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Louth Museum

Lectures and Outings

2024 PROGRAMME

Our lectures and visits in 2024

The lectures in 2024 will be held either in the Methodist Church in Nichol Hill, LN11 9NQ, or online using Zoom. Visitors or members may request a Zoom link by emailing start.david@btinternet.com.

Lincolnshire Film Archive: Louth and its surroundings from Horncastle to Skegness

Tuesday, 11th February 2025 7:30pm by Lincolnshire Film Archive

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Lincolnshire Film Archive: Louth and its surroundings from Horncastle to Skegness

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

The Lincolnshire Film Archive is a charity set up to locate and preserve historic films of Lincolnshire and bring them back to the big screen to be enjoyed by everyone.

Tonight’s selection of films will feature Louth and surrounding area from Horncastle to the west and eastwards to the coast including Skegness.
 

Verlaine in Lincolnshire

Tuesday, 18th February 2025 7:30pm by Dr David Whittle

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Verlaine in Lincolnshire

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Born in Boston, David read Music at Nottingham University. Some years later he undertook research into the composer Bruce Montgomery (aka Edmund Crispin, author of detective fiction), his biography of whom was published in 2007. For 32 years David was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School. He is active as an organist, giving recitals here and there, as well as playing in big bands and folk groups. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

A rare calm period in the often stormy life of French poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was the 15 months he spent in Lincolnshire (1875-6), teaching in Stickney and then living in Boston. The talk will discuss the circumstances which led this already admired poet to the Lincolnshire fens, his life and relationships there and the effect they had on his subsequent poetry and remaining years in France. There may also be a short interlude or two from the music his poetry inspired in composers such as Debussy and Fauré.
 

 

Political Lincolnshire - Radicalism and traditionalism in county history

Tuesday, 25th February 2025 7:30pm by Derek Turner

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Political Lincolnshire - Radicalism and traditionalism in county history

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Dublin-born Derek Turner lived in London for 11 years before moving full time to Lincolnshire in 2000. He writes for journals including the Spectator, Irish Times and Country Life, and is the author of three novels as well as a non-fiction book, Edge of England: Landfall in Lincolnshire (Hurst, 2022). He is presently writing a book about English local identities.

His talk will examine the way both radical and conservative political ideas have manifested themselves in Lincolnshire’s history from the Middle Ages to today, through the actions, careers and writings of remarkable individuals.
 

Gilbert Country - the Lincolnshire and rural England of the author Bernard Samuel Gilbert, 1882-1927

Tuesday, 4th March 2025 7:30pm by Andrew Jackson

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Gilbert Country - the Lincolnshire and rural England of the author Bernard Samuel Gilbert, 1882-1927

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Andrew is a historian and geographer, but his interests extend into the fields of English Literature and Art History. His projects and publications reflect interests in Britain’s past of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Recent investigations have focussed on the histories of the counties of Lincolnshire and Devon, rural landscape and culture, and the period 1910-1939.

This talk will introduce his recent publication, Rural England Through War and Peace: The Literary Work of Lincolnshire’s Bernard Samuel Gilbert, 1882-1927. Andrew will outline his research on the author over the last fifteen years. He will discuss Gilbert’s life and work, and his remarkable literary construction, ‘Old England’. It is an interweaving of fact and fiction, based closely on the districts, places, and people of Lincolnshire.
 

Claribel - a life in song

Tuesday, 11th March 2025 7:30pm by Kate Witney and Prof Bill Everett

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Claribel - a life in song

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Kate Witney, originally from Louth, is a singer and singing teacher.  Bill Everett is Professor Emeritus of Musicology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, and Docente for the History of Music at IULM University in Milan.

Bill Everett and Kate Witney outline the life of Charlotte Alington Pye, a daughter of Louth, who achieved world-wide fame in the nineteenth century as the song writer Claribel. This will be a chance to hear some of her songs and to view images from her last commonplace book, recently acquired by Louth Museum.

The Ottaway Lecture. Changing migration flyways

Tuesday, 18th March 2025 7:30pm by Phil Espin

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The Ottaway Lecture. Changing migration flyways

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Phil is born and bred in Louth and has been birding in Lincolnshire for 50 years. He has been a member of Lincs Bird Club since its formation in 1979 and has been chair for the last 11 years.  In 2020 he co-authored Birds of Lincolnshire, the third county avifauna since predecessors in 1955 and 1989. In 2024 he co-authored Birds of Louth with the late John Clarkson. Phil is a very keen birder and has travelled all over Britain, Europe and the world watching birds. In the last year he has been to Bermuda, Oman, Corsica and South Africa.

Phil will be talking about how climate change has started to impact the migratory and breeding habits of our local Lincolnshire birds over the last 50 years and what further changes we might see.

Kings, counts and ordinary people of Welton-le-Wold in the 12th and early 13th century

Tuesday, 25th March 2025 7:30pm by Christopher North

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Kings, counts and ordinary people of Welton-le-Wold in the 12th and early 13th century

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Christopher is a former teacher of history, local history and archaeology.  Principally interested in the development and repair of old buildings, he subsequently became an Historic Buildings Advisor in Suffolk.  Using this experience he studied for the MSc in Timber Building Conservation at the Weald and Downland Museum where he gained a distinction.  At the same time he and his wife Margery created a business selling eco-friendly building and decorating materials, the first in East Anglia and the winner of awards.  Having dug as an archaeologist he now digs even deeper as an historian.

This talk will explore how local history ought not to be confined to the limits of the parish boundary, but that it can have regional and national implications and of course in turn, be affected by human activities elsewhere, sometimes even from quite some distance.

Conservation at South Ormsby Park and Lake

Tuesday, 1st April 2025 7:30pm by Jon Thornes MBE

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Conservation at South Ormsby Park and Lake

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Jon Thornes has built a career that blends technology with entrepreneurship, starting from growing up on a dairy farm and attending agricultural college.  In 1998, he founded Cool Milk, a pioneering venture that utilized digital systems to streamline milk delivery to schools.  Jon was awarded an MBE for services to his local community in 2010.  He now spends a significant portion of his time mentoring and investing in young entrepreneurs, particularly through Cranfield University’s Bettany Centre.  In recent years, his focus has expanded to South Ormsby Estate, where he integrates sustainable farming with cutting-edge technology.  The estate is home to one of the largest Lincoln Red herds in the country, alongside a gin distillery and other innovative ventures.

Jon’s talk will detail the lake’s early history including the weir and boat house; the reason the work was needed; the paintings that were the inspiration for the work; the work required and progress to date.

Matthew Flinders

Tuesday, 8th April 2025 7:30pm by Jane Pearson

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Matthew Flinders

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

AGM & The Robinson Lecture. Lincolnshire bricks: made and displayed

Tuesday, 15th April 2025 7:30pm by Ken Redmore and Stewart Squires

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AGM & The Robinson Lecture. Lincolnshire bricks: made and displayed

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Ken grew up in Horncastle; worked as a teacher and college lecturer; and later in Lincolnshire County Council’s Education Department. After retirement he developed an interest in industrial archaeology, including brickmaking. 
Stewart was born in Lincolnshire and is a proud ‘yellerbelly’. He is a  retired Chartered Town Planner who specialised in historic buildings and has a brick collection.

The brickmaking industry of Lincolnshire was widespread and crucial to the erection of buildings and other structures in settlements across the county. We will examine the operation of local brickyards and some of the men who worked in them. We will also look at Lincolnshire bricks and some of the outstanding brick buildings in the county.  We are greatly indebted to the late David Robinson for his legacy of bricks and related documents and photographs which have not only helped inform our presentations but also inspired current SLHA projects to create a permanent display of Lincolnshire bricks and to set up a multi-faceted website about Lincolnshire bricks.
 

Good Honest Tales; 150 Years of Bateman’s Brewery

Tuesday, 30th September 2025 7:30pm by Adam Cartwright

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Good Honest Tales; 150 Years of Bateman’s Brewery

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Craft on the Louth Canal

Tuesday, 7th October 2025 7:30pm by Stuart Sizer

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Craft on the Louth Canal

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

The History & Origins of Louth’s Streets

Tuesday, 14th October 2025 7:30pm by Dr Richard Gurnham

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The History & Origins of Louth’s Streets

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Two Bostons – Mother Town, Daughter City

Tuesday, 21st October 2025 7:30pm by Neil Wright

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Two Bostons – Mother Town, Daughter City

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

The Amazing Edward Watkins: Mr Grimsby and Mr Cleethorpes

Tuesday, 28th October 2025 7:30pm by Geoff Scargill

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The Amazing Edward Watkins: Mr Grimsby and Mr Cleethorpes

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Exotica Buried with Lincolnshire’s Anglian Dead

Tuesday, 4th November 2025 7:30pm by Simon Tomson

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Exotica Buried with Lincolnshire’s Anglian Dead

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

The Wallis Lecture: Restoring Claribel’s Portrait and Coney’s Shop Sign

Tuesday, 11th November 2025 7:30pm by Eskdale Restoration

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The Wallis Lecture: Restoring Claribel’s Portrait and Coney’s Shop Sign

Lincolnshire Postcards, Pictures and Photographers

Tuesday, 18th November 2025 7:30pm by Chris Hewis

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Lincolnshire Postcards, Pictures and Photographers


This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.

Everyday Life and Accidental Death in Tudor Lincolnshire

Tuesday, 25th November 2025 7:30pm by Prof Steven Gunn

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Everyday Life and Accidental Death in Tudor Lincolnshire


This lecture will be held  on Zoom.  For details contact David Start.

The History and Culture of Drinking Hot Chocolate

Tuesday, 2nd December 2025 7:30pm by Prof Lynda Payne & Kathryn Laverack

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The History and Culture of Drinking Hot Chocolate

This lecture will be held in Louth Methodist Church, Nichol Hill.