Talks 2023-24
Wednesday 27th September 2023
Archaeology and Heritage at Thames Water
Dr Victoria Reeve
Dr Victoria Reeve will take us behind the scenes at Thames Water to discover the variety of heritage and archaeology work undertaken by the company. There will be the opportunity to see behind the scenes at some of our magnificent Victorian pumping stations, and to find out more about recent archaeological discoveries at Cirencester sewage treatment works. This image shows a spearhead found at Cirencester sewage treat works in 2022
Wednesday 25th October 2023
Lost Railway Journeys in Gloucestershire
David Aldred
David Aldred takes us on a round trip from Cheltenham to Cirencester along the Stroud valley, returning via Fairford, Oxford and Kingham. The journey is illustrated with his own photographs, taken between 1962 and 1964.
Wednesday 22nd November 2023
Making a Living on the Severn Vale: The Invisible Potters of Domesday
Jon Hart – Cotswold Archaeology
When surveyors for the 1086 Domesday book arrived at Haresfield they recorded potters within the village. Potters were common but not relevant to the survey. This whim on the part of an unnamed commissioner has prompted decades of searching for the Haresfield potteries. Work at Quedgeley East by Cotswold Archaeology has now identified one of these potteries and has uncovered a nationally rare example of an excavated pre-Conquest farmstead that survived until its replacement in the 13th century by an elite landscape.
Wednesday 24th January 2024
“In comes I” – A History of Mumming and Wassailing in Gloucestershire
Stephen Rowley
Stephen Rowley is a researcher, artist and performer living in the Stroud Valleys.
He has a particular interest in the folklore and traditions of the county and founded the International Mummers Symposium. As a musician, Stephen is accomplished on two instruments with local connections, the pipe and tabor, and the concertina, invented by Charles Wheatstone, born in Gloucester.
Wednesday 28th February 2024
Portable magic: 2000 Years of the Book
Professor Emma Smith – Hertford College, Oxford
The Annual Croome Lecture – PARISH CHURCH, 7.30pm
Professor Smith will discuss how book technology became so dominant and the ways books have become part of our lives. From book burning to the rise of the paperback, and from Gutenberg to Kindle, books have shaped history – and been shaped by it in return.
Wednesday 27th March 2024
The Glosters at Waterloo
Andy Meller
Andy Meller will lead us in the footsteps of the North Gloucestershire 28th Regiment of Foot as they take part in the Waterloo Campaign of June 1815. Always in the thick of the action, we will discover why the 28th were the only English line regiment to receive a mention by name in the Duke of Wellington’s famous Waterloo Despatch.
Wednesday 10th April 2024
The Plague of Justinian and the End of Antiquity
Professor Peter Sarris
A joint meeting with Cirencester Science and Technology Society
Please note that this is earlier in the month than our usual meeting and at a different venue.
Sir Emrys Jones lecture theatre, Royal Agricultural University
Wednesday 22nd May
Annual General Meeting
followed by
Alfred Williams and the Folk Songs of the Upper Thames
Martin Graebe
Alfred Williams was raised in the village of South Marston in Wiltshire and, though his formal education ended at the age of 12, he became an admired poet and writer. Between 1914 and 1916 he cycled 13,000 miles around the Upper Thames valley to collect the words of nearly 800 songs. These included more than 170 from Gloucestershire.