Talks Archive
Programme 2013 - 2014
Castles as they were meant to be seen
by Christopher Moule
Date: Tuesday 24 September 2024
Castles as they were meant to be seen
Garden History
by Christine Stones
Date: Tuesday 15 October 2024
A talk on the history of gardens
American Involvement in the English Civil War
by Adrian Tinniswood
Date: Tuesday 29 October 2024
The contribution of American colonists to the English Civil War.
Spain: the birth of a Modern Nation
by Chris Pollard
Date: Tuesday 12 November 2024
The lecture concentrates on 20th century Spanish history, including the Civil War, Franco and then the remarkable transition to a modern democratic nation.
Behind The Wall – Living with Communism in East Germany
by Major General Sir Robert Corbett
Date: Tuesday 26 November 2024
What was life really like in the country ruled by a dictator – Erich Honecker - separated from us by the Iron Curtain and, in its capital, Berlin, by the Wall?
Victorian church restoration and its problems
by Dr Mark Smith
Date: Tuesday 10 December 2024
The Victorian period saw a revolution in the world of Anglican worship transforming completely the way it looked, sounded and even smelt.
Children of the Holocaust
by Susan Francis
Date: Tuesday 9 January 2024
The talk will give a brief survey of the ways in which childrens’ lives were affected - drawing on some individual stories to illustrate this.
Godfrey Place VC – An Exceptional Naval Officer
by Paul Watkins
Date: Tuesday 23 January 2024
Lieutenant Godfrey Place was in command of the Midget Submarine X7 when it attacked the German Battleship Tirpitz in September 1943 – ‘one of the most audacious and gallant acts in the annals of the Royal Navy’.
Let no one forget. Let nothing be forgotten
by Peter Warwick
Date: Tuesday 6 February 2024
Over 1.3 million civilians starved to death in Leningrad between 1941 and 1943. The lecture uncovers the facts of this little-known tragedy and proposes that the people prevailed because of the strength of Russian Orthodoxy.
Skirt dancing, Can-.Can and the invention of "Gay Paree" - 1840-1914
by Jonathan Conlin
Date: Tuesday 20 February 2024
A closer look at the history of the "French national dance" reveals a story of cross-Channel exchange and London's forgotten contribution to the invention of "Gay Paree".
The Battle of Lewes (1264)
by David Carpenter
Date: Wednesday 6 March 2024
What does Lewes, which saw the defeat of Henry III, tell us about aristocratic behaviour and political ideas in England in the High Middle Ages?
'Murder in the Balkans' - marking the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War.
by Tim Butcher
Date: Wednesday 20 March 2024
The talk will focus on the assassination of the Hapsburg Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and the person who committed it. It will also look at the Balkan background.
