2023/2024 Programme

Monday 2nd October
Claire Wallace
The Suffolk Regiment and the Battle of Neuve Chapelle
Claire Wallace, Curator of the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Regiments Museum, will speak about the 4th Battalion’s role in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, relating it to objects within the collection, some never seen by the public before.  She will also speak about exciting forthcoming developments at the Museum.

Monday 30th October
Andrew Peachey
Memento Mori – finding the Roman dead at Great Whelnetham
Antiquarians began to record that there were Roman remains at Great Whelnetham, close to south of Bury St Edmunds, and although a pottery kiln and coin hoard were subsequently revealed, the nature of this settlement in a marginal and unfavourable area of landscape has been enigmatic.  Recent archaeological excavations have revealed a cemetery adjacent to a former river channel that provides a new glimpse at the occupants of the village.  But history can be stranger than fiction, and the cemetery contained a very high proportion of decapitated and deviant burials that suggests activity may have been far from domestic and ‘normal’.

Monday 4th December
Adrian Tindall
The Montpellier of Suffolk: Bury St Edmunds’ French connections.
From William the Conqueror’s doctor to a Queen of France, from a Georgian émigré to a Victorian cyclist, from Napoleon to D-Day, the story of Bury St Edmunds has for 1,000 years been linked with that of France.  This illustrated talk will take you on a tour through the ages, tracing Bury St Edmunds’ sometimes surprising French Connections.

Monday 8th January
Stephen Moody
Retail in Bury St Edmunds, Past and Present
This talk looks at how the High Street had changed and evolved over the last fifty years and the challenges it faces going forward.  Focusing on Bury St Edmunds town centre, we look back nostalgically at some of the names and businesses that served the town, with photos and stories to bring back many memories.  We also look to the future, and how the town centre will change and adapt to meet the challenges of online shopping and leisure.

Monday 5th February
Tom Williamson
Humphrey Repton
Humphrey Repton is, after ‘Capability’ Brown, England’s most famous landscape designer.  Born in Suffolk in 1752, he worked throughout England, undertaking numerous commissions in East Anglia in particular.  This talk will explain what was distinctive about Repton’s style of ‘landscape gardening’ and why it was so popular and influential.

Monday 6th March
Annual General Meeting followed by Alex McWhirter, Heritage Officer
‘Infantacide and insanity – A Suffolk Tragedy’
From the Assize calendars of 19th Century Bury St Edmunds, I wish to highlight a tragic case of infanticide and madness probably new to most audiences. I will talk about the developing wider laws regarding both these subjects framed in an individual Suffolk resident’s life and experiences.

 

Lecture Archive

2022 – 2023

2021 – 2022

2020 – 2021

2019 – 2020

2018 – 2019

2017 – 2018

2016 – 2017

2015 – 2016

2014 – 2015

2013 – 2014

2012 – 2013

2011 – 2012

2010 – 2011

2009 – 2010

2008 – 2009

2007 – 2008

2006 – 2007

2005 – 2006

2004 – 2005

2003 – 2004

2002 – 2003

2001 – 2002

2000 – 2001

Picture of the Month