2020-2021 Lecture Programme
Please note that our programme of lectures will be presented by Zoom until further notice. They start at 7:30 pm. To receive a Zoom link please email ashheritagesoc@gmail.com.
2020
13 October
Friar Gate Bridge, Derby – Howard Thomas
10 November
Derbyshire monastic granges – Sue Woore
8 December
Ashbourne and the neighbouring Dove: history and visible heritage – Geof Cole
Geof is one of Ashbourne’s Town Heritage Guides, and has had a long interest in visible heritage. In this talk, he will explore the history of Ashbourne and its surrounding area by looking at what be seen locally with occasional trips further afield. Ranging from ice-age cave art to modern wind turbines, Geof’s intention is to highlight Derbyshire’s historic landscape and the visible signs of man’s activities in this area.
2021
12 January
Derby Museums: the new Museum of Making – Laura Phillips
9 February
The medieval Okeover family – Peter Watson
9 March
The Isolation Chronicles – Sue Prince
At next month’s meeting on 9th March, we’ll be joined by Sue Prince, local contemporary folk artist, who using an ancient technique, records and describes people and their places. In 2017 she created the four panel history of Ashbourne for a community painting as part of the Ashbourne Treasures celebration.
Sue will tell how she discovered and revived the technique in Sweden, how it became a way for communities to tell their stories and how she has recorded the coronavirus pandemic. She is drawn to storytelling in a way that gives the tales the weight they merit and is inspired by the humour and humanity in the Bayeux Tapestry and medieval marginalia to record our society in a more permanent way with handmade egg tempera paints and natural materials. Her works and commissions have included local history community art projects, medieval tales, and local maps, across Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
13 April
The old roads of Derbyshire: travel and travellers from the Bronze Age to the 19th century – Stephen Bailey
Stephen will be talking to us about the subject of his recent book The Old roads of Derbyshire. There is a wealth of old roads, lanes, tracks, hollow ways and paths, some dating back thousands of years. The Derbyshire Portway is an example of an ancient route which was old before the Romans arrived.
Stephen will discuss aspects of the development of these roads, from prehistoric ridgeways, Roman ‘streets’ and medieval pilgrimage routes to the growth of the turnpikes, and finally to leisure use by cyclists and hikers. It is a network which links a fascinating variety of sometimes enigmatic monuments, from fortified hilltops and stone circles to ruined abbeys and hermitages, ancient churches and tumuli.
11 May
Reverend Pettit’s Tales of Old Staffordshire – Philip Modiano
The Rev’d J L Petit (1801-68) was nationally famous in his day as an architectural commentator and as a prolific watercolour artist. He fell from the public eye because he opposed the Gothic fashion in architecture and because his art was held by the family until the 1980s, and then dumped. A Staffordshire man, he painted extensively in Staffordshire including on several trips around Ashbourne, Norbury and The Dove Valley.
Philip Modiano has been researching Petit for the past five years. He published Petit’s Tours of Old Staffordshire in 2019, with one Tour just on Ashbourne to Ellastone, and another from Blore to Hartington. In this talk Philip will describe the wider significance of Petit as a pre-Impressionist artist and the leading opponent to the Gothic revival, as well as showing many of the pictures from the Ashbourne region.
8 June
Annual General Meeting and short talks by members
To register for lectures and receive the Zoom links and for any further information, please email ashheritagesoc@gmail.com
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