Exhibitions

Our Summer Exhibition in 2025 revolved around the life of Lady Jane Grey!

We focused on how Lady Jane Grey’s strong Protestant faith informed the way she went about her life, including the religious context in which she found herself during the Tudor period in England. The Exhibition started by looking at what Henry VIII and Edward VI had done, and planned to do, with the creation and direction of the Church of England. It then moved to the conflict between Catholics and Protestants during the 16th century, epitomised by the figures of Mary I and John Dudley. After this we heard Lady Jane Grey in her own words, looking a little at her childhood and her religious engagement with well-known Protestant theologians from a young age up until her death. We finished by looking at religious tolerance and wondering what would have happened had Mary I and Lady Jane both been allowed to practise their faiths in peace.

We also produced an activity book for the children to complete as they went around the Exhibition, and you can see the presentations shown to the school children and at the Open Day below.

Our Summer Exhibition for 2024 was all about C. S. Lewis!

We looked at his life during the First World War, his passion for story-telling, and his friendship with J. R. R. Tolkien, who helped to lead him to a belief in the Lord Jesus. At the heart of the exhibition was an exploration of how his Christian faith informed his writings, both fictional and non-fictional, and the way he lived his life. The exhibition included a short talk on Lewis’ life, a craft activity to take home and an opportunity to look around the audio-visual displays and Battle of Beruna display, which the children could play with and act out the battle.

The exhibition was available for school visits from Monday 1st – Friday 12th July, and there was an Open Day on Saturday 6th July, from 10:30am until 3:00pm, for the general public!

For the primary schools that visited our exhibition, we focused on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and there were four different sections for the children to look around: C. S. Lewis’ Life, Good vs. Evil, Temptation, and Forgiveness. We also had an activity book for the children to work through, answering questions on our exhibits, including a timeline of Tolkien’s life and a glossary.

For the secondary schools, and for our Open Day, we added in Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, extending the same sections: C. S. Lewis’ Life, Good vs. Evil, Temptation, and Forgiveness. We also produced an activity book with more complex questions.

Our Summer Exhibition for 2023 revolved around the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien!

It was an excellent opportunity to explore his life from a historical perspective, including his time in the trenches during the First World War and his friendship with C. S. Lewis, as well as how his Christian faith informed his work. The exhibition included a short talk on the life of Tolkien, a craft activity and an opportunity to look around at the audio-visual displays and 3D-printed models!

The exhibition was available for school visits from Monday 3rd – Tuesday 11th July, and there was an Open Day on Saturday 8th July, from 10:30am until 3:00pm, for the general public!

In the week leading up to the exhibition, Alex brought us a message highlighting Tolkien’s faith and the way it influenced his creative work:

For the primary schools that visited our exhibition, we focused on The Hobbit, and there were four different sections for the children to look around: Tolkien’s Life, Tolkien & C.S. Lewis, Friendship & Adventure, and Temptation. We also had an activity book for the children to work through, answering questions on our exhibits, including a timeline of Tolkien’s life and a glossary.

For the secondary schools, and for our Open Day, we focused on The Lord of the Rings, extending the same sections: Tolkien’s Life, Tolkien & C.S. Lewis, Friendship & Adventure, and Temptation. We also produced an activity book with more complex questions and an extended glossary. The timeline of Tolkien’s life and the extended glossary were also available for people to look through at the Open Day.

We also produced a tract entitled ‘Lewis & Tolkien: The Truth, The Myth & The Inklings’ – that we gave out at our Open Day – which goes into more detail about Lewis’ conversion to Christianity, the conversations he and Tolkien had, and how this led to the publication of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’.

The theme of our exhibition for 2015, which ran from Monday 22nd to Friday 26th June, was ‘Journey to the East’, which plots the history of how Hudson Taylor was involved in taking the message of Christianity to China.

The exhibition was multi-faceted, and therefore easily adapted for the curriculum of a variety of schools and different year groups. It provided an opportunity for pupils to look at Christianity in a cross-cultural setting, as the exhibition included exhibits and information both about the China that Hudson-Taylor visited and the China of today, as well as an overview of the development of Christianity in China.