Date |
Event |
Venue and
Time |
Monday |
17 January 2022 |
The Cotswold Canal: past,
present & future - Brian Stanley |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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A journey
through the history of the two waterways that make up the Cotswold Canals
considering the influences, past and present, of recreating the 36 mile link
between the Rivers Severn and Thames. |
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Monday |
21 February 2022 |
The Great Stink!
Engineers, sewerage and the Victorian battle against dirt - Tom Crook
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Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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How did we
get from the cesspools of the medieval period to the sewerage systems of
today? The answer owes a lot to the engineering ingenuity and ambition of the
Victorians. As Britain's towns and cities put on ever more demographic weight
during the nineteenth century, it was they who found the solution in the
building of vast, hyper-complex subterranean systems and outfall works. We
have come to take these systems for granted, but we shouldn't - the
Victorians struggled long and hard, amid numerous failed experiments, before
they eventually settled on the infrastructure we rely on today |
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Monday |
21 March 2022 |
The Royal Progress through Gloucestershire in 1535 -
Alan Pilbeam |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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For five
weeks in the summer of 1535 Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and their first minister,
Thomas Cromwell, travelled through Gloucestershire. We know where they
stayed, something of their personal interests, and of the opportunities
available to them on the progress, we also know what happened in the months
following, which included the dissolution of the monasteries. In this
illustrated talk we will link these different themes and view some of the
landscape features associated with the progress. |
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Monday |
25 April 2022 |
A Journey to Barbados & Demerara and back in 1803 -
Peter Covey-Crump |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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Nathan
Lucas FLS kept a diary of his nine month journey to South America and back in
1803. The outward journey to Barbados took 51 days and the return took 70
days. His purpose was to visit his cotton plantation in Demerara where he
stayed two months, and, as a keen naturalist, he described the flora and
fauna there. The talk is illustrated with plates from Capt J G Stedman’s
visit to Surinam in 1772-77 and other contemporary images. |
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Monday |
23 May 2022 |
Lines in the Landscape:
Decoding Boundaries - by Dr Simon Draper |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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Dr Simon
Draper will explore the rich archaeology and history of the boundaries that
exist in our local landscape, from those of manors and parishes to hundreds,
shires and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. He will also examine how boundaries were
marked, both physically and mentally through the ritual of 'beating the
bounds'. |
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June 2022 |
Visit
TBA |
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July 2022 |
Visit
TBA |
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Monday |
19 September 2022 |
RAF Brize Norton – Over 80
years of flying operations - by Trevor Jackson |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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The talk
covers the beginning of the station’s life back in 1937 in the lead up to
World War Two and continues throughout the war and its role within that
conflict. It then moves on to the post war period and then the Cold War and
the arrival of the US Air Force strategic bombers and the impact that had on
the station. The departure of the Americans saw the base revert to use by the
Royal Air Force and it became the main air transport hub for the United
Kingdom. We will also cover the gradual changes of the different aircraft
types that have become a common sight across West Oxfordshire over the years
and their use across various conflicts across the decades to the present day. |
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Monday |
17 October 2022 |
Mapping Hillforts: the
Atlas project - Professor Gary Lock |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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Hillforts
are the most iconic monument of the later prehistoric period and occur across
all of the United Kingdom and Ireland. There have been many attempts at
counting, classifying and mapping these sites which have raised many
problems. This talk will outline the history of mapping hillforts and then
describe the work and some results of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and
Ireland Project. This major project has resulted in the first online atlas of
hillforts at such a scale and has established a new era of hillfort research
and interest. |
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Monday |
21 November 2022 |
32nd Annual General Meeting |
Memorial Hall - 7:30pm |
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New and old
members and guests welcome. |
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TBA |
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