October Lecture - Monday 12 October 2026
The House of Automata - Michael Start
Who would have thought clockwork artefacts could be so completely fascinating and bewitching? Certainly, the prolonged applause from the 100+ audience reflected the rich and varied content of Michael’s talk. Accompanied by many videos and pictures, he revealed the supreme skills and patience needed to bring these objects to life, aided by his artistic wife and fine arts talented son. It is hard to select favourites but two stood out for the writer. To see a photo of a birds’ partially re-feathered torso, then brought to life in front of us as a finished, perfect peacock strutting across the table and then raising its stunning tail in display will be long remembered. Then to be taken from this beauty to some amazing movements, also live in front of us, by a seated archer who extracted four arrows from his quiver, one-by-one, and then fire each of them across the stage was almost unbelievable. All-in-all a wonderful hour of make believe and extraordinary skills. It’s no wonder Michael has featured in many episodes of Salvage Hunters: The Restorers and spent six months on site advising Martin Scorsese during the making of one of his films.
The House of Automata - Michael Start
Who would have thought clockwork artefacts could be so completely fascinating and bewitching? Certainly, the prolonged applause from the 100+ audience reflected the rich and varied content of Michael’s talk. Accompanied by many videos and pictures, he revealed the supreme skills and patience needed to bring these objects to life, aided by his artistic wife and fine arts talented son. It is hard to select favourites but two stood out for the writer. To see a photo of a birds’ partially re-feathered torso, then brought to life in front of us as a finished, perfect peacock strutting across the table and then raising its stunning tail in display will be long remembered. Then to be taken from this beauty to some amazing movements, also live in front of us, by a seated archer who extracted four arrows from his quiver, one-by-one, and then fire each of them across the stage was almost unbelievable. All-in-all a wonderful hour of make believe and extraordinary skills. It’s no wonder Michael has featured in many episodes of Salvage Hunters: The Restorers and spent six months on site advising Martin Scorsese during the making of one of his films.
September Lecture - Monday 7 September 2026
"Tan Hill Tales" - Neil Hanson
To describe our speaker, Neil, as inspirational is no exaggeration; he had the audience of over 100 saying the Yorkshireman’s Prayer within 5 minutes! As the former publican of the Tan Hill Inn, he entertained us with an hour of the highs and lows of his time there. From fighting the elements; gale force winds, high and regular snow drifts (dealt with by getting Everest Double Glazing to fit new windows throughout for free, courtesy of a famous advert starring Ted Moult) and overcoming having no mains water or electricity and the local shops being 20 miles away. But that remoteness was a boon when it meant that unofficially extended opening hours were rarely checked by the police, and then sometimes with prior notice. Supported by slides and video clips to further enliven his ‘tales’, we were treated to such unexpected treats(?) as watching visiting group of naturists running barely clad, through the cold, bleak fellside and being able to put faces to some of local dales people who frequented the inn and who Neil spoke about with affection. A former Butlin’s Redcoat, BBC Leeds Rugby League commentator, and author of over 70 books etc, Neil says he has had many jobs but no career. On this showing, he obviously has a thriving career in story-telling, with plenty of comedy thrown in.
"Tan Hill Tales" - Neil Hanson
To describe our speaker, Neil, as inspirational is no exaggeration; he had the audience of over 100 saying the Yorkshireman’s Prayer within 5 minutes! As the former publican of the Tan Hill Inn, he entertained us with an hour of the highs and lows of his time there. From fighting the elements; gale force winds, high and regular snow drifts (dealt with by getting Everest Double Glazing to fit new windows throughout for free, courtesy of a famous advert starring Ted Moult) and overcoming having no mains water or electricity and the local shops being 20 miles away. But that remoteness was a boon when it meant that unofficially extended opening hours were rarely checked by the police, and then sometimes with prior notice. Supported by slides and video clips to further enliven his ‘tales’, we were treated to such unexpected treats(?) as watching visiting group of naturists running barely clad, through the cold, bleak fellside and being able to put faces to some of local dales people who frequented the inn and who Neil spoke about with affection. A former Butlin’s Redcoat, BBC Leeds Rugby League commentator, and author of over 70 books etc, Neil says he has had many jobs but no career. On this showing, he obviously has a thriving career in story-telling, with plenty of comedy thrown in.
March Lecture - Monday 9 March 2026
Britain Had Talent: West End to Broadway - Neil Hurst
The skeletons of the once-young students who lie in West Cemetery alongside the black sheep brother of Dickens are rattling; are those of Peases who rest in Quaker tombs in Skinnergate. But not in disgust. All will be making jazz hands - unashamed nostalgia does not go with earnest dissection of Disraeli’s early reformist novels. Neil Hurst did not give us the expected sober history of showbiz from Little Titch to TV’s Big Show. Instead, his mellow take on the songs of Formby, Cliff Richard, the Bachelors, Four Seasons and the great musicals. He is a Peter Kay who has swapped Lancs for Wakefield and who admires Darlo’s “Civic” to 2025 panto in Nottingham. The Hurst dynasty goes from dancer Nan (Gran’s People?) and a Grandpa who hammed it with Lupino Lane to Mum’s “45p royalties” from a Summer Holiday role and a panto with his daughter. He stood out alongside Sean Bean in a classic Yorkshire Tea ad. The lights meant to dazzle the audience for the reveal-all finale of the Full Monty failed sorely embarrassing his kids. Your reporter’s highlight? Lloyd Webber ballads from Les Mis and Phantom. We sang along with Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Who’d have thought it? Even Victorian eyes would have shed a little bitty tear.
Britain Had Talent: West End to Broadway - Neil Hurst
The skeletons of the once-young students who lie in West Cemetery alongside the black sheep brother of Dickens are rattling; are those of Peases who rest in Quaker tombs in Skinnergate. But not in disgust. All will be making jazz hands - unashamed nostalgia does not go with earnest dissection of Disraeli’s early reformist novels. Neil Hurst did not give us the expected sober history of showbiz from Little Titch to TV’s Big Show. Instead, his mellow take on the songs of Formby, Cliff Richard, the Bachelors, Four Seasons and the great musicals. He is a Peter Kay who has swapped Lancs for Wakefield and who admires Darlo’s “Civic” to 2025 panto in Nottingham. The Hurst dynasty goes from dancer Nan (Gran’s People?) and a Grandpa who hammed it with Lupino Lane to Mum’s “45p royalties” from a Summer Holiday role and a panto with his daughter. He stood out alongside Sean Bean in a classic Yorkshire Tea ad. The lights meant to dazzle the audience for the reveal-all finale of the Full Monty failed sorely embarrassing his kids. Your reporter’s highlight? Lloyd Webber ballads from Les Mis and Phantom. We sang along with Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Who’d have thought it? Even Victorian eyes would have shed a little bitty tear.
January Lecture - Monday 12 January 2026
Waterways of Russia - Sue Ablett
You call Putin an ogre? Against Ivan the Terrible, perhaps spiteful pussycat: Ivan allegedly gouged the eyes of builders of the vast Red Square so its beauty could not be replicated. Incidentally, it’s neither red nor square. One carnation of the Kremlin since its 12th century wooden original was in white stone. Today’s 15th century one has walls 21ft thick housing the remains of centuries of notables. Stalin was moved nearby from the mausoleum shared with Lenin until de-Starlinisation. All this from Sue Ablett, retired GCHQ linguist who detailed a cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg’s magnificence. Ms Ablett stayed in Leicester while her partner sailed from the capital’s glorious St Basil’s cathedral and alleged 100 universities, via canals, rivers, lakes - past apparently non-existent scenery, snapping multi-cathedraled cities and riverside wooden homes, collecting tourist and historical info and photos to her briefing. Comparison with visits 50 years ago included Red Square’s huge GUM store, then selling “only pickled veg and fur hats” but now western luxury to Moscow’s 30 billionaires. Yep, a brochure and guide-book job. But we thoroughly enjoyed it. Later, she told a member the Russian of the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg was rated “pretty good”. Surpassed by his splendid piano-playing?
Waterways of Russia - Sue Ablett
You call Putin an ogre? Against Ivan the Terrible, perhaps spiteful pussycat: Ivan allegedly gouged the eyes of builders of the vast Red Square so its beauty could not be replicated. Incidentally, it’s neither red nor square. One carnation of the Kremlin since its 12th century wooden original was in white stone. Today’s 15th century one has walls 21ft thick housing the remains of centuries of notables. Stalin was moved nearby from the mausoleum shared with Lenin until de-Starlinisation. All this from Sue Ablett, retired GCHQ linguist who detailed a cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg’s magnificence. Ms Ablett stayed in Leicester while her partner sailed from the capital’s glorious St Basil’s cathedral and alleged 100 universities, via canals, rivers, lakes - past apparently non-existent scenery, snapping multi-cathedraled cities and riverside wooden homes, collecting tourist and historical info and photos to her briefing. Comparison with visits 50 years ago included Red Square’s huge GUM store, then selling “only pickled veg and fur hats” but now western luxury to Moscow’s 30 billionaires. Yep, a brochure and guide-book job. But we thoroughly enjoyed it. Later, she told a member the Russian of the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg was rated “pretty good”. Surpassed by his splendid piano-playing?
December Lecture - Monday 1 December 2025
The Story of Raby Castle in Twenty Treasures - Julie Biddlecombe-Brown
Raby Castle’s history in 20 of its treasures? Your reporter waited till the 19th for his highlight chosen by curator Julie Biddlecombe–Brown. The Duchess of Cleveland, chatelaine in Victorian times, a scintillating and intellectual character it seems: her visitors’ books (“Remarks and complaints please, and I insist you be cleverly original”) put her upmarket friends on the rack. One wrote that his weekend was almost spoiled by the stricture. Many rose to it splendidly. Guests were asked to give their profession. Lord Londonderry of vast wealth from his Durham coalfield, wrote “collier”. Oddly, a gentleman would often somehow manage to get in a crack about being under the thumb of his wife; talented others responded with elaborate drawings and cartoons. No. 20 was the Duchess’s witty and entertaining “Handbook” about the history and quirks of Raby from its 11th century origins strategically built alongside an old Roman road and grandly rebuilt in the 14th. Julie’s list majored on portraits of the illustrious. Outstanding was Hiram Powers’s lifesize marble nude The Greek Slave bought by Raby after it fascinated Queen Victoria at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Raby was a key player in the Rising of the North and led a Catholic bid to replace Elizabeth 1 with Mary Queen of Scots….Julie’s list could have been of 20,000, the castle’s inventory.
The Story of Raby Castle in Twenty Treasures - Julie Biddlecombe-Brown
Raby Castle’s history in 20 of its treasures? Your reporter waited till the 19th for his highlight chosen by curator Julie Biddlecombe–Brown. The Duchess of Cleveland, chatelaine in Victorian times, a scintillating and intellectual character it seems: her visitors’ books (“Remarks and complaints please, and I insist you be cleverly original”) put her upmarket friends on the rack. One wrote that his weekend was almost spoiled by the stricture. Many rose to it splendidly. Guests were asked to give their profession. Lord Londonderry of vast wealth from his Durham coalfield, wrote “collier”. Oddly, a gentleman would often somehow manage to get in a crack about being under the thumb of his wife; talented others responded with elaborate drawings and cartoons. No. 20 was the Duchess’s witty and entertaining “Handbook” about the history and quirks of Raby from its 11th century origins strategically built alongside an old Roman road and grandly rebuilt in the 14th. Julie’s list majored on portraits of the illustrious. Outstanding was Hiram Powers’s lifesize marble nude The Greek Slave bought by Raby after it fascinated Queen Victoria at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Raby was a key player in the Rising of the North and led a Catholic bid to replace Elizabeth 1 with Mary Queen of Scots….Julie’s list could have been of 20,000, the castle’s inventory.
November Lecture - Monday 10 November 2025
Understanding and dating old photos: Family photographs and the stories they tell - Steve Gill
It’s Beaver Utah versus Preston UK. The issue is where Butch Cassidy was born. We heard evidence from Stephen Gill, 30 years a photograph researcher and restorer, who can wring the secrets out of the most scarred and faded scrap of sepia, he attested that that mill worker Bob Parker from the Lancashire town fled the "cotton famine" of 1873 for Rhode Island USA. With him, allegedly, was his young son - who in his 20's fell into bad company. Stephen put his magnifying glass to a Rhode Island 1880s photo of five be-suited tough guys and made out a ring on the little finger of each, a gangland penchant apparently; ditto for the miniature Colt revolver (a watch winder) on the waistcoat chain of one of them. A solo photo of one of them, the Butch candidate and judged a Parker lookalike, also showed a watchchain. Our own internet research begs to differ in many ways. Our version has the future leader of the Wild Bunch gang born in Utah in 1866, son of Bob Parker and his Tyneside-born wife, the first of 13. Both families became Mormons in the UK and emigrated to Salt Lake City; both parents had arrived, he at 12, she at 14. Young Robert got Butch from his brief time as a butcher’s apprentice and Cassidy from his association with a cattle thief he met when working on a ranch. Mr Gill was fluent, often witty and gave useful advice on how to determine the who, what, where and when of puzzling prints among family hoards.
Understanding and dating old photos: Family photographs and the stories they tell - Steve Gill
It’s Beaver Utah versus Preston UK. The issue is where Butch Cassidy was born. We heard evidence from Stephen Gill, 30 years a photograph researcher and restorer, who can wring the secrets out of the most scarred and faded scrap of sepia, he attested that that mill worker Bob Parker from the Lancashire town fled the "cotton famine" of 1873 for Rhode Island USA. With him, allegedly, was his young son - who in his 20's fell into bad company. Stephen put his magnifying glass to a Rhode Island 1880s photo of five be-suited tough guys and made out a ring on the little finger of each, a gangland penchant apparently; ditto for the miniature Colt revolver (a watch winder) on the waistcoat chain of one of them. A solo photo of one of them, the Butch candidate and judged a Parker lookalike, also showed a watchchain. Our own internet research begs to differ in many ways. Our version has the future leader of the Wild Bunch gang born in Utah in 1866, son of Bob Parker and his Tyneside-born wife, the first of 13. Both families became Mormons in the UK and emigrated to Salt Lake City; both parents had arrived, he at 12, she at 14. Young Robert got Butch from his brief time as a butcher’s apprentice and Cassidy from his association with a cattle thief he met when working on a ranch. Mr Gill was fluent, often witty and gave useful advice on how to determine the who, what, where and when of puzzling prints among family hoards.
October Lecture - Monday 13 October 2025
The Vikings - Dr Gareth Williams
What's not to like? So reasoned the Vikings as they eyed the assorted and backward peoples across the North Sea who fecklessly positioned their monasteries handily along the coast, undefended and mouth wateringly stacked with treasure: easy picking for the ferocious blonds. To be fair they were also traders and craftsmen but as fluently pointed out by Dr Gareth Williams, lately of the British Museum, it's the bad boys, from Judas Iscariot to Liam Gallagher, who capture the public imagination. Lindisfarne and around the Tyne estuary were early targets in the late 8th century (one suspects the Holy Island monks were a bit paranoid in their many years of Northumbrian protective tourism with St Cuthbert's body) but soon they moved inland, often arriving in autumn after the locals had harvested and stored crops - so much easier to pillage. Next, they began to overwinter and soon to settle and take several of our kingdoms. They were astonishing voyagers to four continents, reaching North America 500 years before Columbus. Their elegant boats could navigate long shallow rivers and be carried overland; from Europe's far north they travelled to the Mediterranean and North Africa via the Caspian and Black seas. Back here, where their DNA is ubiquitous, their dominance was at last ended by the 10th-century self-promoter Alfred the Great who in the process united our motley kingdoms. On November 10 it's "understanding, dating and restoring old family photos".
The Vikings - Dr Gareth Williams
What's not to like? So reasoned the Vikings as they eyed the assorted and backward peoples across the North Sea who fecklessly positioned their monasteries handily along the coast, undefended and mouth wateringly stacked with treasure: easy picking for the ferocious blonds. To be fair they were also traders and craftsmen but as fluently pointed out by Dr Gareth Williams, lately of the British Museum, it's the bad boys, from Judas Iscariot to Liam Gallagher, who capture the public imagination. Lindisfarne and around the Tyne estuary were early targets in the late 8th century (one suspects the Holy Island monks were a bit paranoid in their many years of Northumbrian protective tourism with St Cuthbert's body) but soon they moved inland, often arriving in autumn after the locals had harvested and stored crops - so much easier to pillage. Next, they began to overwinter and soon to settle and take several of our kingdoms. They were astonishing voyagers to four continents, reaching North America 500 years before Columbus. Their elegant boats could navigate long shallow rivers and be carried overland; from Europe's far north they travelled to the Mediterranean and North Africa via the Caspian and Black seas. Back here, where their DNA is ubiquitous, their dominance was at last ended by the 10th-century self-promoter Alfred the Great who in the process united our motley kingdoms. On November 10 it's "understanding, dating and restoring old family photos".
September Lecture - Monday 8 September 2025
Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park - Kate Cannon
The Roberts family aver that a micro-climate enables their 45-hilly-acre valley at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, to grow the evocative display of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias that enabled them to name their personal paradise the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park "where art meets nature". (Actually, your reporter's spouse makes the "micro"claim for Darlington in weather one-upmanship contests with kin in the South, where their winters are also foul but heatwave summers kill oldies). Young gardener Kate Cannon told us that four full-timers and a few volunteers have beaten "invasive" rhodods (perhaps one-colour mongrels? Are the myriad bushes we laymen find so magnificent on the Stang, to purists, intruders?). She said there's also been knot weed to fight. Another valley foible that would make Sherpas feel at home and is reckoned to encourage the rhodods etc is frequent mistiness. Alongside all this a rapidly maturing arboretum of 300 species planted in 2018. Sculptures? A permanent show of 90 with visiting pieces, peers from the greenery; the impression is of a more accessible mindset than the famed rival near Wakefield, more Gormley than Moore. Booking online and pay-at-the-door and inside is card-only; closed Mon & Tues.
Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park - Kate Cannon
The Roberts family aver that a micro-climate enables their 45-hilly-acre valley at Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, to grow the evocative display of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias that enabled them to name their personal paradise the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park "where art meets nature". (Actually, your reporter's spouse makes the "micro"claim for Darlington in weather one-upmanship contests with kin in the South, where their winters are also foul but heatwave summers kill oldies). Young gardener Kate Cannon told us that four full-timers and a few volunteers have beaten "invasive" rhodods (perhaps one-colour mongrels? Are the myriad bushes we laymen find so magnificent on the Stang, to purists, intruders?). She said there's also been knot weed to fight. Another valley foible that would make Sherpas feel at home and is reckoned to encourage the rhodods etc is frequent mistiness. Alongside all this a rapidly maturing arboretum of 300 species planted in 2018. Sculptures? A permanent show of 90 with visiting pieces, peers from the greenery; the impression is of a more accessible mindset than the famed rival near Wakefield, more Gormley than Moore. Booking online and pay-at-the-door and inside is card-only; closed Mon & Tues.
April Lecture - Monday 7 April 2025
Albert and his life with Queen Victoria - Jan and Richard Crouch
Uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, was a matchmaker between Victoria and cousin Albert, spare heir to the dukedom of the tiny German state of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. When they first met in childhood she was not impressed by the puny boy. A decade on at their next meeting, however, the hormones of the chubby fun-loving girl kicked in. She was stirred by his "splendid limbs", especially by the skin-tight pantaloons of his uniform. No VPL here. He was clearly wearing nothing underneath. She soon proposed (nay, commanded) marriage to this serious-minded youth. Both were 20 when the knot was tied and there were nine children. All this was related by Richard and Jan Crouch, who told how this apparent clash of personalities survived early years of mutual irritation to achieve happiness. Albert won over the public and was recognised by the establishment as a powerful force for cultural and intellectual progress. The success of the Great Exhibition of 1851 owed much to him. He helped avoid war with the USA over the Trent Affair in 1861. Then he died, only 42. Victoria was stricken by decades of grief. Britain ran short of black fabric. There was public unrest at the length of her self- isolation. Her life became dedicated to memorialising him. Britain is awash with statues and dedications. There’s the splendid Albert Park in Middlesbrough and in Darlington Albert Hill is the road leading to an area of industrial innovation - both are appropriate.
Albert and his life with Queen Victoria - Jan and Richard Crouch
Uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, was a matchmaker between Victoria and cousin Albert, spare heir to the dukedom of the tiny German state of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. When they first met in childhood she was not impressed by the puny boy. A decade on at their next meeting, however, the hormones of the chubby fun-loving girl kicked in. She was stirred by his "splendid limbs", especially by the skin-tight pantaloons of his uniform. No VPL here. He was clearly wearing nothing underneath. She soon proposed (nay, commanded) marriage to this serious-minded youth. Both were 20 when the knot was tied and there were nine children. All this was related by Richard and Jan Crouch, who told how this apparent clash of personalities survived early years of mutual irritation to achieve happiness. Albert won over the public and was recognised by the establishment as a powerful force for cultural and intellectual progress. The success of the Great Exhibition of 1851 owed much to him. He helped avoid war with the USA over the Trent Affair in 1861. Then he died, only 42. Victoria was stricken by decades of grief. Britain ran short of black fabric. There was public unrest at the length of her self- isolation. Her life became dedicated to memorialising him. Britain is awash with statues and dedications. There’s the splendid Albert Park in Middlesbrough and in Darlington Albert Hill is the road leading to an area of industrial innovation - both are appropriate.
March Lecture - Monday 10 March 2025
A Taste of Splendour - Andrew Prince
In 2025 Belgium they’ve banned the swilling down of live goldfish with their Stella Artois, while in BC Persia they relished wriggling tiddlers in their watered wine. Andrew Prince, jeweller to Downton Abbey, told us of other bizarre culinary habits in his history of elite dining. Ancient Greeks and the Romans gave Michelin stars to bearded and robed Gordon Ramseys for such delicacies as snipe baked complete with entrails (juice squeezed from intestines seems to have been an aperitif). There were game birds cooked with their beaks, gilded peacocks were skinned before feathers were re-attached - and the fattened mice were very nice. Moving on, our own fashionable Georgians feasted their eyes on status-symbol pineapples so expensive they were rented out before being eaten, just in time presumably, by the final customer. All this was recounted, off the cuff and at speed. Mr Prince’s pictures showed, in vivid colours, tapestries and paintings of gluttony and random debauchery amid, even then, fabulous tableware. But our own banqueteers are no slouches: state dining, with its ranks of cutlery that one hopes will intimidate Mr Trump. Assorted gorgeous baroque silverware; although he’ll likely reposte that at Mar-a-Lago we have beautiful dishwashers soo big and detergent soo powerful we could fix all that fancy stuff in the first hour.
A Taste of Splendour - Andrew Prince
In 2025 Belgium they’ve banned the swilling down of live goldfish with their Stella Artois, while in BC Persia they relished wriggling tiddlers in their watered wine. Andrew Prince, jeweller to Downton Abbey, told us of other bizarre culinary habits in his history of elite dining. Ancient Greeks and the Romans gave Michelin stars to bearded and robed Gordon Ramseys for such delicacies as snipe baked complete with entrails (juice squeezed from intestines seems to have been an aperitif). There were game birds cooked with their beaks, gilded peacocks were skinned before feathers were re-attached - and the fattened mice were very nice. Moving on, our own fashionable Georgians feasted their eyes on status-symbol pineapples so expensive they were rented out before being eaten, just in time presumably, by the final customer. All this was recounted, off the cuff and at speed. Mr Prince’s pictures showed, in vivid colours, tapestries and paintings of gluttony and random debauchery amid, even then, fabulous tableware. But our own banqueteers are no slouches: state dining, with its ranks of cutlery that one hopes will intimidate Mr Trump. Assorted gorgeous baroque silverware; although he’ll likely reposte that at Mar-a-Lago we have beautiful dishwashers soo big and detergent soo powerful we could fix all that fancy stuff in the first hour.
February Lecture - Monday 10 February 2025
You’re the Bank Top, you’re in first class - Niall Hammond and Peter Gibson
At twin lectures marking the 200th anniversary celebrations of Darlington's founding of passenger railways world-wide, criminals cheerfully owned up: yes, we defaced the Queen's coinage - and we still have the pennies we put on the line to be squashed by steam locos at the 150th birthday cavalcade. At galloping pace, Niall Hammond, chairman of the Friends of the S&DR trustees, gave an authoritative history of it all: the entrepreneurial zeal of Quakers, parliamentary battles, the engineering and the pageantry, excitement and jovial chaos of the inaugural journey. There was immediate foreign interest. One sidelight was that the engineering brain of it all, George Stephenson, was also "a world-class embroiderer" and we saw a painting of him being just that in Edward Pease's drawing room alongside ladies in bonnets. Former MP Peter Gibson detailed the £139m "new" Bank Top station with its two new Teesside-line platforms facing Neasham Road and with footbridge-access to the mainline; Tees trains will no longer have to cross the mainline, removing a bottleneck that limits capacity on both lines. How through-passengers to Weardale passengers will proceed was not clear.
You’re the Bank Top, you’re in first class - Niall Hammond and Peter Gibson
At twin lectures marking the 200th anniversary celebrations of Darlington's founding of passenger railways world-wide, criminals cheerfully owned up: yes, we defaced the Queen's coinage - and we still have the pennies we put on the line to be squashed by steam locos at the 150th birthday cavalcade. At galloping pace, Niall Hammond, chairman of the Friends of the S&DR trustees, gave an authoritative history of it all: the entrepreneurial zeal of Quakers, parliamentary battles, the engineering and the pageantry, excitement and jovial chaos of the inaugural journey. There was immediate foreign interest. One sidelight was that the engineering brain of it all, George Stephenson, was also "a world-class embroiderer" and we saw a painting of him being just that in Edward Pease's drawing room alongside ladies in bonnets. Former MP Peter Gibson detailed the £139m "new" Bank Top station with its two new Teesside-line platforms facing Neasham Road and with footbridge-access to the mainline; Tees trains will no longer have to cross the mainline, removing a bottleneck that limits capacity on both lines. How through-passengers to Weardale passengers will proceed was not clear.
January Lecture - Monday 13 January 2025
Mary Queen of Scots explains - Lesley Smith
It was an evening of vivid phrases and a frock to die in. Mary Queen of Scots, alias historian and consummate actress Lesley Smith, told the harrowing story of her short life. It was a tour de force, a tragic tale leavened by Ms Smith's quick wit and sly asides tailored for a modern audience. Mary called her nemesis, Elizabeth I, the daughter of "a goggled-eyed whore" (Anne Boleyn), and alleged that her own first mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, hired prostitutes to report back on the secrets of powerful men they slept with. Her first of three marriages, in Notre Dame as a virtual child bride to a French prince of similar age, was relative bliss before his murder and her return to Scotland to begin years of violence at the hands of the men in her life. Notoriously there was second husband Lord Darnley; "he was tri-sexual", we learned, if you include "he would try anything". The 19 years of peripapetic captivity in "gilded cages" - umpteen castles including Bolton in Wensleydale - ended with an horrifically botched beheading at Fotheringay. Cousin Elizabeth, who "wanted me dead but didn't want to kill me", had finally seen no other way. Near six-footer Mary died nobly at 43, calmly asking "please pay my servants". All this drama was detailed for us by a performer in gilded and bespoke Tudor finery.
Mary Queen of Scots explains - Lesley Smith
It was an evening of vivid phrases and a frock to die in. Mary Queen of Scots, alias historian and consummate actress Lesley Smith, told the harrowing story of her short life. It was a tour de force, a tragic tale leavened by Ms Smith's quick wit and sly asides tailored for a modern audience. Mary called her nemesis, Elizabeth I, the daughter of "a goggled-eyed whore" (Anne Boleyn), and alleged that her own first mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, hired prostitutes to report back on the secrets of powerful men they slept with. Her first of three marriages, in Notre Dame as a virtual child bride to a French prince of similar age, was relative bliss before his murder and her return to Scotland to begin years of violence at the hands of the men in her life. Notoriously there was second husband Lord Darnley; "he was tri-sexual", we learned, if you include "he would try anything". The 19 years of peripapetic captivity in "gilded cages" - umpteen castles including Bolton in Wensleydale - ended with an horrifically botched beheading at Fotheringay. Cousin Elizabeth, who "wanted me dead but didn't want to kill me", had finally seen no other way. Near six-footer Mary died nobly at 43, calmly asking "please pay my servants". All this drama was detailed for us by a performer in gilded and bespoke Tudor finery.
December Lecture - Monday 2 December 2024
Wildlife on the Yorkshire coast - Steve Race
500,000 seabirds inhabit the 450ft Bempton cliffs, south of Scarborough, at the peak of the breeding and fledging season. Who counts 'em? No-one was crass enough to ask Steve Race, who specialises in photographing the birds doing spectacular, beautiful, touching and amusing things and used to be the RSPB's man at Bempton. But we all wanted to, willing him to say "All done by AI, there's an app for it." It'll be an educated guess, natch - although he personally attests to the arrival, a few years ago, of precisely one. an albatross, a stray from the southern hemisphere that liked it so much stayed north for a second season, attracting thousands of twitchers. Eight species regularly check in, including 36,000 billing and cooing gannets (up to 5kg and 6ft wingspan, 2ft less than the albatross) descendants of just 21 in 1967. There's fulmar petrels, puffins with multi-colour beaks, penguin-lookalike guillemots and razorbills, the smallest.. Counts them in, does Steve, and he counts them out. This was touted as Yorkshire Wildlife, so there were intriguing bit-parts for such as dead and alive seals at Ravenscar. But inland birds had the last tweets: dipper chicks bobbing up and down on t' moors.
Wildlife on the Yorkshire coast - Steve Race
500,000 seabirds inhabit the 450ft Bempton cliffs, south of Scarborough, at the peak of the breeding and fledging season. Who counts 'em? No-one was crass enough to ask Steve Race, who specialises in photographing the birds doing spectacular, beautiful, touching and amusing things and used to be the RSPB's man at Bempton. But we all wanted to, willing him to say "All done by AI, there's an app for it." It'll be an educated guess, natch - although he personally attests to the arrival, a few years ago, of precisely one. an albatross, a stray from the southern hemisphere that liked it so much stayed north for a second season, attracting thousands of twitchers. Eight species regularly check in, including 36,000 billing and cooing gannets (up to 5kg and 6ft wingspan, 2ft less than the albatross) descendants of just 21 in 1967. There's fulmar petrels, puffins with multi-colour beaks, penguin-lookalike guillemots and razorbills, the smallest.. Counts them in, does Steve, and he counts them out. This was touted as Yorkshire Wildlife, so there were intriguing bit-parts for such as dead and alive seals at Ravenscar. But inland birds had the last tweets: dipper chicks bobbing up and down on t' moors.
November Lecture - Monday 11 November 2024
The oohs and awes of Euro bridges - Keith Holmes
Your reporter falls on his inky sword. The prodigious bridge-building feats of Santiago Calatrava, and his spectacular other architecture all over the world, has passed this scribe by - notwithstanding his being an early survivor of a commision the Zurich-based Swiss genius probably regrets. Keith Holmes, returning with a European edition of bridges that have beguiled/amazed/charmed him, told the sorry story of the modernist Ponte della Costituzione that since 2008 has invited arriving tourists to cross the Grand Canal after descending the broad staircase from Venice railway station. Officials were soon overwhelmed by claimants hurt in falls on the original slippery glass surface of the bridge. Venice sued and a recalcitrant Calatrava paid up for this and other alleged faults and a huge cost over-run Meanwhile, for sacrilegiously brewing coffee on the magnificent Rialto Bridge upstream, a German couple were fined £850; that elaborate crossing has two abutments each supported for five centuries by 6,000 logs driven into the canal silt, Photos and great tales of bridges In Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam, Spain and at Mostar, Bosnia,were capped by the inspiring Milllau viaduct in SW France.
The oohs and awes of Euro bridges - Keith Holmes
Your reporter falls on his inky sword. The prodigious bridge-building feats of Santiago Calatrava, and his spectacular other architecture all over the world, has passed this scribe by - notwithstanding his being an early survivor of a commision the Zurich-based Swiss genius probably regrets. Keith Holmes, returning with a European edition of bridges that have beguiled/amazed/charmed him, told the sorry story of the modernist Ponte della Costituzione that since 2008 has invited arriving tourists to cross the Grand Canal after descending the broad staircase from Venice railway station. Officials were soon overwhelmed by claimants hurt in falls on the original slippery glass surface of the bridge. Venice sued and a recalcitrant Calatrava paid up for this and other alleged faults and a huge cost over-run Meanwhile, for sacrilegiously brewing coffee on the magnificent Rialto Bridge upstream, a German couple were fined £850; that elaborate crossing has two abutments each supported for five centuries by 6,000 logs driven into the canal silt, Photos and great tales of bridges In Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam, Spain and at Mostar, Bosnia,were capped by the inspiring Milllau viaduct in SW France.
October Lecture - Monday 14 October 2024
Creating gardens, why bother? Alan Mason
Le Nôtre, Capability Brown...Alan Mason. That's 21th-century satire, a cheap knock-off inspired by an 18th-century landscaping tilt at the ubiquitous Brown: a clever dick hoped he would die before Brown (who on 170 occasions acted on a hunch that this or that country estate was "capable" of improvement), "so that I will arrive in heaven before it has been improved". And no doubt some were vile about Versailles or catty about Chantilly. So no hard feelings towards the gardens manager who was told on reporting for work at Capability's Yorkshire masterpiece that it was not 'arewood 'ouse but Haahwood House (rhyming with Mice). His talk Garden Design - Why Bother? was as irreverently entertaining as his 15 years of TV, and the pictures evocative. The child Le Nôtre lived in a Tuileries staff house, Brown in a Northumberland village near the great house where his mum was a maid; Mason is "a Tadcaster lad" who like Capability is hands on as well as a cerebral creator. Examples from triumphs in Europe include digging out runaway conifers diminishing a Chatsworth-style water staircase (replanting with cypresses) in Italy and revivifying top French gardens. And some advice: leave room for new shrubs to grow. Implied advice: beware pretension - "patio" is really an indoor courtyard and should be "terrace". We don't want to hear that.
Creating gardens, why bother? Alan Mason
Le Nôtre, Capability Brown...Alan Mason. That's 21th-century satire, a cheap knock-off inspired by an 18th-century landscaping tilt at the ubiquitous Brown: a clever dick hoped he would die before Brown (who on 170 occasions acted on a hunch that this or that country estate was "capable" of improvement), "so that I will arrive in heaven before it has been improved". And no doubt some were vile about Versailles or catty about Chantilly. So no hard feelings towards the gardens manager who was told on reporting for work at Capability's Yorkshire masterpiece that it was not 'arewood 'ouse but Haahwood House (rhyming with Mice). His talk Garden Design - Why Bother? was as irreverently entertaining as his 15 years of TV, and the pictures evocative. The child Le Nôtre lived in a Tuileries staff house, Brown in a Northumberland village near the great house where his mum was a maid; Mason is "a Tadcaster lad" who like Capability is hands on as well as a cerebral creator. Examples from triumphs in Europe include digging out runaway conifers diminishing a Chatsworth-style water staircase (replanting with cypresses) in Italy and revivifying top French gardens. And some advice: leave room for new shrubs to grow. Implied advice: beware pretension - "patio" is really an indoor courtyard and should be "terrace". We don't want to hear that.
September Lecture - Monday 9 September 2024
Our rivers runneth over - Paul Constantine
The Environment Agency is huge, its responsibilities scary. Paul Constantine, an EA senior adviser to the government on how to keep our rivers from floating your sofa whilst you lie abed, ranked it against our rail infrastructure: his agency has 500,000 assets (from mighty Pennine dams to fiddly devices on country streams) while the railways have rather fewer). Its spending gives Rachel Reeves nightmares. His overview covered centuries of misery and grief caused by Britain's rivers and the many billions spent, often in vain, on curbing their destructive power - despite dredging, straightening, embanking and floodgating, Old Man River eventually racks us with renewed pain. The 25-mile Skerne is the problem in microcosm: despite massive works over two centuries to protect the town centre, our police station built on the flood plain will one day be awash. Just decades ago, so it would be a depleted Cocker Beck entering the Skerne, they reversed the south-to-north flow of the Baydale Beck. We live in hope. But there is a universal solution: only live on hills.
Our rivers runneth over - Paul Constantine
The Environment Agency is huge, its responsibilities scary. Paul Constantine, an EA senior adviser to the government on how to keep our rivers from floating your sofa whilst you lie abed, ranked it against our rail infrastructure: his agency has 500,000 assets (from mighty Pennine dams to fiddly devices on country streams) while the railways have rather fewer). Its spending gives Rachel Reeves nightmares. His overview covered centuries of misery and grief caused by Britain's rivers and the many billions spent, often in vain, on curbing their destructive power - despite dredging, straightening, embanking and floodgating, Old Man River eventually racks us with renewed pain. The 25-mile Skerne is the problem in microcosm: despite massive works over two centuries to protect the town centre, our police station built on the flood plain will one day be awash. Just decades ago, so it would be a depleted Cocker Beck entering the Skerne, they reversed the south-to-north flow of the Baydale Beck. We live in hope. But there is a universal solution: only live on hills.
April Lecture - Monday 15 April 2024
No ceasefire on the home front - Sir Gary Coward
Letters to the Editor columns are a national institution, Lord Hague implied last month in his column in The Times - which he began with a generous tribute to the D&S, his required reading when, as the boy William, he was campaigning to become MP for Richmond; his point was the threat posed to our local democracy by 2024 media economics - fewer reporters mean councils cannot properly be held to account. But we digress from that initial mention of The Times. In 1884, that local paper for the national great and good, published a letter that within weeks led to a dozen ladies meeting to see how to help bereft and impoverished families of British soldiers killed or maimed fighting - well, yes, colonial, wars. Within a year the Soldiers and Sailors Families Association was formed. Lieut. Gen. Sir Gary Coward, who retired as the Army's quartermaster to become national chairman of SSAFA (with A for airmen added four decades later) told us the story of military charities over the centuries. The sector has grown from medieval dependence on the consciences of the landowning squirearchy whose peasants were pressed into militias and yeomanries to today's noble cohort of 2,262 organisations. They range from the behemoth British Legion with 210,000 members, 110,000 volunteers and the £50m Poppy Appeal to such as 2007's Help for Heroes which, with other smaller groups, is under the SSAFA umbrella. That seminal letter to The Times was written by Major James Gildea (pronounced "gill-day), whose wealthy family farmed Church land in the south of Ireland; his lifelong philanthropy earned him a knighthood. Among his successful campaigns were for statues of public figures he admired, including Queen Victoria.
No ceasefire on the home front - Sir Gary Coward
Letters to the Editor columns are a national institution, Lord Hague implied last month in his column in The Times - which he began with a generous tribute to the D&S, his required reading when, as the boy William, he was campaigning to become MP for Richmond; his point was the threat posed to our local democracy by 2024 media economics - fewer reporters mean councils cannot properly be held to account. But we digress from that initial mention of The Times. In 1884, that local paper for the national great and good, published a letter that within weeks led to a dozen ladies meeting to see how to help bereft and impoverished families of British soldiers killed or maimed fighting - well, yes, colonial, wars. Within a year the Soldiers and Sailors Families Association was formed. Lieut. Gen. Sir Gary Coward, who retired as the Army's quartermaster to become national chairman of SSAFA (with A for airmen added four decades later) told us the story of military charities over the centuries. The sector has grown from medieval dependence on the consciences of the landowning squirearchy whose peasants were pressed into militias and yeomanries to today's noble cohort of 2,262 organisations. They range from the behemoth British Legion with 210,000 members, 110,000 volunteers and the £50m Poppy Appeal to such as 2007's Help for Heroes which, with other smaller groups, is under the SSAFA umbrella. That seminal letter to The Times was written by Major James Gildea (pronounced "gill-day), whose wealthy family farmed Church land in the south of Ireland; his lifelong philanthropy earned him a knighthood. Among his successful campaigns were for statues of public figures he admired, including Queen Victoria.
March Lecture - Monday 11 March 2024
Novel memories of China - Jean Harrod
One of the perks for a multi-lingual Westerner in China is be in a crowded lift and to silently enjoy chit-about your “big feet” and other physical attributes – then, as you leave, pleasantly say your goodbyes in fluent Mandarin. If, like North Yorkshire retired diplomat, crime novelist and lecturer Jean Harrod, you work in the British embassy, the facility is career-advancing as you efficiently tackle the woes of British tourists. She joined the Foreign Office at 18 and was soon in China where, as they say, there were interesting times. She travelled, learned the history, enjoyed the friendly curiosity of ordinary people, but was spied on, followed, had her apartment bugged and met elderly Christian women who hid bibles and defied a ban on prayer meetings. Margaret Thatcher came to town and Jean took documents to her hotel room and was surprised how “tiny” the PM was – and was soon helping search under the bed for high-heeled shoes; “I know you” said Mrs T years later while meeting diplomats involved in Gorbachev’s London visit. She and her diplomat husband (from Peterlee) established the Shanghai consulate and the city was the milieu for her first thriller. A new novel, set in North Yorkshire, changes the genre and a play premieres in York in the summer.
Novel memories of China - Jean Harrod
One of the perks for a multi-lingual Westerner in China is be in a crowded lift and to silently enjoy chit-about your “big feet” and other physical attributes – then, as you leave, pleasantly say your goodbyes in fluent Mandarin. If, like North Yorkshire retired diplomat, crime novelist and lecturer Jean Harrod, you work in the British embassy, the facility is career-advancing as you efficiently tackle the woes of British tourists. She joined the Foreign Office at 18 and was soon in China where, as they say, there were interesting times. She travelled, learned the history, enjoyed the friendly curiosity of ordinary people, but was spied on, followed, had her apartment bugged and met elderly Christian women who hid bibles and defied a ban on prayer meetings. Margaret Thatcher came to town and Jean took documents to her hotel room and was surprised how “tiny” the PM was – and was soon helping search under the bed for high-heeled shoes; “I know you” said Mrs T years later while meeting diplomats involved in Gorbachev’s London visit. She and her diplomat husband (from Peterlee) established the Shanghai consulate and the city was the milieu for her first thriller. A new novel, set in North Yorkshire, changes the genre and a play premieres in York in the summer.
February Lecture - Monday 19 February 2024
Princes: Little, Happy - and Missing - Philippa Langley
The meat in Philippa Langley's proof of the innocence of Richard III in the matter of the Princes in the Tower is her discovery of 500-year-old documents that the pair were alive in their adulthood and plotting on the continent for a return to England to forcibly reinstall the elder prince as the Edward V he had been until just before his planned coronation. We, a full house, seemed already convinced by the case made by this local-girl-made-good (who spoke affectionately of "Darlo") when she then presented a speculative clincher. On the day when Alexei Navalny's widow had emotionally denounced her loved one's alleged killer, the lack of a similar response by the mother of the missing princes was significant, said Philippa. So the ubiquitous Elizabeth Woodville, twice the queen consort during the interrupted reign of Edward IV, now has a role in this greatest of royal mysteries. She was well used to grief: twice widowed, she had already lost five of her 12 offspring (four in childhood, another executed) so may have been drained of emotion by the time of these latest disappearances. Philippa had already shown us on screen the documentary evidence, found in archives in Lille and Arnhem by Dutch academics. She said her missing persons inquiry began with her accepting police advice to have an open mind and to broaden the investigation ever-wider. Eight years later she has 300,000 lines of inquiry on her computer, many of them international, and 300 of them active; "only yesterday," she added, a visit to Raby Castle added another. Of an inscription on a marble memorial in Westminster Abbey that said the princes' grave was below, she said it was at depth where there were only burial centuries earlier; Elizabeth II forbade its opening to find DNA but it was hoped the new king would allow that. A Daily Mail headline, "It's mad to make this child-killer a national hero" had only stiffened her resolve.
Princes: Little, Happy - and Missing - Philippa Langley
The meat in Philippa Langley's proof of the innocence of Richard III in the matter of the Princes in the Tower is her discovery of 500-year-old documents that the pair were alive in their adulthood and plotting on the continent for a return to England to forcibly reinstall the elder prince as the Edward V he had been until just before his planned coronation. We, a full house, seemed already convinced by the case made by this local-girl-made-good (who spoke affectionately of "Darlo") when she then presented a speculative clincher. On the day when Alexei Navalny's widow had emotionally denounced her loved one's alleged killer, the lack of a similar response by the mother of the missing princes was significant, said Philippa. So the ubiquitous Elizabeth Woodville, twice the queen consort during the interrupted reign of Edward IV, now has a role in this greatest of royal mysteries. She was well used to grief: twice widowed, she had already lost five of her 12 offspring (four in childhood, another executed) so may have been drained of emotion by the time of these latest disappearances. Philippa had already shown us on screen the documentary evidence, found in archives in Lille and Arnhem by Dutch academics. She said her missing persons inquiry began with her accepting police advice to have an open mind and to broaden the investigation ever-wider. Eight years later she has 300,000 lines of inquiry on her computer, many of them international, and 300 of them active; "only yesterday," she added, a visit to Raby Castle added another. Of an inscription on a marble memorial in Westminster Abbey that said the princes' grave was below, she said it was at depth where there were only burial centuries earlier; Elizabeth II forbade its opening to find DNA but it was hoped the new king would allow that. A Daily Mail headline, "It's mad to make this child-killer a national hero" had only stiffened her resolve.
January Lecture - Monday 8 January 2024
Diverse thoughts on the diva - Nigel Bates
Nigel Bates, with artistic and management Royal Opera House credentials, told of tension and tantrums as opening night looms. Worse, there's also been unplanned drama in front of 2,000 high-paying patrons. We duly saw, on the wide screen, a slender tenor storm into the wings, not to re-appear, after a perceived slight. A non-acting and plump replacement for Act II saved the day. And we heard that Maria Callas was indeed a demanding diva but also one who shook like a leaf until the moment she went on stage. Also on screen, we saw why, after the BBC was a fly on the wall at a management meeting for the revealing 1995 series The House,the ROH has not since invited TV cameras in. A highlight was close-up video of a soaring La Traviata aria (Alicia McVeigh, with chorus ladies deliciously animated by real champagne allowed on stage for a special performance); Ballet, too, has its moments, when choreographer Frederick Ashton cast real doves in The Two Pigeons: when one of them fled into the audience, on came a standby - only for the errant bird to return on hearing its musical cue.
Diverse thoughts on the diva - Nigel Bates
Nigel Bates, with artistic and management Royal Opera House credentials, told of tension and tantrums as opening night looms. Worse, there's also been unplanned drama in front of 2,000 high-paying patrons. We duly saw, on the wide screen, a slender tenor storm into the wings, not to re-appear, after a perceived slight. A non-acting and plump replacement for Act II saved the day. And we heard that Maria Callas was indeed a demanding diva but also one who shook like a leaf until the moment she went on stage. Also on screen, we saw why, after the BBC was a fly on the wall at a management meeting for the revealing 1995 series The House,the ROH has not since invited TV cameras in. A highlight was close-up video of a soaring La Traviata aria (Alicia McVeigh, with chorus ladies deliciously animated by real champagne allowed on stage for a special performance); Ballet, too, has its moments, when choreographer Frederick Ashton cast real doves in The Two Pigeons: when one of them fled into the audience, on came a standby - only for the errant bird to return on hearing its musical cue.
December Lecture - Monday 4 December 2023
Digs at Bamburgh Castle and Durham Cathedral - Charlotte Roberts
Some of the technical stuff and on-screen paperwork could be as dry as - well, as the midsummer sweepings into the apprentice archaeologist's dustpan. But conclusions drawn by the professor in charge of major digs at Palace Green just yards from Durham cathedral and near Bamburgh castle (Bowl Hole) were fascinating: all human life and, more to the point, death were there. Charlotte Roberts, now emeritus from her senior post at the University of Durham, said her earlier career, as a fully-fledged nurse, helps a lot in identifying old bones and deciding the cause of death. In Northumberland, half of the 7th and 8th century graves yielded Scandinavian, Mediterranean and North African natives, probably pilgrims to this font of early Christianity. In Durham, the find was of 1,600 Scottish soldiers who did not survive captivity in the disused cathedral to which an original 3,000 had been marched after 1650 defeat at Dunbar. Their teeth indicated many were aged 13 to 18. If, in death, you wish to send a message to future archaeologists, ignore your dentist's advice: analysis of plaque, apparently, says a lot to these experts. Of the Scots who survived their Durham sojourn, we were told, not a few ended up in early British settlements in America.
Digs at Bamburgh Castle and Durham Cathedral - Charlotte Roberts
Some of the technical stuff and on-screen paperwork could be as dry as - well, as the midsummer sweepings into the apprentice archaeologist's dustpan. But conclusions drawn by the professor in charge of major digs at Palace Green just yards from Durham cathedral and near Bamburgh castle (Bowl Hole) were fascinating: all human life and, more to the point, death were there. Charlotte Roberts, now emeritus from her senior post at the University of Durham, said her earlier career, as a fully-fledged nurse, helps a lot in identifying old bones and deciding the cause of death. In Northumberland, half of the 7th and 8th century graves yielded Scandinavian, Mediterranean and North African natives, probably pilgrims to this font of early Christianity. In Durham, the find was of 1,600 Scottish soldiers who did not survive captivity in the disused cathedral to which an original 3,000 had been marched after 1650 defeat at Dunbar. Their teeth indicated many were aged 13 to 18. If, in death, you wish to send a message to future archaeologists, ignore your dentist's advice: analysis of plaque, apparently, says a lot to these experts. Of the Scots who survived their Durham sojourn, we were told, not a few ended up in early British settlements in America.
November Lecture - Monday 13 November 2023
No generals and a five star-rating - Keith Offord
Ornithology, yes, but also pyrotechnics. They were one and the same at master photographer Keith Offord's show about Costa Rica, the tropical paradise - socially, as well as the usual definitions -- which is unique among the motley nations crowding the narrow strip of land that 17 million years ago rose from the waters to create Central America. The explosions that brought oohs and aahs from the audience were not fireworks to celebrate, for instance, the imminent 73rd anniversary of Abolition of Army Day; they were the extraordinary - some might say gaudy - display, in sharp-focusTechnicolor, of the country's bird-life. Britain has some 250 species of birds; Costa Rica has 850 species in a country the size of Wales. We were treated to samples from many of the sub-tribes: humming birds galore, fly-catchers, ant-eaters, predators, all gloriously arrayed - think kingfisher times ten and in multi-sized profusion. Ironically, though, the official national bird is the "clay-coloured thrush", chosen because the obvious "resplendent quetzal" was bagged by a neighbouring state. Larger wildlife is also prolific, but we saw only a monkey, snakes and sloths - the latter to illustrate the joke about the weekly highlight of the lazy creature's life: descent from its tree home to defecate.
No generals and a five star-rating - Keith Offord
Ornithology, yes, but also pyrotechnics. They were one and the same at master photographer Keith Offord's show about Costa Rica, the tropical paradise - socially, as well as the usual definitions -- which is unique among the motley nations crowding the narrow strip of land that 17 million years ago rose from the waters to create Central America. The explosions that brought oohs and aahs from the audience were not fireworks to celebrate, for instance, the imminent 73rd anniversary of Abolition of Army Day; they were the extraordinary - some might say gaudy - display, in sharp-focusTechnicolor, of the country's bird-life. Britain has some 250 species of birds; Costa Rica has 850 species in a country the size of Wales. We were treated to samples from many of the sub-tribes: humming birds galore, fly-catchers, ant-eaters, predators, all gloriously arrayed - think kingfisher times ten and in multi-sized profusion. Ironically, though, the official national bird is the "clay-coloured thrush", chosen because the obvious "resplendent quetzal" was bagged by a neighbouring state. Larger wildlife is also prolific, but we saw only a monkey, snakes and sloths - the latter to illustrate the joke about the weekly highlight of the lazy creature's life: descent from its tree home to defecate.
October Lecture - Monday 9 October 2023
Richard III: My truths - Gareth Williams
We should have booed him off the (Bosworth) field of course: Richard III, aka as British Museum curator and actor Gareth Williams, in question time and still in costume after his compelling performance as the 1485 defender of his two-year reign. He had come down against a film made by Our Girl - Philippa Langley, brought up in Darlington, the heroine of the Leicester car park sensation. Now her film The Lost King about the Raby Castle-connected and Middleham Castle-headquartered champion of the Yorkist cause is being sued by a partner in the famous dig. So too is Steve Coogan who played the aggrieved party, a Leicester University academic whose allegation is that Coogan's portrayal defamed him. Dr Williams said the university, vital to the dig's success, had received a raw deal from the film. But he added unequivocally that without Ms Langley (who will address the association on February 19) Richard's body would not have been found. That last bit mollified us; that, and, as Richard clasping a a massive sword, his admirably modernised eve-of- Bosworth hopes and fears. Richard's son was born at Middleham, his mother at Raby.
Richard III: My truths - Gareth Williams
We should have booed him off the (Bosworth) field of course: Richard III, aka as British Museum curator and actor Gareth Williams, in question time and still in costume after his compelling performance as the 1485 defender of his two-year reign. He had come down against a film made by Our Girl - Philippa Langley, brought up in Darlington, the heroine of the Leicester car park sensation. Now her film The Lost King about the Raby Castle-connected and Middleham Castle-headquartered champion of the Yorkist cause is being sued by a partner in the famous dig. So too is Steve Coogan who played the aggrieved party, a Leicester University academic whose allegation is that Coogan's portrayal defamed him. Dr Williams said the university, vital to the dig's success, had received a raw deal from the film. But he added unequivocally that without Ms Langley (who will address the association on February 19) Richard's body would not have been found. That last bit mollified us; that, and, as Richard clasping a a massive sword, his admirably modernised eve-of- Bosworth hopes and fears. Richard's son was born at Middleham, his mother at Raby.