St Barbe's Museum on New Street is the centre of history in Lymington. It contains a permanent exhibition about the town and vibrant ever changing temporary exhibitions on wide ranging subjects, from salt marshes to art.

Since he took over the Museum as Curator 12 years ago, Stephen Marshall has transformed it into an essential part of the community scene in the town. He tells a fascinating story looking at lots of different aspects of local life over the last 150 years using the photographic collections of the museum. He charts some of the changes to the area and look at some of the places and people that have made this part of the Solent coastline unique.

Did you know that Alice was a real person? In her later life Alice Hargreaves lived from 1880 in Lyndhurst for over 40 years.  This is a detailed account of her story and relationship with Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson).

Graham Reeve provides a practical, though light hearted, peek inside your boats, to seek out the hidden gremlins that wait patiently to start a ‘fire aboard’! This not a fire safety lecture but may provoke you into thinking outside the box, before you sail away and out of reach of the emergency services! And of course there is always the odd red herring?

Until recently he was a Senior Officer with the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, where he served for 30 years, the latter years being in and around the New Forest, based in Lyndhurst.

His role was fire safety enforcement and fire investigation, together with operational fire-fighting, including marine fire fighting.
Graham and his family enjoy sailing and previously sailed their own yachts on the Solent and South coast. He currently skippers a novice crew in an annual three day Fire-fighters Sailing Challenge.

Southampton author Philip Hoare unravels the odd tale of the New Forest Shakers.

Mary Ann Girling was both reverred and feared and at one point was almost tarred, feathered and burned as a witch.

On Christmas Day in 1858 Christ appeared to her in her bedroom in Ipswich, she believed she had been given this mission to lead The Children of God - as she called her sect - to the Promised Land which turned out to be the New Forest. Girling abandoned her Suffolk home and set up camp in Hordle - at the time a tiny New Forest village with a population of no more that of 300.

BRIAN JACKSON is an expert railway historian who has published extensively on the railways of Hampshire and Dorest.

Brian Jackson considers the railways of Lymington, the New Forest and beyond in terms of their changing technology and architecture as well as in the context of social and economic development. In particular he focuses on the rise of the famous 'Castleman's Corkscrew' line between Southampton and Dorchester, and its subsequent demise between Lymington Junction and Hamworthy following the opening of a rival line to Bournemouth.  There are stories of both triumph and disaster for the men and their families involved with this venture.

On the 23rd April 2009 Nick Beck and Melisa Collett walked away from lucrative City jobs to start a skippered charter business aboard their new boat Amelie Rose.

Come along and hear what happens when a young couple decide that they've had enough of London life and decide to build a replica of an 1800's Scillonian Pilot Cutter instead!

The yacht he built will be alongside the club pontoon

For a preview of what they get up to, see their own website

www.topsail-adventures.co.uk