Monday 1 July 2019

The 2019-20 lecture programme and a very special event for Christmas

Since the completion of last season's programme of lectures on 25 April three groups of HA Bath members have visited The Hall at Bradford-on-Avon on 23 May and 6 June and Hamswell House, just north of Bath, on 12 June.

Some members also attended the Historical Association Conference in Chester on 17 and 18 May.

The next scheduled event for members is the first of our lectures for the 2019-20 season. Details of the seven lectures were circulated at the branch's annual general meeting on 25 April. They will all take place at our new home, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution in Queen Square.

The first speaker of our new season will be local favourite Dr Amy Frost of Bath Preservation Trust whose subject will be Researching William Beckford's Fonthill. Amy will be followed by Paul Simons, also well-known in Bath, a restoration architect whose first-hand experience will enable him to explain the issues involved in recreating historic buildings. In November we will welcome Tracy Borman, renowned author and joint Chief Curator (with Lucy Worsley) of Historic Royal Palaces. In the new year a varied programme will be presented by speakers from Birkbeck University of London and the universities of Birmingham and Worcester.

This year's special event before Christmas will be very special indeed. It will begin with a talk, accompanied by a glass of wine, given by Stephen Bird, Head of Heritage Services for B&NES, in the Pump Room. This will be followed by a guided tour of the Roman Baths and Museum. We will finish with a buffet on the enclosed terrace overlooking the Great Bath, which will be illuminated with flaming torches. The date for this is Tuesday 3 December, the starting time 7 o'clock. Details and application forms will be sent to members during August.

This is the programme ...

26 September 2019
Researching William Beckford's Fonthill
Dr Amy Frost (Bath Preservation Trust)

24 October 2019
Recreating Elizabethan and Jacobean Theatres: Shakespeare's Globe and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Paul Simons (Restoration architect)

21 November 2019
Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him
Dr Tracy Borman (Heritage Education Trust, Historic Royal Palaces)

3 December 2019
Members' Christmas Visit and Buffet at the Roman Baths and Pump Room, Bath

23 January 2020
International diplomacy between the wars: dead ends or new beginnings?
Dr Jessica Reinisch (Birkbeck University of London)

27 February 2020
Who is the tramp? Vagrancy in Victorian and Edwardian Britain
Professor Nicholas Crowson (University of Birmingham)

26 March 2020
The search for women in the Viking Age
Dr Chris Callow (University of Birmingham)

23 April 2020
Royal attitudes to the Atlantic slave trade, 1785-1808
Professor Suzanne Schwarz (University of Worcester)

All lectures will take place on Thursday evenings at 7.30 at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square. I will introduce each lecture in this diary.

Mike Short