Sell your unwanted jewellery and antiques and get paid instantly at our roadshow in Great Malvern

On Friday, 2 October 2026, bring your items along for free, no-obligation offer from our team of friendly experts in Great Malvern. We buy gold, silver, coins, jewellery, collectibles, and much more.

In celebration of his 75th birthday, Elgar Festival Patron Julian Lloyd Webber joins forces with his wife and fellow cellist Jiaxin in a fascinating ‘double sided’ programme.

With a first half of live music exploring the extraordinary reasons why Bach’s sublime Cello Suites remained unperformed for two hundred years, the second half sees Julian embark on a magical musical tour through his career along with unique video clips and a rare chance to quiz both Lloyd Webbers about playing with musical icons Yehudi Menuhin, Stephane Grappelli, Joaquin Rodrigo, Philip Glass, Elton John, Julian’s brother Andrew Lloyd Webber and many more.

Elmslie House is delighted to be playing host to this event as part of the Elgar Festival 2026

The bar will be open and tickets are available via the link below - limited to 70 seats

Of note to Elmslie patrons, again as part of The Elgar Festival I will be singing earlier on the same day at All Saints Church, Worcester at 3.00pm with The Jenny Lind Singers - you can find information about our recital here

These two artists came recommended to the MCC by the head of woodwind at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

They will perform separately with piano accompaniment, and will also play together with the pianist as a trio. The pieces will be from their final conservatoire recitals.

As a Club we welcome this opportunity to give young players a chance to gain performance experience.

Lottie Mahoney, originally from Norfolk, has been a student at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2021. She studies flute with Marie-Christine Zupancic and piccolo with Andrew Lane. Lottie has earned places on the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Student-in-Residence Scheme and the CBSO Training Scheme, regularly rehearsing with orchestras in London and Birmingham. She has performed at venues such as Symphony Hall, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Birmingham Rep. An avid soloist and chamber musician, she performs in concerts and competitions with her successful flute duo.

Jamie Salters has enjoyed his time studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he has been able to develop his skills in solo, chamber and orchestral playing. In the summer of 2024 he performed the Weber Concerto No.1 with the Wandsworth Symphony Orchestra as a soloist. In 2025 he was a finalist for the RBC Woodwind Prize and won the prestigious John Ireland Prize playing Ireland’s Fantasy-Sonata. Jamie is also a member of the Nebula wind quintet, who have performed many times externally and reached the final of the Leamington Prize. Another passion of Jamie’s is for orchestral playing, and he has enjoyed being part of the CBSO training scheme, the WNO side-by-side scheme and the BRB side-by-side scheme. One of his highlight concerts orchestrally came in 2025, playing first clarinet for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2. Jamie hopes to pursue a career as both a soloist and an orchestral player.

We are delighted that pianist Marie Louise Taylor will be retuning to Elmslie to play a programme of beautiful piano music of Debussy, Couperin, Chopin, Faure, Bach and Ravel and to reflect on who and what inspired the piano music of Claude Debussy. 

Please note doors will open at 2.30pm ahead of the recital beginning promptly at 3.00pm

Seats are all unreserved

There will be a short interval, and the opportunity to buy tea and cake at the bar at Elmslie will be available, both before the recital starting and during the interval.

We hope you can join us for what promises to be a lovely afternoon event.

Willow Workshop - come and make your own Willow Sculpture!

After seeing Charlie’s Reindeer making course being advertised at last November’s Blue Magpie, Team Elmslie, as their Christmas work event, asked for me to arrange a second date for Charlie to come and teach just us!

We had such a great day, so I can personally recommend to anyone to come along and have a go - Charlie is patient, clear with instructions and always with an encouraging word - so - please do join him to make your own Sheep - or if you don’t fancy making a sheep, Charlie can help you make another animal of your choice! (These photos are of our reindeer workshop - just to give you an idea!)

I had always shown an ability to draw. Drawing was one of those skills which fellow pupils often admired - a bit like being good a football or cricket and this ability undoubtedly improved one’s street cred! In 1962 I was in what is currently known as year 10, starting GCE “O” level courses, including Art. I had a modicum of talent but the Art teaching during this year was of low quality and rather pedestrian. I was not engaged. Jan Thorn became the Art teacher at my school in 1963 and within a short time of his arrival he transformed my experience. I became utterly obsessed with Art and in addition to normal Art lessons I spent all my spare time in the Art Room, always there after school until late. Above all Jan encouraged me to paint, and particularly to observe and connect with the visual world. My knowledge of the use of colour and tone developed rapidly and my ability to respond spontaneously and directly, in paint, improved dramatically. The amount of work I did was significant - my only regret is that none of it survives.

Besides my debt to Jan, who sadly died in 2009, I also owe a huge debt to the Headmaster of the school, John Dodds. He had the vision to appoint Jan and he went to every length to encourage the development of the Arts in his school. In todays world where secondary schools have been pressured into devoting more time to core subjects, such as English Maths and Science, the Arts have been significantly marginalised to the extent that Art, Music and Drama in state schools in England are in rapid decline.

From school I attended Chesterfield College of Art (1963-64) where I completed a foundation course before applying to higher education. Don Wilkinson was the lecturer in printmaking and he inspired in me an interest and a love of printmaking which remains with me today.

From 1964 - 1967 I attended Sheffield College of Art to study painting and printmaking. Just previous to this a major review of Art School Education in England and Wales, resulted in the Coldstream Report, authored by the Artist Sir William Coldstream. Until then well over 100 provincial art schools offered a two tier qualification in a range of art disciplines - 2 years Intermediate followed by 2 years NDD - National Diploma in Design. After reorganisation the number of colleges offering, what became, a first degree qualification was reduced to less than 30, of which Sheffield Art College was one. The new qualification was called The Diploma in Art and Design (Dip.A.D, eventually to be re-designated as a B.A. hons. degree.) My year was the first cohort to gain this new qualification.

The photograph below shows me at work in one of the dedicated 3rd Year Studios at Sheffield, together with another student Grace Akari. We had a privileged existence. Throughout the final year students had exclusive use of two studios so that they could work without interruption. Students were also given an allocation of materials particularly canvas and stretchers and a tutorial team lead by Robin Plummer (Senior Lecturer in Painting) providing ongoing support and constructive criticism.

The source of this photograph is interesting. I happened to visit - quite by chance - the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield - probably late 1980’s early 90’s where I picked up a booklet produced for an exhibition called Generations Apart - A History of Fine Art Education in Sheffield. To my surprise it contained this photograph.

After Sheffield 1967 - 68 I attended Leicester Polytechnic (Later part of De Montfort University) Specialist Art Teacher Training Course to complete a PGCE. This was followed by a teaching career of almost 30 years.

My first teaching post (1968-72) was in Derbyshire at the Frederick Gent School South Normanton. The Head of Art was Ken Holland to whom I owe a huge debt, Ken was always supportive and encouraging and allowed me the freedom to develop my own ideas. Initially I found teaching very challenging and without Ken’s support I may well have given up. The school was run on rather draconian lines. In this school the Arts - other than the brass band - were not celebrated and the Art Department was seen as the place to dump children of low academic ability. Yet despite this, under Ken’s guidance, the Art department flourished and the standards were high.

In 1972 I obtained a job at the Melton Mowbray College of Further Education, By the end of my time at Melton I had developed a good printmaking department with particular emphasis on screen printing and etching. My major achievement was to persuade the engineering department to build me nd etching press, and my contact with Don Wilkinson was particularly helpful.

In 1977 I became Head of Art at Long Eaton School and I remained there until 1995 when I took early retirement. The stand out achievement at Long Eaton was my collaboration with the Head of Drama - Andrea Ellis. We developed an integrated Arts curriculum with particular emphasis on theatre design

and drama. This course was facilitated by an imaginative Curriculum Deputy Head with the result that many pupil obtained GCSE qualifications in Drama and Art. Many pupils were enrolled on this course from other schools at the beginning of year 10 and they were known as LEAP students (Long Eaton Arts Project).

As time went on I became more and more involved in the development of cross curricular initiatives which were fostered by Bob Boaden, Long Eaton School’s inspirational Curriculum Deputy, and by the end of my career in education I occupied the position of Senior Teacher and I eventually taught less and less Art.

Throughout my career I had always found time to make Art. The time at Melton Mowbray was particularly productive and there are some works in the exhibition that date from this period. But by far the majority of the work in the exhibition dates from the time after I had left full-time work. I am particularly pleased with the many prints in the exhibition and the way I use an inkjet printer to layer colour and surface by passing prints through the printer a number of times thus building complexity of surface and depth of colour.

In reviewing my work over the past 50 years or so I have become aware that there are common themes which appear time and time again - particularly landscape, and the place of trees in landscape. I have found the task of bringing my work together an interesting and illuminating experience.

Alf Allfree March 2026

Please note - that subject to your free taster session Hannah hopes to run weekly sessions at this time on a Tuesday.

Singing is such a feel-good thing to do, and great for your mental health. This is such a fun idea to share with your pre-schooler who I’m sure will love it just as much as you do.

For those coming with pushchairs, access to the Elgar room on the lower ground floor will be via the pedestrian access gate on Albert Road South - so you can leave your pushchair under cover in the kitchen area - please follow the signs to the door!