church of London, Soho Square, with a sermon by The Right Reverend & Right Honourable Lord Chartres. The event is free, but please RSVP to Vanessa (fundraising@frenchhospital.org.uk) by the 1st June.

There is a new book out, The Duprees of Spitalfields, which is now available on Amazon. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is a Dupree descendant. The Dupree family fled persecution and settled in Spitalfields, becoming weavers of luxurious silk brocade.

Tansy, madder and sweet woodruff, wild marjoram, dyer’s greenweed and coreopsis, are just some of the flowers in the Weaver’s Garden in Spitalfields Farm. In the Fabric Garden, plants include soapwort, mullein, flax and southernwood. This is one of the hidden gems of Spitalfields and well worth a visit.

One notable lady with Huguenot ancestry is Harriet Martineau who features in the Huguenot Festival. The Martineau Society is holding a conference in London from July 24th – 27th. Click here for More Info.

We were recommended another riveting read, Immigrants and the Industries of London 1500-1700, by Lien Bich Luu, which focuses on the immigrants involved in silk weaving, beer brewing and the silver trade. 

Although immensely time consuming, it is very rewarding to help media researchers with their television programmes. We were involved with BBC Bargain Hunt which was recently broadcast on BBC and the BBC1 Inside Out programme Silk Weavers of Spitalfields which will be broadcast in late Spring.

Another event in which we played a role was helping the curator with the Huguenot element of No Turning Back: Seven Migration Moments that Changed Britainat the Migration Museum. No Turning Back explores seven migration moments throughout history that changed Britain through art, photography, graphics, quotes and stories. Moments featured range from the expulsion of England’s entire Jewish population in 1290 to the arrival of Huguenot refugees from France in the 1680s to the Rock Against Racism movement of the late 1970s.