Meetings take place on the second Wednesday of each month (except August and December) at St Mary's Church, Wallingford.
Meetings are at 7.45pm for 8.00pm
Visitors very welcome (£5)
Parking is available nearby in the Waitrose car park - free at that time of the evening.
Additionally we are continuing to broadcast our Talks by Zoom - a link will be available for TWHAS members in the monthly newsletter 'TWHAS Now'. Applications for membership are available here.
Meetings are at 7.45pm for 8.00pm
Visitors very welcome (£5)
Parking is available nearby in the Waitrose car park - free at that time of the evening.
Additionally we are continuing to broadcast our Talks by Zoom - a link will be available for TWHAS members in the monthly newsletter 'TWHAS Now'. Applications for membership are available here.
NEXT TALK
9 Oct 2024 (Weds)
Steve Capel-Davies
'Ways over Water - a history of Thames crossings'
~ further details below ~
9 Oct 2024 (Weds)
Steve Capel-Davies
'Ways over Water - a history of Thames crossings'
~ further details below ~
2024 Programme
10 Jan
Judy Dewey: ‘Life in Medieval Wallingford’
This talk draws together information and illustrations from many varied sources, shedding light on the activities and daily lives of people in the town during the period from the Norman Conquest to the 15th century. It was a time when Wallingford flourished at first in the shadow of the newly built royal castle, but later encountered growing economic difficulties.
14 Feb (Weds) TALK CANCELLED
Anthony Bale: ‘The Shape of the Medieval World, According to John Mandeville’
It was well-known in the later Middle Ages that planet Earth was round - the challenge was how to go round it. One of the main sources of knowledge about the shape of the world was the widely-read and much translated Book of Marvels and Travels (c. 1356) by Sir John Mandeville. Mandeville claimed to be a knight of St Alban's in Hertfordshire, but that was almost certainly not his true identity. This talk will consider the shape of the medieval world as described by Mandeville, and what this means for our knowledge of medieval geography and travel.
Our speaker, Anthony Bale, is Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck in the University of London. He is the author most recently of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: the World through Medieval Eyes (Penguin, 2023). He has translated and edited Mandeville's Book of Marvels and Travels (Oxford, 2012) and studied medieval travel, pilgrimage, and cultural geography.
13 March (Weds)
Graham Twemlow: 'Recording Britain - Celebrating the Country’s Natural Beauty and Architectural Heritage'
At the outbreak of the WW2 an ambitious scheme was set up to employ artists on the home front. The result was a large collection of watercolours and drawings that make up a fascinating record of British lives and landscapes at a time of imminent change.
This talk will highlight the works that featured Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire landscapes and landmarks, recorded by artists such as John Piper, Walter Bayes, Barbara Jones, Stanley Anderson and William Fairclough
10 April (Weds)
Jonathan Stamp: 'The Lost Library'
Unearthed in 1750, during excavations at Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples, it is the richest privately owned Roman villa ever discovered. It is also, even more importantly, the site of the only library from the ancient world ever to be found in situ. From which it derives its current name, The Villa of the Papyri.
This will be a talk exploring the extraordinary story of the Villa's excavation. It will focus on the game-changing scientific breakthrough of 2023 that permits the papyrus scrolls found in the Villa finally to be read after more than two and a half centuries spent trying. And it will investigate the tantalising possibility that there are more scrolls still to be found in an as yet unexcavated part of the Villa.
8 May (Weds)
Peter Adamson: 'A Town Called Wallingford'
Peter Adamson will be presenting some highlights of his new book — a wide-ranging collection of nineteen essays with Wallingford as the common starting point. Topics will include ‘The great coffee shop takeover’, ‘The bridge of time’, ‘An impregnable castle’, ‘Why Agatha Christie is both loved and scorned’, ‘The worldwide impact of Wallingford enterprises’, ‘The story of Richard of Wallingford’, ‘The Haylar sisters’, ‘The glory that was Wessex’, ‘The submarine plot’, and ’Why William Blackstone has a right to be considered one of the most influential people ever born in these islands’.
Peter Adamson’s previous book was 'Landmark in Time – The World of the Wittenham Clumps'.
Retired from a career spent mainly with UNICEF, Peter is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. He is married with two children, both educated at Wallingford School, and lives in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.
12 June (Weds)
Anthony Wilder: 'William Wilder - POW on the Thai Burma Railway'
In February 1942, Anthony’s father William Wilder was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore and spent the next three and half years as a prisoner of war, much of it in Thailand building the Thai-Burma railway, a project which cost the lives of thousands of his fellow POWs. During this time he kept a diary and made over 70 drawings of his experiences, most of which he managed to hide from his captors and he was able to bring them safely home to Wallingford. Anthony will tell his story in a power point presentation and the original drawings will be there for you to view.
10 July (Weds)
Alastair Owens: 'Treasures from the privy - new perspectives on everyday life in Victorian East London'
Lining the shelves of Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive (in Shoreditch, East London) are thousands of boxes of the broken and fragmented belongings of Victorian Londoners. But how might such evidence – the product of recent archaeological excavations across the city – contribute to our understanding of the everyday social and cultural worlds of Victorian Londoners? Can it take us beyond the familiar tropes of social investigation, or past the enduring literary narratives that have so powerfully influenced the historical imagination? Does it allow us to grasp the ‘actualities’ of life in the modern metropolis that are otherwise obscured by a pervasive bourgeois gaze that saturates other historical sources?
Drawing from research on households in mid nineteenth-century Limehouse, this illustrated talk will seek to demonstrate the value of archaeology for understanding the lives of the Victorian East End poor.
This Talk was recorded and can be viewed here .........
Judy Dewey: ‘Life in Medieval Wallingford’
This talk draws together information and illustrations from many varied sources, shedding light on the activities and daily lives of people in the town during the period from the Norman Conquest to the 15th century. It was a time when Wallingford flourished at first in the shadow of the newly built royal castle, but later encountered growing economic difficulties.
14 Feb (Weds) TALK CANCELLED
Anthony Bale: ‘The Shape of the Medieval World, According to John Mandeville’
It was well-known in the later Middle Ages that planet Earth was round - the challenge was how to go round it. One of the main sources of knowledge about the shape of the world was the widely-read and much translated Book of Marvels and Travels (c. 1356) by Sir John Mandeville. Mandeville claimed to be a knight of St Alban's in Hertfordshire, but that was almost certainly not his true identity. This talk will consider the shape of the medieval world as described by Mandeville, and what this means for our knowledge of medieval geography and travel.
Our speaker, Anthony Bale, is Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck in the University of London. He is the author most recently of A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: the World through Medieval Eyes (Penguin, 2023). He has translated and edited Mandeville's Book of Marvels and Travels (Oxford, 2012) and studied medieval travel, pilgrimage, and cultural geography.
13 March (Weds)
Graham Twemlow: 'Recording Britain - Celebrating the Country’s Natural Beauty and Architectural Heritage'
At the outbreak of the WW2 an ambitious scheme was set up to employ artists on the home front. The result was a large collection of watercolours and drawings that make up a fascinating record of British lives and landscapes at a time of imminent change.
This talk will highlight the works that featured Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire landscapes and landmarks, recorded by artists such as John Piper, Walter Bayes, Barbara Jones, Stanley Anderson and William Fairclough
10 April (Weds)
Jonathan Stamp: 'The Lost Library'
Unearthed in 1750, during excavations at Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples, it is the richest privately owned Roman villa ever discovered. It is also, even more importantly, the site of the only library from the ancient world ever to be found in situ. From which it derives its current name, The Villa of the Papyri.
This will be a talk exploring the extraordinary story of the Villa's excavation. It will focus on the game-changing scientific breakthrough of 2023 that permits the papyrus scrolls found in the Villa finally to be read after more than two and a half centuries spent trying. And it will investigate the tantalising possibility that there are more scrolls still to be found in an as yet unexcavated part of the Villa.
8 May (Weds)
Peter Adamson: 'A Town Called Wallingford'
Peter Adamson will be presenting some highlights of his new book — a wide-ranging collection of nineteen essays with Wallingford as the common starting point. Topics will include ‘The great coffee shop takeover’, ‘The bridge of time’, ‘An impregnable castle’, ‘Why Agatha Christie is both loved and scorned’, ‘The worldwide impact of Wallingford enterprises’, ‘The story of Richard of Wallingford’, ‘The Haylar sisters’, ‘The glory that was Wessex’, ‘The submarine plot’, and ’Why William Blackstone has a right to be considered one of the most influential people ever born in these islands’.
Peter Adamson’s previous book was 'Landmark in Time – The World of the Wittenham Clumps'.
Retired from a career spent mainly with UNICEF, Peter is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. He is married with two children, both educated at Wallingford School, and lives in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.
12 June (Weds)
Anthony Wilder: 'William Wilder - POW on the Thai Burma Railway'
In February 1942, Anthony’s father William Wilder was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore and spent the next three and half years as a prisoner of war, much of it in Thailand building the Thai-Burma railway, a project which cost the lives of thousands of his fellow POWs. During this time he kept a diary and made over 70 drawings of his experiences, most of which he managed to hide from his captors and he was able to bring them safely home to Wallingford. Anthony will tell his story in a power point presentation and the original drawings will be there for you to view.
10 July (Weds)
Alastair Owens: 'Treasures from the privy - new perspectives on everyday life in Victorian East London'
Lining the shelves of Museum of London’s Archaeological Archive (in Shoreditch, East London) are thousands of boxes of the broken and fragmented belongings of Victorian Londoners. But how might such evidence – the product of recent archaeological excavations across the city – contribute to our understanding of the everyday social and cultural worlds of Victorian Londoners? Can it take us beyond the familiar tropes of social investigation, or past the enduring literary narratives that have so powerfully influenced the historical imagination? Does it allow us to grasp the ‘actualities’ of life in the modern metropolis that are otherwise obscured by a pervasive bourgeois gaze that saturates other historical sources?
Drawing from research on households in mid nineteenth-century Limehouse, this illustrated talk will seek to demonstrate the value of archaeology for understanding the lives of the Victorian East End poor.
This Talk was recorded and can be viewed here .........
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in August ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11 Sept (Weds)
John Painter: 'Reading Abbey and the Abbey Quarter'
This illustrated talk looks at the rich history and architecture of Reading Abbey and its site in the centre of Reading, from its foundation in 1121 up to the present day, where the future of Reading Gaol is still causing controversy. The royal abbey of Reading, founded by Henry I as his burial place, was one of the 10 richest monastic foundations in England at its dissolution in 1539, when the site passed into royal hands and the monastic buildings were converted into a royal palace until caught in the cross-fire of the siege(s) of Reading in the Civil War, 1643. There is still much to see in the Abbey Quarter, including C19th architecture of high quality from the redevelopment of the area from the 1780s onwards, alongside the Abbey Ruins and other evidence of former monastic buildings which were the subject of the £3.1M Reading Abbey Revealed conservation project (part-funded by the Heritage Lottery) between 2015-2018.
John Painter, a retired local government officer, is Secretary of the Friends of Reading Abbey, a body set up in the 1980s to promote awareness of the Abbey, its architecture and history, and the conservations of the Abbey Ruins.
9 Oct (Weds)
Steve Capel-Davies: 'Ways over Water - a history of Thames crossings'.
This talk will look at fords, ferries, bridges and a couple of tunnels from Roman times (not the tunnels!) to present using examples from the whole river.
Steve is our Chairman of TWHAS but has had a lifetime of working on the Thames starting nearly 50 years ago with the Thames Conservancy Division of Thames Water Authority before moving into private practice with Peter Brett Associates based in Reading. This has helped him indulge in his interest in the history of the Thames.
13 Nov (Weds)
Malcolm Airs: 'Conservation as a force for change: Wallingford from 1974'
10 Dec (TUES)
Malin Holst : ‘If Ancestors Could Talk - Life and Death at a Roman Villa’
This is an extra special TWHAS talk at 8pm, but will by ZOOM ONLY.
Our speaker is an Osteoarchaeologist who examines the human remains uncovered during archaeological digs.
Through her work, Malin reveals the hidden life stories of past populations by searching for the tell-tale signs that are left in our bones. As well as examining the burials from Earth Trust, Malin has studied the remains from many high-profile sites such as Sutton Hoo.
When archaeologists discovered 40 Roman burials alongside a Roman villa at Earth Trust, it quickly became clear that the story of who lived here and what they endured had more twists and turns than you might expect.
This talk will share some of the surprising life stories that have been revealed from the tell-tale signs left in these bones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
past 2023 Programme for interest
11 January
Robert Seatter: ‘Broadcasting Britain: a 100 years of the BBC’
8 February
Ben Ford: 'Frewin Hall excavation'
8 March
Peter Adamson: 'The World of the Wittenham Clumps'
12 April
Judy Dewey: ‘History for all: TWHAS – from its origins to its future’
10 May
Heidi Tunney: 'Pauper Children in Wallingford Union Cottage Homes, Berks, 1900–15; Tainted or Recovered?'
14 June
Paul Booth: 'Evolving ideas on Roman and early post-Roman Dorchester-on-Thames'
12 July
Gary Elliott: 'Justice in Wallingford: Police and Magistrates in the late Victorian period'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in August ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13 September
John Naylor (Ashmolean Museum): 'The Viking-Age World of the Watlington Hoard'
11 October
Anthony Wilder: 'Victorian Artists'
8 November
A Very Special 50th Birthday Party
Tom Hassall, OBE MA FSA Hon MCIfA: ‘50 years of Oxford Archaeology and TWHAS’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in December ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
past 2023 Programme for interest
11 January
Robert Seatter: ‘Broadcasting Britain: a 100 years of the BBC’
8 February
Ben Ford: 'Frewin Hall excavation'
8 March
Peter Adamson: 'The World of the Wittenham Clumps'
12 April
Judy Dewey: ‘History for all: TWHAS – from its origins to its future’
10 May
Heidi Tunney: 'Pauper Children in Wallingford Union Cottage Homes, Berks, 1900–15; Tainted or Recovered?'
14 June
Paul Booth: 'Evolving ideas on Roman and early post-Roman Dorchester-on-Thames'
12 July
Gary Elliott: 'Justice in Wallingford: Police and Magistrates in the late Victorian period'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in August ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13 September
John Naylor (Ashmolean Museum): 'The Viking-Age World of the Watlington Hoard'
11 October
Anthony Wilder: 'Victorian Artists'
8 November
A Very Special 50th Birthday Party
Tom Hassall, OBE MA FSA Hon MCIfA: ‘50 years of Oxford Archaeology and TWHAS’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in December ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
past 2022 Programme for interest
past 2022 Programme for interest
12 January (Weds)
Stephen Mileson: 'Peasant perceptions of Landscape, Ewelme Hundred'
9 February (Weds)
Jonathan Clark: 'Lincoln Castle Revealed'
9 March (Weds)
Ben Taggart: ‘Historic Reconstruction in Miniature’
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPo0IAKGg6o
13 April (Weds)
Marie-Louise Kerr: 'Oxfordshire on Canvas'
11 May (Weds)
Melanie King: 'Can onions cure earache? Medical Advice in the 18th century'
8 June (Weds)
Gabor Thomas: 'The Marlow warlord and the rediscovered church at Cookham: A review of early medieval archaeology of the Middle Thames'
13 July (Weds)
Janice Kinory: 'Oxford Past and Present - Images from the Historic Environment Image Resource (HEIR) Project'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in August ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 September (Weds)
Giles Pritchard: 'Conservation work on the Remains of the College of St Nicholas, Wallingford Castle'
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/nSImzlxMqXU
12 October (Weds)
Michael Fulford: 'Silchester Revealed: the Iron Age and Roman Town in light of recent research'
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/xaZK740-yp8
9 November (Weds)
Dr Simon Wenham: 'Poverty, Pestilence and Public Health'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in December ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stephen Mileson: 'Peasant perceptions of Landscape, Ewelme Hundred'
9 February (Weds)
Jonathan Clark: 'Lincoln Castle Revealed'
9 March (Weds)
Ben Taggart: ‘Historic Reconstruction in Miniature’
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPo0IAKGg6o
13 April (Weds)
Marie-Louise Kerr: 'Oxfordshire on Canvas'
11 May (Weds)
Melanie King: 'Can onions cure earache? Medical Advice in the 18th century'
8 June (Weds)
Gabor Thomas: 'The Marlow warlord and the rediscovered church at Cookham: A review of early medieval archaeology of the Middle Thames'
13 July (Weds)
Janice Kinory: 'Oxford Past and Present - Images from the Historic Environment Image Resource (HEIR) Project'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in August ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 September (Weds)
Giles Pritchard: 'Conservation work on the Remains of the College of St Nicholas, Wallingford Castle'
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/nSImzlxMqXU
12 October (Weds)
Michael Fulford: 'Silchester Revealed: the Iron Age and Roman Town in light of recent research'
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/xaZK740-yp8
9 November (Weds)
Dr Simon Wenham: 'Poverty, Pestilence and Public Health'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ no TWHAS Talk in December ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recorded Talks
Some recent Talks have also been broadcast by Zoom and the opportunity has been taken to record them and post online links to them below:-
October 2022
Michael Fulford: 'Silchester Revealed: the Iron Age and Roman Town in light of recent research'
Professor Fulford described the excavations at Silchester since the 1970s.
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/xaZK740-yp8
September 2022
Giles Pritchard: 'Conservation work on the Remains of the College of St Nicholas, Wallingford Castle'
Giles Pritchard described the latest two stages of work on the restoration of St Nicholas in Wallingford Castle.
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/nSImzlxMqXU
March 2022
Ben Taggart: ‘Historic Reconstruction in Miniature’
Ben discussed how he took on the challenge of unlocking the secrets of Wallingford Castle and what it took to build the model for Wallingford Museum.
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPo0IAKGg6o
Oct 2020
'Beacons of the Past: Citizen Science and LiDAR shedding light on the history of the Chilterns landscape'
- presented by Dr Edward Peveler (Landscape Heritage Officer, Chilterns Conservation Board)
In this talk Dr Ed Peveler introduced this Lottery-funded project, explaining more about the survey, letting us know how we can access the data to do our own archaeological exploring, and showing us some of the exciting results that are emerging.
You can enjoy the recording of this talk here:
https://youtu.be/IDoCh2ru8j8
After viewing the Talk, if you would like further information please look at this link:- https://chilternsbeacons.org
Up-to-date news (more being added regularly) is available on:- https://chilternsbeacons.org/wp/news-blog
Additionally, you may wish to learn about two local archaeological projects which have recently posted updates online.
Click HERE
Katharine Keats-Rohan is the TWHAS Speaker's secretary. If you have suggestions for future talks, please contact Katharine
If other local history societies would like to notify us of their events for possible inclusion (subject to space) in the monthly publication, TWHAS Now, then please send details to the TWHAS Now editor
If other local history societies would like to notify us of their events for possible inclusion (subject to space) in the monthly publication, TWHAS Now, then please send details to the TWHAS Now editor