It’s 2020 and you’re warmly invited to our East Anglia Regional Study Day! This is our fourth one and it’s on Saturday 29 February 2020 at the Cedars Hotel, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 2AJ starting at 10.30 am with coffee/tea available from 10.00.

Our speakers include Dr Sophie Thérèse Ambler (FRHistS, FHEA Lecturer in Later Medieval British and European History at Lancaster University) who will be talking to us on Simon de Montfort and the Battle of Evesham (1265).

We are very pleased to welcome back Dr Harry Sidebottom, author of the Warrior of Rome novels and Fellow and Director of Studies in Ancient History at St Benets Hall, and Lecturer in Ancient History at Lincoln College, who will be talking on the Late Roman Army and the East Anglia Saxon Shore forts.

And for those of you who missed our study day on the Battle of Fornham Dr James Barnaby has very kindly agreed to talk to us about the Campaign of 1173 building up to the actual battle. And as ever Trust Development Officer Julian Humphrys will be with us, to talk on the work he’s been doing around the Battle of Hastings, and answer questions on the work of the Trust.

We also want to take this opportunity to seek members’ views on future Trust activities in East Anglia.

Price: £32 to include a buffet lunch and tea/coffee. (Life members £25).

Please contact David Austin for a booking form.
Here is a link to the Cedars’ website

We really look forward to seeing you there.

The Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society will be running a stall at the Court House in Berkhamsted where there will be a small history display and a number of local history books for sale, including ‘Berkhamsted in WWI’ and ‘Men of Berkhamsted – Lest We Forget’. Do stop by for a chat! Tea, cake and coffee will be served (at 50p).

“Invasion 1940 What If?”, by Tony Eaton.

From The National Archives: “Historians are divided about whether a German invasion could ever have succeeded. In the end, it never happened but [there was] some indication that the British government seriously considered that there might be an invasion.”

Meeting begins at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall, Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £3 at the door.

Our 40th Annual Symposium will be taking place on Saturday 9 November at Woolmer Green. This year’s theme is ‘Local History, Landscape & Archaeology’ and we are very pleased to welcome some excellent speakers. We will be considering how the study of archaeology and local history come together in the research of our local landscape.  More details and a booking form can be found in the Autumn 2019 edition of News & Events or via our website

Programme

• Archaeological Investigations on the Site of the Former County Gaol, Baker Street, Hertford (Peter Boyer)
• The Swiss Cottage in Cassiobury Park, Watford: Estate of the Earls of Essex from the Late Seventeenth Century until 1922 (Laurie Elvin)
• Why local historians need to be archaeologically literate (Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews)
• A late medieval tile kiln at Buntingford Road, Puckeridge (Mark Hinman)
• The Kelshall Hoard (Phil Kirk)
• History, archaeology, local history: a strained relationship? (Kris Lockyear)
• Henry VIII’s fishponds at Hunsdon (Anne Rowe)
• Gobions and Beyond: archaeology and garden history in Hertfordshire (Tom Williamson)

We hope you will be able to attend, and if you haven’t already booked, please return your booking form by 26 October.

“Berkhamsted in maps”, by Bill Willett.

John Cook noted in 2000: “Bill Willett, maker of the Berkhamsted Citizens Association new footpath map, has pointed out an interesting change in our countryside that has taken place since the last version of the map came out: he has found in plotting his map and checking it on the ground that there is much more woodland now than was the case then… lots more trees today – in the Town and in the countryside round about – than there were 60 years ago.” (Berkhamsted Review).

Meeting begins at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall, Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £3 at the door.

Enjoy a spell-binding performance which brings local history to life – and an opportunity to learn storytelling skills yourself!

The accomplished performers of The Heroine Project (who wowed audiences at last September’s Heritage Open Day in Rectory Lane Cemetery) are returning with two further performances of Memento Mori (‘Remember you have to die’) this Saturday in the Cemetery.

They bring some of the women buried in the cemetery back to life and vividly evoke Victorian Berkhamsted.

Each performance will be followed by refreshments and a specially designed workshop.  The morning (11.00) is suitable for families, from 7 upwards, the afternoon (14.00) for ages 15+.  If you’re interested in local history and engaging new audiences in appreciating it – this is for you!

This is a collaboration between the Rectory Lane Cemetery Project and The Heroine Project and is delivered as part of the 2019 Chiltern Heritage Festival.

Cliveden house and gardens near Beaconsfield

Amazing setting overlooking the Thames. Historic House, some rooms MAY be open, but lavishly changed by the Astor family and notorious for the Profumo / Christine Keeler affair. (You can see the swimming pool!) Afterwards we drop down to the Thames below and visit the Stanley Spencer gallery and have a guided tour there and a guided walk around Spencer’s Cookham.

We run our trips in conjunction with the Berkhamsted Probus Club. The cost is usually between £25 and £35 per person. If you are interested please contact Bill Willett on 01442 863760 or email here