Friday and Saturday 14 and 15 May 2010
Torquay Museum, 529 Babbacombe Road, Torquay, TQ1 1HG, UK

Friday 14 May 2010
10.00   Registration and refreshments (tea and coffee on arrival)
10.30   Welcome and safety announcements etc.
10.35   Keynote address by Ann Thwaite Gosse, the man
11.20   John Hodges  Henry Gosse update.
             Questions and discussion  
11.45  John Rundle P. H. Gosse, the Father of the Aquarium?
            Questions and discussion
12.30  Sandwich Lunch:  available in the Museum for delegates
14.00  Keith Hiscock Return to Gosse’s sites: still the same today?
14.30  Geoff Moore and Ray Williams  Sea anemones and a well-turned ankle: T. A. Stephenson’s artistic legacy in the footsteps of Gosse
            Questions and discussion
15.30  Break for Coffee/tea
16.00-17.00 Tour of Museum galleries
Small groups of up to 6 will be able to visit the Natural History stores while the remained can view the public galleries.  
18.00  Drinks and conference dinner in  Pengelly’s Restaurant in the Torquay Museum (Pre-booked diners only

Saturday 15 May 2010
10.00  Registration (late arrivals)
10.30  Introduction, announcements etc.
10.35  Catherine Levy Gosse’s sojourn in ‘glorious Jamaica’
            Questions and discussion
11.10  coffee/tea
11.30  Chris Meechan The Blaschka glass model business and the use of Gosse’s books, in particular “Actinologia Britannica”
            Questions and discussion   
12.30  Sandwich Lunch: available in the Museum for delegates.
            Viewing of any poster papers
14.00 – 14.30 Society for the History of Natural History  SGM/AGM :  see Agenda of the SGM and AGM for details
14.45   Ray Williams “The Actinologia”: parts and piracy
            Questions and discussion
Final announcements, thanks etc.    
16.00 Coffee/tea

Access, local information etc.
The Torquay Museum is half way up Babbacombe Road, opposite Torwood Gardens. There is a bus stop immediately outside the Museum (Wellswood, St Mathias Church) which is served by the No 32 bus, a low floor easy access bus, which  is scheduled to leave from Torquay Strand at 09.55 on weekdays. Wellswood is the next stop, at 09.59. The next ones are at 10.10 and 10.25 and then at 40, 55,10 and 25 past the hour. Return services to town are from the opposite side at 07, 22, 32 and 57 minutes past the hour. Saturday services are the same.  If you have an English concessionary  bus pass you can travel free on this and any other local bus service. PLUSBUS rail tickets also offer unlimited free bus services with participating operators.

The same bus route will get you close to Kents Cavern, Ilsham Road, Torquay, TQ1 2JF, ( about 500 yards from Babbacombe road) open from 9 am daily, which currently has a free exhibition “Cutting Edge” showing the variety of raw materials used to produce  hand axes, spear heads and scrapers, with objects from the collections  of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.   Usual cave entry fees apply to visit the caves.

Leaflets will be available at the meeting on this and other local sites.