Past Talks

9th March 2023 – The Boleyns of Hever Castle by Dr Owen Emmerson

9th February 2023 – Flags by Paul Eldridge

12th January 2023 – National Trust Excavations in Smallhythe

10th November 2022 – Put that Light Out – 93rd (Searchlight) Regiment Royal Artillery by Imogen Corrigan

5th October 2022 – Passports, Assassins, Traitors and Spies by Martin Lloyd

15th September 2022 – Kent and Sussex Village Names and their Meanings  by Simon Mansfield

7th July 2022 – The Wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery by Frank Turner

9th June 2022 – A Sussex Farm during the 1950’s by Ian Everest

12th May 2022 – “More SOE Exploits, because it was the right think to do”   by Gilly Halcrow

7th April 2022 – So Far so Good (behind the scenesat Buckingham Palace) by Malcolm Wells

10th March 2022 – William Pitt the Younger and the Martello Towers by Geoff Hutchinson

10th February 2022 – George Smart the Taylor of Frant by Jonathan Christie

13th January 2022 – Canterbury Cathedral by Nathalie Cohen

11th November 2021 – “Oh No It Isn’t”, a History of Pantomime by Pete Allen

7th October 2021 – Every House has a Storey – Discovering House Histories by Helen Poole

6th February 2020 – Florence Nightingale by Major Paul Whittle

9th January 2020 – The Rye Lifeboat “Mary Stanford” Disaster of 1928 by Hugh Willing

7th November 2019 – Sussex Graves and Gravestones by Kevin Gordon

10th October 2019 – Manipulating Monarchs by Julia Cruse

19th September 2019 – The Prisoners of War at Sissinghurst by Peter Mellor

11th July 2019 – Food of the Gods by Russell Bowes

13th June 2019 – The British Navy 1793 – 1815 by Alaric Bond

9th May 2019 – The Thames Discovery Programme by Nathalie Cohen

10th April 2019– A Journey along the South Coast by Peter Gillies

6th March 2019 – The Race to the South Pole by Michael Smith

6th February 2019 – A Schoolgirl’s War by Mary Smith

9th January 2019 – The Romans in Sussex by Brian Braby

7th November 2018 – In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poppy by Heather Woodward

11th October 2018 – A Grand Tour – Early Tourists in the High Weald by Ian Beavis

20th September 2018 – Sussex in the Great War by Ian Everest

11th July 2018 – The History of Smuggling in Sussex and Kent by Geoff Hutchinson

13th June 2018 – The Shetland Bus by Gilly Halcrow

10th May 2018 – The Great Storm 1987 by Bob Ogly

11th April 2018  –  The Palace of Westminster by Kevin Gordon

7th March 2018  –   Talk cancelled

7th February 2018 – The Belgian Royal Family- Murder Madness and Mayhem by Melanie Gibson-Barton

11th January 2018 – Ightham Mote – Life Upstairs Downstairs by Heather Woodward

8th November 2017 – The River Thames – London’s Liquid History by Stuart Robinson

12th October 2017 – Edith Cavell by Laton Frewen

21st September 2017 – Murder Sex and Mayhem in English Churches – John Vigar

12th July 2017 – The Battle of Hastings, Mired in Controversy – Hugh Willing

14th June 2017  – The Story of the Crystal Palace – Ian Gledhill

11th May 2017 – East Sussex Folk from John Freeland to Rudyard Kipling – Brian Freeland

12th April 2017 – The Influences of Royalty on the Development of Tunbridge Wells – John Cunningham

8th March 2017 – Wonder Workers and the Art of Illusion – Bertie Pearce

8th February 2017 – Talk cancelled

9th November 2016 – A Meander Through the Victorian Weald – Peter Gillies

6th October 2016 – Churchill’s Secret Army “SOE” – Gilly Halcrow

15h September 2016 – Epic Voyages in History – David Clark

6th July 2016 – A Schoolboy in London during 2nd World War – Ray Broomfield

8th June 2016 – An English History of Freedom – Andy Thomas

6th April 2016 – The Hidden Collection at Scotney Castle

9th March 2016 – The Politeness of Princes – Imogen Corrigen

3rd February 2016 – You’ve Never Had it So Good – Don Dray

7th January 2016 – The History of the Wadhurst Brass Band – Algy Hoare

9th November 2015 – Digging for Victory

8th October 2015 – Carrying the mails

8th July 2015 – By God and Country: A Thousand Years of Criminal Justice

10th June 2015 – Artists of the First World War – The Triumph of the Avant Garde

7th May 2015 – Tom Crean – the Unsung Hero of Antarctic Exploration

20th April 2015 – British Society and the 1st World War

8th April 2015 – The Western Front in the 1st World War

11th March 2015 – The Social History of Wealden Villages

4th February 2015 – Life in the 18th Century Theatre

8th January 2015 – Churchill of Chartwell

12th November 2014 – Members Evening

8th October 2014 – Dunkirk 1940 – Defeat or Victory?

18th September 2014 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his Life in Crowborough

9th July 2014 –  The Plague City and the Plague Village by Stuart Robinson

11th June 2014 – A Child’s life in the Middle Ages – by Imogen Corrigan

8th May 2014– Maunsell Sea Forts of the Thames Estuary

9th April 2014– 19th Century Kent

12th March 2014 – Bewl Water 1968-2014

5th February 2014 – The Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster

9th January 2014 – The History of St Peter and St Paul Church, Wadhurst

13th November 2013 – The Nazi Forging of British Banknotes

10th October 2013 – Being Poor in Sussex 1600-1900

19th September 2013 – The Women’s Land Army

10th  July 2013 – The Capable Mr Brown – The Life and Work of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown

12th June 2013  –  Sir Ernest Shackleton – the Amazing Exploits of a Great Explorer

9th May 2013 – Life in a Victorian Household

10th April 2013 – The History and Culture of Gypsy Travellers

13th March 2013 – Siegfried Sassoon

6th February 2013 – Palaces, Pots and Parks – Natalie Cohen

10th January 2013– The Life of William Pilbeam and the Royal Escape from Ticehurst House

14th November 2012 – Soldier, soldier won’t you marry me? – Timothy Cox

11th October 2012 – Iona, Lindisfarne and the Glory of the North – Pat Wright

13th September 2012 – The History of Ashburnham Place and the Ashburnham family – Rhod Jones

11th July 2012 – Sources and Techniques for Researching Family History – Lady Teviot

13th June 2012 – Curiosities of the City of London – Stuart Robinson

10th May 2012 – Mediaeval Instruments – Michael Withers

11th April 2012 – Kent and Sussex Scandals – Chris McCooey

15th October 2004 – Churchyards – Elizabeth Hughes