Lecture Programme

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The programme for the current season is given first.

An index of seasons is given further down the page.


Society meetings Fridays 7:45pm College of Law, Hatfield Road
Architecture & Local History meetings Tuesdays 8:00pm St Albans School
Society AGM Tuesday 16 September 2008 8:00pm Verulamium Museum

Meetings are open to all members of the Society; non-members may attend two meetings as guests.

There are directions to the venues here.


The car park at St Albans School is sometimes crowded on a Tuesday.
Notice will be given in this programme when possible but the School does not always warn us.


Autumn 2008 Index      Current season
Tue 9 Sep R S Craske Redbourn – a Hertfordshire Village through the Ages
Roy Craske will be leading a walk around Redbourn on 16 September.
Tue 16 Sept
followed by:
The Society AGM
Alison Turner-Rugg
at Verulamium Museum
Pottage & Porpoises – Medieval Food and Cooking in St Albans
Fri 26 Sep Prof. Michael Cooper Five millennia of measuring and mapping the land
Tue 7 Oct Dr Kate Thompson Housing the Deserving Poor in Hertfordshire – Almshouses and their Inmates
Tue 21 Oct Kate Bretherton St Albans’ Tree Heritage
Fri 31 Oct Dr Mary Harlow Childhood in the Roman Empire
Tue 11 Nov David Short History of Ashwell
Tue 18 Nov Michael Stanyon Sir John Evans KCB, FRS – An Extraordinary Local Gentleman
Fri 28 Nov Dr Linda Porter Contrary Mary – Mary Tudor
Tue 9 Dec Ken Peak Listed Buildings of London Colney
Spring 2009 Index      Current season
Fri 9 Jan The Society
New Year Party
at Verulamium Museum
Tue 13 Jan Prof. Vivian Nutton The Black Death Revisited – New Problems & Old Solutions
Tue 20 Jan Dr Jonathan Hunn The Gorhambury Landscape
Fri 30 Jan Dr Isobel Thompson The work of the Historic Environment Record – Archaeology of St Albans
Tue 10 Feb Ann Dean The Church of St Michael – a Hidden Treasure
Tue 17 Feb Tudy Hill Women of the Pre – From Leper Hospital to Convent
Fri 27 Feb Judy Faraday Partnership in the Past – John Lewis
Tue 10 Mar Christine Aitken Childwickbury – a Short Story
Tue 17 Mar Keith Cheyney
& Margaret Taylor
Serve and Obey – a History of Haberdashers’ Aske’s School
Fri 27 Mar Michael Leapman Inigo Jones and the Hatfield Connection
Tue 7 Apr David Pearce Hertfordshire You May Have Missed
Fri 24 Apr Prof. Tim Hitchcock Researching History Using the Old Bailey Online, 1674–1913
Tue 12 May Richard Boustred The Palace at Kings Langley – History & Archaeology
Tue 19 May Joan Curran Totternhoe Stone – the Quarries, the Masons and the Buildings
Fri 29 May Lee Prosser The Restoration of Kew Palace and Queen Charlotte’s Cottage


Index of seasons


Current season
Autumn 2001 Spring 2002
Autumn 2002 Spring 2003
Autumn 2003 Spring 2004
Autumn 2004 Spring 2005
Autumn 2005 Spring 2006
Autumn 2006 Spring 2007
Autumn 2007 Spring 2008
Autumn 2008 Spring 2009

Autumn 2001 Index      Current season
Tue 11 Sep Peter Houldcroft The Royston Cave and the Knights Templar
Tue 18 Sep John and Jo Brewster Southwark, following the Society's visit
Fri 28 Sep Dr Brenda Bolton Palmerius of Picciati returns from the wars
Tue 2 Oct Peter Smith The Ver past and present
Tue 9 Oct Dr Russell Craig Buildings in Trust; with special reference to Herts
Tue 16 Oct Dr Alan Thompson Maurice Thompson – a Herts Jacobean yuppie
Fri 26 Oct Dr Diana Webb St Thomas Becket in Europe
Tue 30 Oct Derek Morris 18th century Stepney
Tue 6 Nov David Thorold Roman coins
Tue 13 Nov Polly Bishop Hatfield House and the Tradescant connection
Tue 20 Nov Frank Kilvington 19th century St Albans
Fri 30 Nov Dr John Creighton Romans in Iron Age Britain
Tue 4 Dec Dr Jim Lewis Development of Industry in the Lea Valley
Spring 2002 Index      Current season
Tue 8 Jan Dr Gillian Gear Discovering a Tudor farmhouse in Herts
Tue 15 Jan Anne-Marie Parker Hidden Hertfordshire
Fri 25 Jan Prof. Simon Keynes Henry Loyn Memorial Lecture
Tue 29 Jan Ann Dean, Betty Ewens,
Rob Weston
A Victorian Montage
Tue 5 Feb John Higgs The Cuffley Airship
Tue 12 Feb Stuart Whitefoot Heraldry in the stained glass of St AlbansAbbey
Fri 22 Feb Dr Diana Webb Solitude and Privacy in the Middle Ages
Tue 26 Feb Claire Thornton The Archaeology of Animals
Tue 5 Mar David Stevens Work and History of the Box Moor Trust
Tue 12 Mar Rob Weston Sir Mortimer Wheeler
Tue 19 Mar John Cotton London before Londinium
Fri 22 Mar   Medieval Social Welfare
Tue 16 Apr Rev Anders Berquist St Albans Abbey before the Normans
Fri 26 Apr Dr Ulrike Schaeffer The Niebelungen Sagas
Tue 30 Apr Simon West Local Excavations 2000–01
Tue 14 May Valerie Edwards Chenies – its history and gardens
Tue 31 May Dr Gillian Gear Certified Industrial Schools in the 19th century
Autumn 2002 Index      Current season
Tue 10 Sep Grp. Capt. Peter Garth Cardington and its Airships
Tue 17 Sep Michael West Slipping the Gilbert Collection into Somerset House
Fri 27 Sep Michael Hardy Anglo-Saxon Churches
Tue 1 Oct David Dean Inns and Ale Houses
Tue 8 Oct Sam Moorshead Cosmopolitan Roman Britain
Tue 15 Oct Robin Webb 200 years of Much Hadham Forge
Fri 25 Oct Dr Jonathan Phillips Richard and Saladin
Tue 29 Oct Bruce Watson Medieval London Bridge – Lost and Found
Tue 5 Nov Len Groome London Bridge in America – the story up to date
Tue 12 Nov Reg Nice History of the Manors of Abbots Langley
Tue 19 Nov Col. J D Sainsbury The Auxiliary Hospitals in Herts, 1914–18
Fri 29 Nov Dr Melvin Sabshin A Short History of Psychiatry
Tue 3 Dec Margaret Wilson St Albans Road Names
Spring 2003 Index      Current season
Tue 7 Jan   The Brickmakers of St Albans
Tue 14 Jan George Crutcher Beer Brewing in Hertfordshire
Tue 4 Feb John Fadelle Scammell – an evocative Herts name
Tue 11 Feb Elizabeth Buteux Children and straw plaiting in Herts
Tue 18 Feb Phil Carter Conservation in St Albans
Fri 28 Feb Prof. James Walvin Britain's role in Slavery
Tue 4 Mar Tony Rook A History of Hertfordshire
Tue 11 Mar Hugh Lewis A History of Bushey
Tue 18 Mar Ann Dean Abbey Parish Street Memorials
Fri 28 Mar Dr Janette Delaine Ostia
Tue 1 Apr Phil Birtles De Havilland history
Fri 25 Apr Dr Mark Goldie Roger Morrice and his "Entring Book"
Tue 29 Apr Jane Kelsall The British Parish Church
Tue 13 May Betty Masters St Albans and the 1553 Charter
Tue 20 May Richard Lavender A History of Herts Bridges
Fri 30 May David Hopkins Art, Industry and Coalbrookdale
Autumn 2003 Index      Current season
Tue 9 Sep Ken Cox Shuttleworth Aviation History
Tue 16 Sep Mary Hanson Thomas Claughton – 1st Bishop of St Albans
Fri 26 Sep Archdeacon Clifford Offer Hitchin, Mercia and the Councils of Clofesho
Tue 30 Sep Charles le Quegne Rediscovering an Ancient Landscape at the Grove, Watford
Tue 7 Oct Rob Masefield Discoveries on the A41 at Aston Clinton – from Late Iron Age to Saxon
Tue 14 Oct David Keen The RAF Museum and some links with Hertfordshire
Tue 21 Oct John Neal St Albans – a Pint and a Prayer
Fri 31 Oct Joan Perkins The Merry Duchess of St Albans
Tue 4 Nov Robin Perkins The Cecil Family and Hatfield House
Tue 11 Nov Dr J D Hill Why Verulamium? Hertfordshire in the Late Iron Age
Sat 15 Nov Dr Stephen Alford Public Lecture 1553: A Year that Shaped a Century
Tue 18 Nov Bruce Watson Roman London Civic Water Supply
Fri 28 Nov Allen Eyles Picture Palaces
Tue 2 Dec John Dick The Mossman Vehicle Collection at Stockwood Park, Luton
Spring 2004 Index      Current season
Tue 13 Jan Robert Lancaster Spirella – the Age of Constriction
Tue 20 Jan Jane Kelsall Baptism and Fonts in Great Britain
Fri 30 Jan George Atkinson Palladio and his influences on English Architecture
Tue 3 Feb Rosemary Stevens Calligraphy
Tue 10 Feb John Higgs My view from the Towpath – from Bow to Hertford
Tue 17 Feb John Glanville Antique English Clocks
Fri 27 Feb John Brodrick The Dark Ages
Tue 2 Mar Chris Reynolds Poaching and Petty Thieving in St Albans
Tue 9 Mar Peter Evans The Bones of St Alban
Tue 16 Mar Clive Walter Abbey Wall Paintings
Fri 26 Mar C Stell Nonconformist Chapels
Tue 30 Mar Aubrey Roberts The Independent Chapel of St Albans – 300 Years of History
Tue 6 Apr Robin Webb Thatching
Tue 20 Apr Brian Limbrick The British School – bringing Literacy to the Industrial Revolution
Fri 30 Apr Dr Paul Roberts Rome – Art and Emperors
Tue 11 May Chris Green,
Director of St Albans Museums
A Tudor Axle-treed Cart found in St Albans
Tue 18 May Peter Adams Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills
Fri 28 May Vivienne Smith Blazing Trails Down Under
Fri 16 July Prof. John Gillingham Public Lecture The World of Richard the Lionheart
Autumn 2004 Index      Current season
Tue 7 Sept Dr Stuart Bryant Landscape and Ritual – The Late Iron Age of Hertfordshire
Tue 14 Sept John Wood Development Pressures in Hertfordshire
Fri 24 Sept Adrian Gibson Kingsbury Barn and related buildings
Tue 28 Sept Anthony Spence The Iron Age Chariot: Recent discoveries and interpretations
Tue 5 Oct Gene Mitchell St Albans – water, rail and Victorian Gothic
Tue 12 Oct Ann Dean Mr Telford’s by-pass – the making of Verulam Road
Tue 19 Oct John Fisher The Mary Rose
Fri 29 Oct Prof. John Morrill Cromwell – warts and all
Tue 2 Nov Steven Potter Tiles in the Abbey
Tue 9 Nov Peter Street Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition
Tue 16 Nov Derek Peters History of London – Part I
Fri 26 Nov John Credland The History of Popular Photography
Tue 30 Nov Rob Masefield Archaeological Finds in Colchester
Tue 7 Dec David Dean St Albans Historic Landscape
Spring 2005 Index      Current season
Tue 18 Jan Tony Billings
Rob Weston
Thomas Fowler – A St Albans Worthy
Grimthorpe – A St Albans Giant
Fri 28 Jan Prof. Nigel Goose Child Employment in 19c Hertfordshire in Perspective – Varieties of Childhood
Tue 1 Feb Simon West Cremation Burials at Turners Hall Farm, Wheathamstead
Tue 8 Feb Teresa Wild Lord Rothschild & the Tring Museum
Tue 15 Feb Jeremy Ingham Investigation of historic lime-based building materials
Fri 25 Feb John Brodrick Ancient Technology
Tue 1 Mar Elizabeth Buteux The Lost Inns of the High Street
Tue 8 Mar Richard Abdey Labelled Heads – Portraits on coins and medals
Fri 18 Mar Prof. John Baker Britons in Post-Roman Hertfordshire – the place name evidence
Tue 22 Mar Kate Morris &
the Property History Group
How St Albans Has Changed and Developed – who did what, where
Tue 5 Apr Alan Featherstone History of Redbourn
Tue 19 Apr John Brodrick Our EvolvingView of the Romans
Fri 29 Apr Dr Clive Foxall The Strange Story of the Metropolitan Railway
Tue 10 May Simon West Verlamio – Verulamium
Tue 17 May Richard Hobbs Our Past Treasure – Finds from England and Wales
Fri 27 May Kate Harwood Indian Influences on 18c English Gardens
Autumn 2005 Index      Current season
Tue 6 Sept 05 Peter Collins The Organ Builder of Redbourn
Tue 13 Sept 05 T C Stevens The Keeper of Berkhamsted Castle
Tue 20 Sept 05 Bruce Watson Excavations at the Roman Port of London
Fri 30 Sept 05 Prof. Andrew Lambert Nelson – Death and Transfiguration
Tue 4 Oct 05 Tony Woodhouse Illustrated History of Dunstable and its Priory
Tue 11 Oct 05 Michael West Conversion of the Earl of Clarendon's Mansion at Chandler's Cross
Tue 18 Oct 05 Chris Reynolds The Army in St Albans in WWI
Fri 28 Oct 05 David Harrison Bridges of Medieval England
Tue 1 Nov 05 Gene Mitchell Slum Life in 19th century King's Cross
Tue 8 Nov 05 Hugh Lewis Sir Hubert Herkomer – Bushey's Victorian Painter
Tue 15 Nov 05 Kevin Fitzgerald The Protection of Rural England
Fri 25 Nov 05 Dr John Schofield London and the Gunpowder Plot
Tue 29 Nov 05 John Cox “Jim Forrester” – a.k.a. 5th Earl of Verulam
Tue 6 Dec 05 Jane Kelsall Gothic Revival – it started much earlier than you think.
Spring 2006 Index      Current season
Tue 17 Jan Isobel Leek Victorian Garden History
Fri 27 Jan Paul Chamberlain Prisoners of War in Britain, 1793–1815
Tue 31 Jan Robin Webb A Silk Purse from a Pig's Nose
Tue 7 Feb Ann Dean 2000 Years of St Michael's Street
Tue 14 Feb Deryck Hannaford The Carillon at the Abbey
Fri 24 Feb Dr Susan Mary Grant New Light on the Lady With the Lamp
Tue 28 Feb Dr J D Hill In Search of the Druids – The Realities of Religion in Iron Age Britain
Tue 7 Mar John Wooley The Great Train Robbery
Fri 24 Mar Alan Frost Restoration of Windsor Castle – After the Fire
Tue 28 Mar Revd Peter Wadsworth Rule and Reality – Life in a Great Medieval Abbey
Tue 4 April David Dean St Albans Historical Landscape post AD1250
Tue 11 April George Atkinson St Pancras Station – Midland Link, Thames Link, Euro Link
Fri 28 April William Palin Inexhaustible Fancy and Solid Judgement
The Life and Works of Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736)
Tue 9 May Alex Thompson Romans in the Bulbourne Valley
Tue 16 May David Thorold 2000 Years of Coinage
Fri 26 May Anne Rowe Lost Gardens of Hertfordshire
Autumn 2006 Index      Current season
Tue 5 Sept John Ely, Shenley Park Trust New (Herts) parks with historical links
Tue 12 Sept Elizabeth Eastwood, City Guide An illustrated walk round Wheathampstead
Tue 19 Sept Donato Cinicolo Hedges in St Albans and the craft of hedgelaying
Fri 29 Sept Barrie Trinder The Industrial Archaeology of World War II
Tue 3 Oct Jennie Sherwood, Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society Berkhamsted through the ages
Tue 10 Oct Justin James Redbournbury watermill – past, present & future
Tue 17 Oct Prof. Burland DSc CBE Propping up Pisa
Fri 27 Oct Alison Dickens, Cambridge University Archaeological Unit Archaeological excavations on the old Robert Sayle site, Cambridge
Tue 31 Oct Duane Parkin The Tabard – restoration of a 14th century building
Tue 7 Nov R A M Harvey Bribery & corruption (St Albans included) – the unreformed electoral system
Tue 14 Nov Jean Peyton, Cathedral Guide Paul of Caen
Fri 24 Nov Jill Barber, County Local Studies Librarian at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies Treasures of the Archives
Tue 28 Nov Heather Falvey, Hertfordshire Record Society The More – Cardinal Wolsey's palace at Rickmansworth
Tue 5 Dec Irene Cowan The 17th Century Population Research Group
Spring 2007 Index      Current season
Tue 16 Jan Nicholas Maddex, Codicote Local History Society Tales & Legends of Mid-Hertfordshire
Fri 26 Jan Kate Morris Trade and transport on English waterways
Tue 30 Jan Rev Peter Wadsworth St Albans and the Peasants' Revolt
Tue 6 Feb Peter Hurford OBE Music in St Albans Abbey, 1958–78 – a personal view
Tue 13 Feb Brian and Kathleen Moody From melons to rugger balls – the history of Holywell House grounds
Fri 23 Feb Gareth Harris The Story of Spitalfields
Tue 27 Feb Janet Miles Archaeology – a digger's eye view
Tue 6 Mar Sam Mullins, Director, London's Transport Museum and onetime Director, St A Museums From Dickens to the District Line – passengers' experience of bus and tube in Victorian and Edwardian London
Tue 20 Mar Miss M Wilson Local monumental brasses
Fri 30 Mar Sue Shave Chiltern Open Air Museum – A Vision for the Future
Tue 3 Apr Michael Rose, Abbey Guide The painted ceilings of St Albans Abbey
Tue 17 Apr Norman Oldknow,
Gene Peyton-Jones
and Nancy Page
Revising the Cathedral inventory.
Fri 27 Apr Georgia Butters Pumps, pigs and people – the realities of opening archaeology to the public
Tue 8 May Ann Dean Let's keep it in the family – the Rowlatts and the Bacons
Fri 25 May Peter Street The Great Fire of London
Autumn 2007 Index      Current season
Tue 4 Sep Robert Lancaster The Pioneer Years – Origins and Early Years of Letchworth Garden City
Tue 11 Sep John Cox “Fatty” Cavan – a Hertfordshire Field-Marshal
Tue 18 Sep Gill Cordingley The Story of St Leonard’s Church – Hertford’s Oldest Building
Tue 25 Sept Chris Green,
Director of St Albans Museums
Useful and beautiful – understanding trade tools from 1500 to the present
Fri 28 Sep Dr Anne Stott
Note change of speaker
The Life of William Wilberforce
Tue 2 Oct Jenny Stroud Thirteen Months as St Albans Mayor
Tue 9 Oct Jill Singer Uncovering Kingsbury Manor
Tue 16 Oct Barbara Chapman The Forgotten Historic Landscape of the Leverstock Green Area
Fri 26 Oct Dorian Gerhold,
Clerk of the Trade and Industry Committee at the House of Commons
Goods and passenger transport by road before and after the turnpikes – concentrating on road services before turnpiking had a major impact (c.1750/60), and (briefly) on the period following.
Tue 30 Oct Jane Kelsall Dissolution of the Monasteries – what happened at St Albans?
Tue 6 Nov Clare Ellis Hertfordshire – home of the pharmaceutical industry
Tue 13 Nov Dr Jill Barber Hertfordshire's Links with the Slave Trade and its Abolition
Tue 20 Nov David Short
Note change of speaker
Mapping the Past – the Hertfordshire Historical Atlas
Fri 30 Nov Dr Rosamund Bartlett,
Fellow of the European Humanities Research Centre at the University of Oxford
The Edge of Empires – the Story of the Balkans. The history of the Slav countries in South-East Europe focusing on their successive relationships with the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, and the Great Powers.
Tue 4 Dec Dr Howlett From Coal Mine to Comet – Reminiscences of Hatfield
Tue 11 Dec
followed by:
Betty Ewens
Gerard McSweeney
Sander – St Albans Orchid King
The Redoubtable Duchess and Her Almshouses
Spring 2008 Index      Current season
Tue 15 Jan Robert Bard Elstree – Britain’s Hollywood
Fri 25 Jan David Dean,
former President of this Society
Votes for Sovereigns – St Albans Shamed. Parliamentary elections were once very robust affairs and St Albans was well to the fore in strong arm tactics, bribery and treating, culminating in the Bribery Commission and disfranchisement of St Albans.
Tue 29 Jan Dr Richard Simons A Butcher's Daybook – Abbots Langley in 1828
Tue 5 Feb Dr Bill Martin Geophysical Surveys Around Hertfordshire
Tue 12 Feb Jacky Bennett Apsley Mill and the History of Paper-making
Tue 19 Feb Caroline Rawle The Story of Welwyn Garden City
Fri 29 Feb Kate Colquhoun,
author of a biography of Paxton
A Thing in Disguise – the Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton – Head Gardener at Chatsworth, designer of the Crystal Palace, newspaper owner, MP, railway entrepreneur, parks designer and architect
Tue 4 Mar Dr Ralph Jackson Roman Medicine
Tue 11 Mar Brian Adams Ways to Annoy the Enemy – St. Albans and the Napoleonic War
Tue 18 Mar The Library Staff The Arc and Arc Library
Fri 28 Mar George Ireland,
contributor to the new Dictionary of National Biography.
From Family Gold to Family Gout – Plutocrats, a Rothschild Inheritance. Nathan Rothschild was the very ideal of boundless wealth in the nineteenth century.
Tue 1 Apr Victor Ludlow Flags, Feathers and Further Communication Methods
Tue 8 Apr Rev Peter Wadsworth St Albans and The Peasants’ Revolt
Tue 15 Apr Dr Alan McWhirr St Albans Fire Service – a History
Fri 25 Apr Dr Tom Williamson,
author of “The Origins of Hertfordshire” and “The Parks and Gardens of West Hertfordshire”.
How Old is the Landscape? The age of field boundaries in Hertfordshire and surrounding counties – what field boundaries can show us about the extent of open fields in medieval Hertfordshire, and whether pre-medieval elements have survived in the modern landscape.
Tue 29 Apr Vicky Rawlings The 150 Cottage – Letchworth G.C. and the 1905 Cheap Cottage Exhibition
Tue 6 May Elaine Beckett, London Guide Heart of Empire – The Story of a (London) Street Corner
Tue 20 May Peter Lawrence Beneath City Streets – London’s Hidden history
Fri 30 May Harvey Watson,
a keen supporter of the Battlefields Trust
The First Battle of St Albans, 1455 – the start of the Wars of the Roses, the longest period of civil strife in English history. The talk covers the battle and its political background, and investigates what landmarks can be seen today.