French Napoleonic Prisoners of War in Derbyshire and beyond

Speaker: Sue Russell

Sue Russell is in the final stages of a doctoral study of Masson Mills at the University of Derby.  Her findings have coalesced into four threads, the building, the river, the people and the cotton each of which have been woven together to provide an insight into the evolution of this historic industrial heritage site.  The talk will add more texture to each of these elements and their interdependence.

Speaker: David Knight

This talk provides an introduction to a recently launched exhibition at the University of Nottingham Museum on the subject of Trent Valley prehistory, which includes a selection of prehistoric artefacts recovered from recent excavations in advance of quarrying in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Finds have been selected with the aim of shedding light upon the changing valley environment and the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. It includes a variety of stone artefacts, pottery and metalwork and rare organic finds such as a wooden Iron Age shovel from Hoveringham in Nottinghamshire.

Dr David Knight is currently Head of Research at York Archaeology and an Honorary Research Fellow in the University of Nottingham’s Department of Classics and Archaeology. He has curated the exhibition with his colleagues Kristina Krawiec and Steve Malone. The exhibition is open with free admission Thursday to Sunday (12 noon to 4pm) and continues until Sunday 10 January.

Speaker: John Kanefsky

Simon Goodrich was for over 20 years one of the key players in the engineering and economic history of England.  His work at the Portsmouth Dockyard, where among other things he managed the creation of probably the first production line in the world, the Block Mills, is justly celebrated. Yet surprisingly little is known about him as a person.  He was appointed in 1799 at the young age of 26 as Mechanist (chief engineer) of the Royal Dockyards at Portsmouth and one of his first acts was to undertake a month-long tour of the midlands and north of England to see for himself the new technologies that were being developed at this seminal point in the Industrial Revolution, with an eye to how he and his boss, Sir Samuel Bentham, could apply new technologies to improving the capabilities and efficiency of the Dockyards and the Royal Navy.

He documented his travels in a number of long letters comprising a journal sent to Bentham, of which perhaps the most important are the 18 foolscap pages documenting the first week of his itinerary in and around Derby and Belper, where he met and discussed with all the key people in the area and was shown their works and factories.  This journal has been dipped into by many historians, especially in relation to early work on fireproof mills, but none have hitherto transcribed the whole and put it into context. Today’s talk explains what he saw in Derbyshire; the unparalleled insights his reports give into the importance of the area at the time; and highlights the transition from hand- and wood-based ways of working to mechanisation and iron as the medium of machinery. It also illuminates the people he met in the County, including William Strutt and his family, Erasmus Darwin and others.  Many of this audience will probably know a good deal about these worthies, but Goodrich’s fascinating commentary on and insights into the local scene is less known.

Dr John Kanefsky studied and taught at the University of Exeter and then joined the National Coal Board, first as one of the authors of their history of coal mining then until privatisation in management.  He was subsequently at the Coal Authority and thereafter had a varied career in the NHS and educational research before retirement. His research focuses on 18th century steam power and on in Devon in the 18th and 19th centuries. He is also the author and curator of the Early Engines database of all known eighteenth century steam engines.

Speaker: Peter Guest

The mosaic from Hinton St Mary is one of the most celebrated survivals from Roman Britain. Discovered (accidentally) in 1963, its central roundel features the bust of a man with the Christian Chi-Rho symbol behind his head, which most scholars have concluded is among the first representations of Jesus Christ from the ancient world, and probably the first to be found on a mosaic. It is one of the icons of Roman Britain and has an important story to tell about the earliest Christian communities in the British Isles. Despite the mosaic's obvious significance, however, very little was actually known about the buildings to which it belonged, or the people who commissioned it and lived with it. This talk will present some of the ground-breaking results of the British Museum’s recent archaeological excavations at Hinton St Mary that aimed to answer the many questions that remain about the mosaic, and to provide a better understanding of its wider context in the history of late Roman Britain.

Speaker: David Hawkins (speaker on Zoom)

Although for most of its history, blacksmithing has been predominantly a practical art, there is a rich tradition of work with clear cultural and visual intent: artist blacksmithing. This talk briefly reviews the origins and development of the craft, and in particular the role of artist blacksmiths from the 17th Century to the present. Derby’s Robert Bakewell became known for the ‘English Style’ during the 18th Century, combining traditional influences and practices with styles and ideas from the baroque, and his work maintained a strong influence over practice until the 1980s. New international influences, collaborations, and modes of education, have revived and expanded blacksmithing practice in the last 45 years, to produce a new generation of innovative artist blacksmiths, whose practice is very much of the 21st Century, but mindful of the work of exemplary practitioners such as Bakewell. Examples of blacksmithing, along with insights into techniques and practices, are used to illustrate this short history of artist blacksmithing

Dr. David Hawkins has worked in various academic roles across design and ergonomics related subjects, including Executive Dean, Professor of Design and Head of School, at universities in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Egypt. His family have been blacksmiths in Mid and North Devon for more than 250 years, so he learnt to work in the forge from an early age and has significant practical experience of designing and making ironwork alongside other projects.

From burials to building projects how do we do the right thing as archaeologists? 

Speaker: Anna Welch (speaker on Zoom)

The process of archaeological excavation is never straightforward and we have to think carefully about when, why, how and should we do it? What do we do with the things that we find, especially in the case of human remains? Navigating an ethical path through the historical environment landscape can be full of twists, turns and tricky situations. In this talk we’ll explore what we mean by “professional ethics”, why they matter and how they differ from morals and laws.  How do we make the best decisions for archaeology whilst considering the needs and opinions of an increasing number of stakeholders - and can we please any of the people any of the time?

Anna Welch has a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Museum Studies and worked for several years as an archaeologist with Southampton Archaeology Unit. Now she works for the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and her work centres on degree accreditation, training and careers.

Speaker: Ian Parker Heath

In 2015 the Tudor Farming Interpretation Group took the next step on their research on the story of a small farmstead in the Dove Valley. With the help of a Lottery grant this involved a programme of archaeological work, historical research and a lot of community engagement. The results were pretty impressive and included revealing a late 17th century house. In 2022 a further Lottery grant helped the group undertake more archaeological work including trying to find out more about the environment in the past. A small peat bog on the valley side held the key to this, and the initial analysis of it's pollen showed exceptional levels of preservation. A more detailed look at the pollen resulted in one of the richest pollen records in the country in incredible detail. Our latest research is showing us how the field system there has developed over centuries by dating the soil buried under agricultural features such as banks, boundaries and ridge & furrow.

Speaker: Alex Fogheran

This talk will highlight archaeological works carried out in France and Belgium since 2003 on various First World War battlefield sites. The talk will centre on a number of specific sites, a look at the material excavated in those works and discuss some of the personal outcomes for the remains of fallen soldiers that were also recovered.

Alex Sotheran has worked as a professional archaeologist for 25 years, of which 20+ were spent on battlefield sites, he currently works as an archaeology advisor for the Ministry of Defence covering the north of England, Scotland and the overseas estate.

Speaker: Robert Mee

Felons' Societies sprung up all over the place in the 1700's - some are still going today. In Derbyshire, virtually every parish was covered by one. But what were they, and what did they do? Robert Mee is a local historian based in Heanor who has spoken to us on several occasions before, and this talk is based on his M.A. dissertation.

Speaker: Max Craven

In 2017 Max and Carole Craven undertook a Roman-themed voyage of discovery , taking in the more obscure but unjustifiably neglected sections of the southern and eastern coasts of England on which stand some of the most impressive vestiges of Roman Britain, interspersed with sections on basic facts, location, access and contact details of each, interspersed with enjoyable non-Roman interludes.

In the later third century AD, the outer reaches of the Roman empire were being threatened on all sides by hostile actors. Along the southern and eastern coasts of Britain, a series of ten, possibly twelve, vast fortified enclosures were built beside strategic harbours to defend against external threats, mainly from Germanic marauders and also to act as secure entrepôts for Britian supplied much of the Annona (edible supplies) for the Rhine army, any interruption of which would needless to say, be disastrous. Through sixteen centuries, impressive vestiges of most of them have survived, although three have vanished, virtually without trace. Several became the sites of Norman castles; others have associations with early Christianity; all have a story to tell.

Taking the story from the colossal surviving fort at Portchester in Hampshire to the empty, windswept site of Brancaster on the north Norfolk coast, Seeking the Saxon Shore is an introduction to exploring these ancient sites and for bringing them to life; acting as a practical guide to locate and access them. In describing the origins of the forts, their ancient settings, their functions and subsequent histories, this lecture will, we hope, enable those listening to travel through a modern landscape but well briefed to recognise and visualise the distant past.