It’s time once again to buy your tickets for the Crabchurch Conspiracy Concert 2015 and this year sees the 370th anniversary of that momentous event which shook Weymouth & Dorset to its core, causing the deaths of around 500 people in the town, most in just one night of bloody fighting.
Forgotten for centuries, the Crabchurch Conspiracy and its main consequence, The Battle of Weymouth, have for too long now, languished in the shadows and backwaters of English history.
The aim of the events organisers is to bring it all to the forefront again and give those brave souls who had to live through it, the recognition they deserve for what was, one of the most important actions of the English Civil War. But for the courage and leadership of one Dorset Man, Colonel William Sydenham, the entire course of English/British history could have been vastly altered. Outnumbered six to one, he refused to give in and eventually won the day.
The Crabchurch Conspiracy Commemoration Weekend is in its 21st year now and has been marking these events in various guises, both large and small down the years.
In more recent years, we have been so very fortunate to be able to call upon the considerable talents of England’s foremost Celtic Rock band The Dolmen, whose album, The Crabchurch Conspiracy, has done so much to shout out the cause of what is ‘Dorset’s Bloodiest Secret’.
The Dolmen: Follow the Drum from The Crabchurch Conspiracy Album
The band will once again be on stage at the Ocean Room, Weymouth Pavilion performing this album and other works live, along with everyone’s favourite TV Historian & Academic, the one and only Professor Ronald Hutton, who will be accompanying the band in narrating the album as he did on their ground breaking CD.
This year, complimenting him at the lectern, will be the superb Actor and Artistic Director/Producer of the As-One Theatre Company, Jane McKell whose wealth of experience in all things stage and theatre is of invaluable help to us.
Before the concert, Professor Hutton will once again be giving one of his famous and fascinating talks and this year, his subject will be, Oliver Cromwell.
Also appearing on stage will be the one and only Cap’n Steve Howl who will also be taking part in the narration in his own inimitable fashion ! And just added to the line up are Weymouth’s own Shanty Singers, The Dorset Wrecks !
The Dorset Wrecks onboard TS Pelican
The whole evening of entertainment can be yours for the amazing sum of just £10 and your compere will be the Dolmen Grove’s Diane Narraway !
On Saturday there will be re-enactments in and around the town where the Crabchurch Conspirators will be hunted down and arrested by armed troops.
Also on Saturday 28th February there will be a joint talk given by the excellent ‘Stonewylde’ Author Kit Berry and Dorset author of the Crabchurch Conspiracy book, Mark Vine on the subject of the Conspiracy.
Kit will also be visiting local schools, free of charge, to teach the pupils all about Weymouth’s proud civil war history, in the run-up to the weekend. (So any teachers who would like to take advantage of this very special offer, contact Mark Vine by PM on his Facebook Page)
And on Sunday 1st March at the Weymouth Old Town Hall from 11am, the conspirators will be brought to trial, tried and executed at the end of a rope for their treachery in betraying the town, in an exciting reconstruction of the actual trial of the time This will be followed by a solemn wreath laying to pay respects to the dead of both sides at various pertinent sites throughout the town.
All of the re-enactments are free and all proceeds from the Dolmen concert will go to the Weymouth Old Town Hall Refurbishment Fund
The Crabchurch Conspiracy Weekend … Where Music meets History … & Magick is born.
More information about event timings and news can be found on The Love -Weymouth Crabchurch Events page
Tickets for the show at Weymouth Pavilion can be purchased at  http://www.weymouthpavilion.com/page24.html
Leave A Comment