St. Mary’s Church Hall

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: 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

Speaker: Robert Mee.

Almshouses have existed since at least the time of the Byzantine empire. In his talk local historian, Robert Mee, will look at the origins and growth of almshouses in this country. Then, using examples from Derbyshire from the Early Modern period onwards, he will show that they are still firmly a feature of modern society.

Organised by the Local History Section

Speaker: Ian Mitchell

It used to be a tradition of the IA Section to finish the programme with a session of ‘members slides’, to share information on sites of industrial archaeological interest. This talk will be a revival of this tradition, looking at some locations that Ian and Mary have visited abroad in recent years. Some of these have been on specialist tours organised for the Association for Industrial Archaeology, while others were sought out or come across by chance on independent holidays.

Organised by the Industrial Archaeological Section