Lectures and Outings

The Amazing Edward Watkins: Mr Grimsby and Mr Cleethorpes

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

Geoff is chairman of The Watkin Society and a retired headteacher and magistrate.  Married for 63 years with one son, his interests are history, politics, music – he is an active member of The Elgar Society - and cricket. Apart from the Watkin Society, his main activity is giving talks to raise money for cancer research. This goes 100% to the brilliant surgeon at The Christie Hospital, who saved his son’s life. His running total is £130,000.

Enthusiasts have built up a very active ‘WatSoc’ branch in Cleethorpes and Grimsby. They appreciate that Edward Watkin is one of the most interesting characters of the Victorian era but now sadly almost forgotten.  He was nationally and internationally famous as The Railway King. The talk (which is NOT a technical talk about railways!) will cover a selection of his amazing successes and equally stunning failures but will also focus on the local nicknames in the sub-title of the talk. He literally created Grimsby as a world fishing port and Cleethorpes as a national holiday resort. And what about the £4 million secret which was ‘lost’ in his family home for over 100 years?

Ghost walk

THIS WALK IS FULLY BOOKED, SORRY!

A guided walk around the town of Louth, to learn about spooky stories, and possibly to see ghosts!

Starting in the Northgate (British Legion) car park. 6.30 pm.  Quite a lot of walking so sensible shoes a must.  Ends at St James’ Church.  Duration about 2 hours.

Cost £5.00 per head, accompanied children free.  Please come to the museum (open 10am to 4pm Wed to Sat) to book and pay for your walk.  If you arrive at the start of the walk without a booking, you will be allowed to join only if spaces are available.

Exotica Buried with Lincolnshire’s Anglian Dead

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

Simon has retired from professional archaeological work but is still lecturing for the WEA and doing fieldwork with Northern Lincolnshire Archaeological Society.  He is an air photographer and a former colleague of Dave Start.

Some grave goods from Saxon-period burials, including those in Anglian Lincolnshire, hint at long-distance trade routes hitherto unimagined.  These materials include garnet, rock-crystal, elephant ivory, Panther Cowrie shells and coral.  How did they get here and who brought them?
 

The Wallis Lecture: The Conservation of the Painting of Claribel and the Restoration of the Shop Sign of Coney’s

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

Susan has worked in the conservation and restoration field for 20 years and has since founded Eskdale Restoration. During this time she was fortunate enough to receive the guidance and daily mentorship from the master craftsman Nigel Leaney for 18 years. This long apprenticeship covered many aspects of painted decoration from paint analysis through to creating historical painted finishes.

Susan will give a PowerPoint presentation covering the conservation of the Claribel painting, the restoration of the frame followed by the restoration of the Coney shop front sign.
 

Lincolnshire Postcards, Pictures and Photographers

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

Chris Hewis is Chair of Saxilby and District History Group and the Treasurer of the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology. He has written several books and articles on local history and was a regular member of BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s ‘Lunch Bunch’.

With images from Saxilby History Group’s ‘John Wilson Collection’, Chris will introduce us to the “Golden Age of Postcards”, a period between 1905 and 1915 when postcards became incredibly popular as a means of communication and art, and a few early Lincolnshire photographers who took advantage of the craze.
 

Everyday Life and Accidental Death in Tudor Lincolnshire

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

Steven Gunn is Fellow and Tutor in History at Merton College, Oxford, and Professor of Early Modern History. His research interests are in the political, social, cultural and military history of England and its continental neighbours from the mid-fifteenth to the later sixteenth century. He has written books on Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, c1484-1545 (1988), Early Tudor Government, 1485-1558 (1995), War, State and Society in England and the Netherlands, 1477-1559 (2007), Henry VII’s New Men and the Making of Tudor England (2016), and The English People at War in the Age of Henry VIII (2018).

Tudor England was a dangerous place. There were plagues and wars, perilous childbirths and shocking infant mortality. But what risks did people face as they went about their everyday lives? Steven Gunn and Tomasz Gromelski have investigated this problem using evidence from coroners’ reports preserved in the National Archives. The project entitled ‘Everyday Life and Fatal Hazard in Sixteenth-Century England’ was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the book based on its findings, An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death will be published by John Murray in June 2025.
 

The History and Culture of Drinking Hot Chocolate

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

Professor Lynda Payne formerly Chair of the Volunteers at Louth Museum, specialises in the history of medicine in Britain.
Kathryn Laverack is a Certified Chocolate Taster, Chocolate Educator and International Chocolate Judge.

Chocolate was introduced to England about 1600 and for the next 200 years it was primarily consumed as a hot drink. Lynda starts by focusing on the reasons and context for the popularity of drinking hot chocolate. Then we break for hot chocolate tasting. Kathryn concludes our presentation with a look at the taste profile of the chocolate consumed from the 1600s and the history of communities behind its farming and trading.