Spalding Gentlemen’s Society is set to host first exhibition in Ayscoughfee Hall

Curiosities from the archives will be on display as part of a society’s first exhibition in its founder’s home.

Spalding Gentlemen’s Society will be using Ayscoughfee Hall as a temporary home while it waits to hear if its £2million grant application is successful.

The society is hoping to create a new museum and research facility in a neighbouring business centre in Broad Street – along with repairing its existing home which is suffering structural damage.

Collections Reimagined will be the society’s first exhibition in Ayscoughfee - family home of founder Maurice Johnson II - and will be unveiled from noon on Saturday, October 21.

This exhibition brings together museum, library and archive collections. Highlights include rare pottery, an experimental ‘cabinet of curiosities’, and themed displays on railroads, crime and punishment, archives, and more.

Admission is free to all visitors during normal Ayscoughfee Hall opening hours, currently Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday 10.30am -4.30pm.

Dr Das Boots will be presenting the society’s next Winter Programme lecture in the town’s Broad Street Methodist Church on Friday evening.

The senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University will be discussing soil during the event, which starts at 7.30pm.

He is a prolific author in his various subject areas, together with TV and radio presentations.

Admission charge to the lecture, which starts at 7.30pm in Broad Street Methodist Church, is £5 and all are welcome.