Calendar

Speaker: Mike Pollard

The talk will focus on the founding and development of a number of “model” mining villages across the region between 1890 and 1930 and will explore the aims and motivations of their founders and the ways they sought to “improve” the new communities. The speaker will explore their relationships with the aristocratic landowners, as well as their political links and the impact they had on the contemporary social reform agenda before 1914 and argue that the impact and legacies of this work was felt right through the inter-war period and beyond.

Mike Pollard recently retired as a headteacher, and is now actively researching the political, social and architectural development of the Midlands and South Yorkshire coalfields.

Organised by the Industrial Archaeology Section

Speaker: Elizabeth Woledge

Dr. Elizabeth Woledge will speak about the history of the Royal Crown Derby china works. The talk will be illustrated by some of the most interesting items from the Museum which you can handle as you learn about how they were made. Also hear about the flower painter who changed the way flowers were painted, the troublesome modeller and many other interesting snippets from its 250 years history.

Organised by the Local History Section

Speaker: Colin Merrony

The Premonstratensian monastic Order were relatively late arrivals into medieval England. One result of this is that they struggled to develop large agricultural estates and focused a lot of their economic effort on industry. The choices made by monasteries in the north Midlands and southern Yorkshire had a significant effect on the development of late medieval iron working in the area. This talk will consider the archaeological evidence for iron working related to the abbeys of Beauchief and Dale and how decisions made in the 13th century changed the geography of industry in this area in ways which still affect us today.

Organised by the Archaeological Research Group