Lectures to Clubs and Groups
I’ve put together, below, a list of the talks that I can do to Clubs and U3A Groups. Daytime and weekend talks are sometimes possible. Zoom is preferred in winter months.
Charges for 2026-27 are below – please use the contact form for enquiries and latest charges
In-person talks are charged at £50, including travel up to 20 miles each way. Mileage above that is charged at 50p per mile.
Zoom talks are charged at £45. (The club/group is responsible for providing the Zoom).
1. A Victorian Society
“A Victorian Society” is about early photography and photographers in Oldham, told against the backdrop of life in what was to become the most productive cotton spinning town in the world. In 1867, when photography was still in its infancy, a group of photographers from Oldham and District met at the Hare and Hounds Inn, Yorkshire Street, and founded the Oldham Photographic Society and some of these men would provide the early photographic studios in the town.
The talk traces the progress of the society and its members, through two world wars to the present day. It answers the questions of who these men were, what they did and describes how some rose to prominence in the world of photography, commerce and manufacturing, some of their businesses achieving national and international importance.
1 hour 15 mins approx
2. The English Civil War in West Yorkshire
Most of us know something about the English Civil War or Wars are they are more correctly known. The author was born in Dewsbury and was taught about the roundheads and cavaliers and the beheading of King Charles 1st,, of Oliver Cromwell and the eventual restitution of the monarchy, but knew nothing about what happened in her own area, the towns now situated in Kirklees and Calderdale.
Based on her extensive research, we look at the less known but equally important events of the Civil War as they played out in West Yorkshire, around Halifax, Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds… the battles and sieges, and the personalities. The talk includes some first-hand written accounts from the Parliament and Royalist sides and from an ordinary citizen of Bradford.
1 hour 15 minutes approx.
3. Misdemeanour, Felony and Bankruptcy
Tracing your family history can be a dicey business. Maybe we’ll find the aristocracy, but we are also descended from a huge variety of types of people. As the family tree reveals its hidden branches, our research will uncover ancestors of different status and level of education, rich and poor, successful men and bankrupts, hard workers and shirkers, sane and mad people, honest folk and dishonest.
The talk covers crime and punishment from the 16th to 19th centuries…plus a look at the history of Wakefield Prison, York Castle Prison and Rothwell Gaol, where records indicate that my own culpable ancestors were taken.
About 1 hour 15 minutes
4. The Archers of Ossett
A Family History talk. This is the story of one family, the author’s direct ancestors and is situated in the small West Riding town of Ossett. The talk begins with the history of archery, the occupation which gave name to her family. The main line is followed down from her earliest traceable ancestors who were the village blacksmiths and through their progression to textile machine manufacturing in the shoddy and mungo industry.
It follows the family’s fortunes and misfortunes, their successes and failures, from bankruptcy to industrial espionage during the Napoleonic Wars, their misdemeanours and madness and the story ends with her grandfather, George Archer, and his experiences on the battlefields of Europe, at Passchendaele.
1 hour 15 mins approx
5. Defenders of the Norman Crown: The Warennes & The Elland Feud (New for 2027)
As Lords of the Honours of Wakefield and Conisborough, the Warennes controlled a large part of the West Riding of Yorkshire after the Norman Conquest… and they are a perfect example of powerful magnates of the medieval period, who shaped English society for hundreds of years. The talk covers 300 years of their tenure, and includes, along the way:
- The Norman Conquest and the New Aristocracy
- The Rise and Demise of the Warenne Dynasty
- The Northern Uprising and the Harrying of the North
- The Honour and Manor of Wakefield
- Succession Wars / The Anarchy
- Conisborough and Sandal Castles
- Magna Carta
- Warenne’s Justice – The Halifax Gibbet
- Power struggles between the Earls Warenne and Lancaster: Abduction and Excommunication, Executions of Piers Gaveston and the Earl of Lancaster
- Culminating in The Elland Feud – Murder and Revenge
About 1 hour 15 minutes
6. Two Remarkable Dewsbury Men
John Hemingway
The story of John Hemingway, born to a poor family in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire and rose to become Master Mason on the Britannia Rail Bridge over the Menai Strait. He was a distant cousin of Christine, several generations removed.
Professor Tom Kilburn FRS
Professor Tom Kilburn FRS, born in Dewsbury and a childhood friend of Christine’s father…worked on RADAR in WW2, built the first stored-memory computer named “Baby” at Manchester University and went on to collaborate with Ferranti on the Ferranti Mark I Computer and the Atlas Computer. He founded Manchester University’s Dept of Computer Science.
About 1 hour 10 minutes for both
7. Mapping and Weighing the World
Mapping the World
This follows the history of map making, from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, culminating in the county maps of Britain, drawn by Ossett born mapmaker Christopher Saxton during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Weighing the World
The story of John Michell. He was an English philosopher and clergyman who provided pioneering insights into a wide range of scientific fields including astronomy, geology, seismology, optics, and gravitation. Considered “one of the greatest unsung scientists of all time”, he has been called the father both of seismology and of magnetometry and he invented an apparatus to measure the mass of the Earth. John Michell was the Rector of Thornhill in West Yorkshire…as such he was parish priest to the author’s family.
About 1 hour 15 minutes for both
8. West Yorkshire’s Industrial Past
About 45 minutes for Shoddy and Mungo, usually combined with The Colne Bridge Fire, which adds another 30 minutes
Shoddy and Mungo
The history of shoddy and mungo industries, including my family’s involvement in that.
The processes.
Health of the workers.
Rise of the shoddy industry.
The Shoddy Industry abroad – my family’s involvement.
The demise and resurrection of Shoddy.
The Colne Bridge Fire
The talk is about child labour in the 18th and 19th centuries as Britain industrialised on a grand scale. It features the story of Atkinson’s Mill at Colne Bridge near Huddersfield, where 2 girls, from the author’s ancestral family, were among many who were killed in a mill fire.
This disaster resulted in a change in the law, so that children of our generation are spared mill work at an early age and have time to be educated and to play.
1 hour 15 minutes for both