Lymington Social Programme for Autumn 2026 – Summer 2027 Announced

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Message from Don Mackenzie Chair of the Society

Dear LymSoc Member,

I am very pleased to share our full Social Programme for Autumn 2026 through to Summer 2027, bringing together a varied and engaging series of private views, illustrated talks, festive gatherings, and our much‑loved Summer Garden Party. This “Save the Dates” notice contains full details of each event so you can plan ahead.

As is now tradition, our season opens with a Private View at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, (Tickets are Available Here) followed by a rich programme of talks on local heritage, maritime history, sailing, and innovative technology, alongside our annual Christmas Drinks Party and AGM.

If you spot any errors in dates or times, or notice clashes with other local events, please do let me know.
Kind regards
Don

Don Mackenzie
Chair – The Lymington Society
donald@donald-mackenzie.co.uk
07860 106120

Friday the 9th of October – 2026
6.30 pm for 7.00 pm 
Private View – “Sven Berlin – Disturbance in the West”
St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery 
Refreshments served from 6.30 pm
Tickets – £6.00 (£7.00 for Guests) to include refreshments.
Tickets  on the door or on TicketTailor
Click Here for Tickets

Sven Berlin – Lamplight, oil on canvas, 1955, private collection copy

Sven Berlin – Disturbance in the West – St Barbe Museum
As has become traditional, the first talk of the season of events is a visit to St Barbe Museum And Art Gallery For A Private View of their major exhibition of the year which this year features paintings by famous artist Sven Berlin who is well known locally for his paintings of the Romany community who lived in the forest at Shaves Green painted from 1953 – 1955.

The Exhibition will reveal the provocative impact made by legendary artist Sven Berlin (1911-1999) on both art and social history in Cornwall and the New Forest. 

In 1948 Berlin wrote an article entitled Disturbance in the West. The article was enough to raise hackles, talking as it did of how the Cornish landscape had inspired his fellow painters and verging on a critique. Challenging the erstwhile myth surrounding Berlin, this exhibition takes work from his earliest Cornish period in the 1930s, looks at his connections to members of the revolutionary modernist Art Colony in St Ives and onwards to one of his most productive periods in the New Forest. 

Featuring many previously unseen works and drawn from a single private collection, the exhibition showcases the determination and diversity of Berlin’s talents in these formative periods of his life, including his evocative drawings and watercolours, vibrant oils, and engaging sculpture.
 
Ultimately, Berlin’s friendships in St Ives were overshadowed by the writing of what would be the first book on the painter Alfred Wallis (Alfred Wallis Primitive pub. 1949) and his later satirical account of his Cornish friends and fellow artists, The Dark Monarch (pub. 1962). The former put noses out of joint and the latter caused uproar and became the subject of legal action. 


Friday 13th of November – 2026
6:30 PM for 7:00 PM
Illustrated Talk – David Coppinger.
“Saving the Old Drill Hall in Bath Road” 
“A Maritime Futures Hub for Lymington and The Solent”
The McLellan Hall – The Lymington Centre
Refreshments served from 6.30 pm
Cost £6.00 (£7.00 Guests) to include refreshments.
Tickets on the door or on TicketTailor.
Click Here for Tickets


Saving The Old Drill

David Coppinger will tell us about the “Maritime Futures Hub”, which is a community-led initiative, exploring how Lymington’s historic Drill Hall can be saved, restored, and given a purposeful new life.The building on Bath Road has an extraordinary story. It is believed to date from around 1830, when it was used by renowned yacht designer and builder Thomas Inman as a mould loft. It is associated with the construction of Alarm, one of the most important early racing yachts connected with Lymington, the Royal Yacht Squadron, and the development of competitive sailing on the Solent.

The building later became a military Drill Hall and served generations of local volunteers, cadets, and service personnel. Its surviving indoor rifle range, which has around a century of history, provides another unusual connection with the town’s military and community past.

With the building’s future now uncertain, a local working group has been formed to investigate whether it can be retained for community use rather than lost, left vacant or converted without recognition of its heritage. Our emerging vision combines heritage, youth opportunity, and sustainable community use.

During visitor periods, the main hall could become an immersive heritage attraction using projection, sound, virtual reality, and interactive storytelling. Visitors could experience the construction of Alarm, the development of Solent yacht racing, the Isle of Wight races, the beginnings of the America’s Cup story and the building’s later military history.

The former rifle range could provide an additional visitor experience, potentially including historically themed virtual-reality activities, simulations, and escape-room-style attractions.

The same technology would allow the building to change purpose quickly. Outside visitor hours, it would become a Youth Futures Hub: a welcoming place where young people could discover interests, meet mentors, gain confidence, and develop skills that prepare them for employment and purposeful adult lives.


Thursday 17th of December – 2026 
Lymington Society Christmas Drinks Party
6.00 PM – St Thomas Church Hall
Tickets £10.00 (Guests £11.00) online only at TicketTailor
Click Here for Christmas Party Tickets


Lymington Society Christmas Drinks Party

At Christmas 2027 we are returning again to the Church Hall of St Thomas Church for our annual Christmas Drinks Party.

Please come along and kick off your Christmas in great style at the Lymington Society Christmas Party, viewed by many as the most exciting Christmas Party in Lymington. 

Always a popular event, the Christmas Party is your chance to meet other members and to chat to LymSoc Committee members and local Councillors about the ongoing local matters of concern.

As usual the catering will be provided by outstanding local caterer Di Morley who produces the most delicious canapes. Make a date to join us for this popular event in the LymSoc calendar.


Friday 5th of February – 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm
Illustrated Talk by Luke McEwen
“Anemoi – The British Company Bringing Sail Power to Commercial Shipping Worldwide” 
Refreshments served from 6.30 pm – Cost £6.00 to include refreshments. (£7.00 for Guests).
Tickets on the door or on TicketTailor
Click here for tickets 

Anemoi Sail Power on a Large Commercial Ship

Lymington resident Luke McEwen, is the Technical Director of British technology company Anemoi, which is bringing wind powered technology to commercial shipping and helping bring dramatic reductions in carbon emissions on these ships.

Anemoi has brought to modern technology an old idea called Flettner rotors using something called the “Magnus effect” to enable ships to reduce their use of fossil fuels by harnessing the wind.
Although an old idea, modern technology has enabled these rotors to be fitted to existing commercial ships dramatically reducing their use of fossil fuels harnessing the power of the wind.

Luke will tell us how a British company has revived an old concept, allied with modern technology, to help shipping move nearer to its goal of one day being carbon neutral and how he became part of this amazing British success story.


Friday the 19th of March – 2027 
7.00 pm for 7.30 pm
Refreshments served from 6.30 pm
Lymington Society Annual General Meeting.
The McLellan Hall – The Lymington Centre.



Lymington Society Annual General Meeting
Members are invited to attend the AGM of the Society where the Chair will present a Report on the activities of the last year since the previous AGM.

Following this, members will be invited to vote on the appointment of the officers of the society and to vote for the members of the Executive Committee.  

There will then be the usual chance for members to ask questions and have their input into the future priorities for the next year’s activities.

Please do come along to show your support and find out what your Society is doing, both for its members and the town of Lymington and Pennington. To allow more time for discussion, there will be no illustrated talk after the AGM Next year.


Friday 23rd April
Illustrated Talk – 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm
Rob Humphries -“The Famous Single Handed Transatlantic Race of 1967”
The McLellan Hall – The Lymington Centre
Refreshments served from 6.30 pm – 
Cost £6.00 to include refreshments. (£7.00 for Guests)
Tickets on the door or on TicketTailor
Click Here for Tickets

The Start of the Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race of 1976

Rob Humphries – The Amazing and Tragic
Observer Single Handed Transatlantic Race of 1976
Rob Humphries, now an internationally renowned boat designer, covered the 1976 Observer Single‑Handed Transatlantic Race as a journalist and will recount the dramatic story of what many consider the peak of trans‑ocean sailing.

Conceived by war hero Blondie Hasler in 1957, the race began modestly in 1960 with just five boats. By 1976, it had grown into a global spectacle with 125 entrants — the largest and most dangerous edition ever held.
The race was hit by five severe storms, only 73 boats finished, and two sailors were tragically lost at sea, including one from Lymington.

The talk includes the extraordinary story of Club Mediterranee, the 236‑foot, four‑masted giant sailed single‑handed by Alain Colas — at the time the most technically advanced yacht in the world.

Sailors from Lymington featured in the race – one of them in tragic circumstances. Rob will describe the build up and the end of this momentous event in transatlantic racing.


Friday the 21st May 2027 6.00 – 8.00 PM.
The Lymington Society Summer Garden Party.
Orchard House, 6 Fairfield Close, Lymington. 
Tickets are £10.00 for Members and £11.00 for Guests
Tickets will only be available on Ticket Tailor 
Click here for Tickets 



Garden of Orchard House, 6 Fairfield Close, Lymington.

By kind permission of LymSoc member Lucy Elliott and her partner Stephen Rodwell, the Summer Garden Party will be held in the simply stunning gardens of 6, Fairfield Close, Lymington. SO41 3NP. 

The 1/2 acre garden (just behind the M&S car park) stands on the original orchard of ‘Fairfield House’ and is partly surrounded by nine, 500-year-old yew trees and three oak trees.  It was professionally landscaped in the 1950s and includes many specimen shrubs such as acers, rhododendron, hydrangeas, azaleas and camellias. The garden is both formal (rose/iris/peony beds) and informal, with a small light-filled woodland area left to naturalise.

Please join us for a delightful summer’s garden party with Pimms, Prosecco and fantastic canapes in this beautiful garden, just a short walk from the High Street.

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