Mrs Ella Armitage and Early Norman Castles in England revisited

Speaker: Janine Buckley

This talk celebrates the tremendous efforts of past pit ponies and colliery horses. With first-hand accounts from former miners and freshly discovered documentary and photographic evidence, this talk delves deeply into the lives of a concealed equestrian workforce that fuelled almost every aspect of life on the surface. Learn how their working conditions changed over time, and how they are remembered by their former handlers. Join us for this fitting tribute to these hidden heroes. If you have any memorabilia or photographs relating to pit ponies, please feel free to bring them on the night.

Janine Buckley MA is Historic Environment Officer (Buildings) in Nottinghamshire County Council’s planning department.

Organised by the Industrial Archaeology Section

Speaker: Karen Kreft

Karen has created a database of over 3000 Calke servants. Her talk gives an insight into the lives of those who toiled ‘below stairs’.

Organised by the Local History Section

Speaker: Nick Hill

The ‘Old Priory’ at Repton School in Derbyshire lies next to the village’s celebrated parish church, with its Anglo-Saxon crypt. The last study of the building was published in 1929, but a programme of detailed building analysis, accompanied by tree-ring dating. has recently been carried out by Nick Hill. A much more complete understanding of the building has emerged, with an article planned for Derbyshire Archaeological Journal. An Augustinian priory was established at Repton in the late twelfth century, with the ‘Old Priory’ forming the west range of the cloister. Following the Suppression, much of the priory, including its church, was destroyed in the mid-sixteenth century, but the west range was converted to form the core of Repton School. Remaining fabric allows the original form of the west range to be pieced together, with the prior’s lodging and guest hall on the first floor, over an impressive undercroft. Now dated to 1168-80, the building can now be recognised as an important and rare survival of a monastic west range.

Nick Hill lives in Leicestershire and has been recording and researching historic buildings in the Midlands for many years. He is treasurer of the Vernacular Architecture Group and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. A particular area of research and publication in recent years has been halls and chamber blocks of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Now retired, he worked with English Heritage and Historic England for over thirty years, coordinating major projects of conservation and repair to historic buildings.

Organised by the Architecture Section

Speaker: Elaine Prichard

Orton & Spooner was a company based in Burton-upon-Trent that made fairground rides and equipment for fairgrounds. The business began in the 1890s and closed in 1977. Elaine tells their story.

Organised by the Local History Section

Speaker: Mark Dawson

If you buy a Christmas pudding in any UK supermarket there is a very high chance it has been manufactured on an industrial estate in Heanor. Food historian Mark Dawson will relate how the Derbyshire firm of Matthew Walker came to dominate this market and tell us about some less well-known local seasonal traditions.

Organised by the Industrial Archaeology Section

Speaker: Jennifer Alexander

Melbourne's parish church stands out as a fine Romanesque church, built in the 12th century and covered in sculpture. It was intended to be a royal church and presents a statement of power by a king eager to be regarded as a player on the international stage. Its later history was quieter, and it is one of the few churches of the period that comes down to us largely unaltered, and so we can see, by close study of the building, how King Henry I's master mason demonstrated the king's power in his design of the building.

Jennifer Alexander FSA is Professor of Art History at the University of Warwick

Speaker: Laura Parker

Laura is the Community Archaeologist with York Archaeology (formerly Trent & Peak Archaeology). Over the last 15 years she has worked on over 30 community projects. She was heavily involved in the excavations at Darley playing fields during the flood alleviation scheme in 2016 and ran the training dig that took place in Summer 2025 looking for remains of the Derventio Roman settlement.

Organised by the Archaeological Research Group

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: Jane Hawkes