September 2024 Senior Gad's tour guide, Steve Martin, together with the chairman (Nick Baines) and members of the Rochester & Chatham Dickens Fellowship paid a visit to the Hoo Heritage festival last weekend. Steve said, "A highlight was meeting Jools Holland, pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was there on behalf of his Majesty’s lord-lieutenant in Kent, as a Deputy lord-lieutenant, to open the Hoo Peninsula Heritage Festival and Aveling 200 event. Member Christine Buckland asked Jools if he would visit our stand for a photo. He seemed genuinely interested in the displays on the stand and asked for our branch flyer on the Dickens Fellowship. Surprisingly, he asked his driver to take a photo of us on his phone. Mystery solved, the photo of us is on Jools Holland's Facebook page! For further info on the Dickens Fellowship click here: https://www.dickensfellowship.org/index.php
August 2024 In addition to our public tours we are able to accommodate private group tours during school holidays. This month we were delighted to welcome the West London Ramblers on a visit to Gad's. It was a rather wet and windy day but luckily the conservatory was mostly dry and the perfect place for a pre-tour cup of tea.
August 2024 Alongside our usual public tours this month we were delighted to welcome composer, pianist and actor Stephen Guy Daltry and librettist and lyricist Maureen Thomas who, together, are bringing to life the meeting between Dickens and Hans Christian Anderson in 1856 in a new musical stagework named 'Tinderbox'. This is a wonderful project and we can't wait to see it! If you would like to know more take a look here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tinderbox
July 2024 Senior Gad's tour guide Steve and Andrew have both celebrated very important birthdays recently. What better way to mark this than with a giant birthday card and cake in Dickens' very own conservatory. Happy Birthday Steve & Andrew!
June 2024 On the 7th of June, representatives from Gad's Hill school, the Dickens family and our own tour guides joined members of the Dickens Fellowship to make the annual trip to Westminster Abbey. Every year wreaths are laid on Charles Dickens' gravestone in remembrance of his untimely death on the 9th of June 1870. Further details of the Dickens Fellowship can be found here: https://www.dickensfellowship.org/index.php
Wreaths always include red geraniums, which were Charles Dickens' favourite flower.
Wreaths always include red geraniums, which were Charles Dickens' favourite flower.
April 2024 Gad's bell tower, or cupola, has been subject to all kinds of weather for years and is now undergoing some restoration. During April it was removed from the roof of the house and taken for some TLC. We hope to see it back on the roof before too long.
The cupola was carefully removed from the roof after being boarded for protection.
Dickens' Trust volunteer Steve together with our architect
The large and heavy weather vane and the smaller than expected bell are removed for restoration and storage.
The cupola was carefully removed from the roof after being boarded for protection.
March '24 Our 2024 season of public openings kicked off with two weekends of our participation in English Tourism Week. Four groups of visitors enjoyed a hour's tour of the house and refreshments in the conservatory.