The South Mill Arts Complex is a venue for theatre, contemporary arts and culture, local history, and conferences in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. One of the buildings, today Bishop's Stortford Museum, was the birthplace of Cecil Rhodes.
The complex was refurbished in 2005 and has a 300-seat theatre, a multi-purpose studio space, museum, an exhibition gallery for art and photography, and a café bar. It provides a programme of arts events and hosts professional touring productions, dance groups, musicians and comedians. Films are also shown in its tiered auditorium.
Previously called the Rhodes Arts Complex, on 24 August 2020 the arts complex was renamed the South Mill Arts Complex in response to the Black Lives Matter protests against institutional racism. [1]
Netteswell House, today Bishop's Stortford Museum, was the birthplace of Cecil Rhodes, the financier, statesman and founder of diamond company De Beers. [2] It houses the Rhodes Collection, containing interactive displays, archives, artefacts, and photographs, about the life of Rhodes, The Rhodes Birthplace Trust is a registered charity under English law. [3]
The museum combines the collections of the former Rhodes Memorial Museum and the Bishop’s Stortford Local History Museum. The Rhodes' Birthplace Museum was established in 1938 in two early-19th-century houses which are Grade II-listed buildings. [4] The current museum opened in 2005. [5]
The original part of Rhodes' home holds exhibits on the life of Cecil Rhodes, nineteenth-century South African artefacts from his travels, and a reconstructed middle class Victorian drawing room with family memorabilia. The building holds exhibits on local history.
Cecil John Rhodes was a British mining magnate, and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, which the company named after him in 1895. South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after him. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate. He also put much effort towards his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory.
Harlow is a town and local government district in the west of Essex, England. A new town, situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upper Stort Valley, which has been made navigable through other towns and features a canal section near its watermill. Old Harlow is a village-size suburb founded by the early medieval age and most of its high street buildings are early Victorian and residential, mostly protected by one of the Conservation Areas in the district. In Old Harlow is a field named Harlowbury, a de-settled monastic area which has the remains of a chapel, a scheduled ancient monument.
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, 27 miles (43 km) north-east of central London, and 35 miles (56 km) by rail from Liverpool Street station. Bishop's Stortford had an estimated population of 40,089 in 2017.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in Forest Hill, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Arts and Crafts style. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical instruments, and is known for its large collection of taxidermied animals.
The Stort Navigation is the canalised section of the River Stort running 22 kilometres (14 mi) from the town of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, downstream to its confluence with the Lee Navigation at Feildes Weir near Rye House, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
Thorley is a village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Thorley Street, Thorley Wash and Old Thorley, and is bordered at the north by the market town of Bishop's Stortford.
Bishop's Stortford College is an independent, coeducational, boarding and day school for more than 1,100 pupils aged 4–18, situated in a 130-acre (0.53 km2) campus on the edge of the market town of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England.
Merton Abbey Mills is a former textile factory in the parish of Merton in London, England near the site of the medieval Merton Priory, now the home of a variety of businesses, mostly retailers.
Hartlebury Castle, a Grade I listed building, near Hartlebury in Worcestershire, central England, was built in the mid-13th century as a fortified manor house, on manorial land earlier given to the Bishop of Worcester by King Burgred of Mercia. It lies near Stourport-on-Severn in an area with several large manor and country houses, including Witley Court, Astley Hall, Pool House, Areley Hall, Hartlebury and Abberley Hall. The castle became the bishop's principal residence in later periods.
The Bishop's Stortford High School is a comprehensive secondary school, with a coeducational sixth form, in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. The school admits boys aged 11 to 16 in the first five forms, with a mixed sixth form of boys and girls aged 16 to 18. The school has specialisms in Mathematics and Computing, focusing on these areas as well as music, drama and sport, possessing state-of-the-art in-house computing facilities and providing assistance to local schools in this area. The current Headmaster Mr D Reeve was appointed in January 2014.
Watts Gallery – Artists' Village is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. It is dedicated to the work of the Victorian-era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts.
Ramsgate Maritime Museum is a maritime museum in Ramsgate, Kent, England, that describes the maritime history of East Kent. The museum is situated in the Clock House on the quayside of the Royal Harbour at Ramsgate.
The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, formerly known as the Museum of Witchcraft, is a museum dedicated to European witchcraft and magic located in the village of Boscastle in Cornwall, south-west England. It houses exhibits devoted to folk magic, ceremonial magic, Freemasonry, and Wicca, with its collection of such objects having been described as the largest in the world.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preservation as a national memorial. It can also lay claim to be the oldest conservation society in Britain. Receiving no government funding or public subsidies, it is totally dependent upon the public for support, and relies on donations and the income generated from visitors.
The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection.
Rhodes House is part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor. It is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England.
Wandsworth Museum is a local museum in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest London, England. This community museum covers the cultural and social history of Wandsworth, especially artifacts and artworks that show contemporary and traditional skills of local people.
The Museum of Gloucester in Brunswick Road is the main museum in the city of Gloucester, England. It was extensively renovated following a large National Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and reopened on Gloucester Day, 3 September 2011.
Tewkesbury Museum is a small community museum dedicated to the social history and heritage of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, England.
All Saints' Church, Hockerill is a Grade II listed building, notable for being the first church designed by the 20th-century architect Stephen Dykes Bower. It is also notable for containing a rose window by Hugh Ray Easton and a pipe organ by Henry Willis II of Henry Willis & Sons.