Audleyfhs Talks

TALKS

updated 10 Sep 2024

There will be a programme of talks in 2024 and 2025

Talks take place on the first Friday (unless othwise stated) evening of every alternate month. (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec.)

They are held at the The Methodist Church Hall , starting at 7.30pm prompt and finishing about 9.00pm

These talks are free to members.Non-members are welcome on payment of £1. If you would like to join please visit the Joining Us page.

Please contact Mrs Christine Huxley for additional information.

Programme for 2024

*Date*	*Speaker*	*Title*


4 October 2024	Carl Holdcroft	The Battle of Blore Heath 1459 poster
29 November 2024	Julie Bagnall	Constable Cotterill: a life of fame and infamy

Programme for 2025

Date	Speaker	Title

7 February 2025	Kenn Griffiths	Primitive Artist: C W Brown
4 April 2025	Andrew Fear	Roman Newcastle-under-Lyme

Old Talks

List kindly compiled by Gwyneth Pearson

Date	Speaker	Title
11 January 1991	Mrs Hitchin	Answering questions about her work and how she can help family historians	Superintendent Registrar Newcastle
8 March 1991	Randle Knight	Heraldry & Family History
10 May 1991	Rose Wheat	Curious Clergy of North Staffs
12 July 1991	Eva Beech	Sources for Family History in North Staffs
13 September 1991	Visit	A visit to Crewe Hall
8 November 1991	Richard Hughes	Life of a Country Yeoman
10 January 1992	Miss L Warham	Audley Past and Present	Illustrations both from her father's collection and her own collection
13 March 1992	David Dyble	Apedale	He ranged from Elizabethan times to the present day
8 May 1992	Visit	Broughton Hall
10 July 1992	Dr Philip Morgan		Information including the fact that before 950 A.D. Audley was part of the parish of Barthomley.
11 September 1992	Rose Wheat	The Range of European Immigrants	This talk included immigrants from the Elers, brothers at Bradwell to the Minton artists of the late 18th century
13 November 1992	Robert Speake	Barthomley
8 January 1993	David Dyble	History of Chesterton
12 March 1993	Edgar Tooth	Audley Surnames
14 May 1993	David Dyble	Talk: "A walk - through the Apedale Valley"
9 July 1993		internal talk
10 September 1993	Thelma Lancaster	Hulton Abbey and the Audley Connection	It's links to the Audley Family
12 November 1993	Brian Stokes	Audley in the Staffordshire Advertiser	Local and general facts including Blondini performing over Madeley Pool.
14 January 1994	David Dyble	Norman Conquest Audley	Audley before, during and after the Norman Conquest
11 March 1994	Ed Billington	Mining communities in North Staffs	the communities covered were Silverdale. Fenton and Goldenhill.
13 May 1994	David Dyble	Talk: "More walk through the Apedale Valley"
8 July 1994	Dudley Fowkes	Staffs Record Office	Family History and Audley
9 September 1994	Philip Leese	Woes and Pleasures of a Local Historian
11 November 1994	Sandra Burgess	The Sneyds of Keele Hall
13 January 1995	David Dyble	Mining accidents in the Audley Coalfield 1801 -1900	Diglake Disaster
3 March 1995	Michael Eardley	The Audley Family
5 May 1995	George Riley	Walk - around Betley
7 July 1995
1 September 1995
3 November 1995
5 January 1996	John Taylor	The Ancient Order of Forresters in Audley
1 March 1996	David Dyble	Gresley and Son: Developers of Apedale
3 May 1996	?	Guided Walk	No details
5 July 1996
6 September 1996
1 November 1996
3 January 1997
7 March 1997
2 May 1997
4 July 1997
5 September 1997
7 November 1997
2 January 1998
6 March 1998
1 May 1998	Bruce Braithwaite	The English Countryside
3 July 1998
4 September 1998	David Dyble	The Audley Branch Railway
6 November 1998	Stephen Booth	The Golden Age of Coaching	passenger travel and postal services by road in our area between 1730 and the dominance of the railways
8 January 1999	Bill Klemperer	Staffordshire Cistercian Abbeys	From the City Museum, including excavations in which he was involved.
5 March 1999	Major E Green	The Staffordshire Regiment
7 May 1999	Ian Bailey	Three Audley Murders
2 July 1999	TBA
3 September 1999	Thea Randall	Kill or Cure?	Medical remedies of the 16th & 17th century
5 November 1999	David Dyble	Audley in Historical Maps
7 January 2000
3 March 2000	David Barker	Historic Buildings of the Potteries	City Museum and Time Team
5 May 2000	Andrew Dobraszczyc	Silverdale in the 19th century	How Silverdale has grown from a small village to a largish industrial community
16 May 2000	Robert Mayer	Walk - Gresley Canal	is this correct date?
7 July 2000	Ian Bailey	an Out of the Way Place?	based on reported incidents in the Staffordshire Advertiser.
1 September 2000	Joan Baggaley	The Beginning of Medical Career in North Staffordshire
3 November 2000	Philip Morgan	Career of John Audley; Poet and Priest	His Life and escapades
5 January 2001	Philip Leese	Village of Talke
2 March 2001	James Sutton	The Association for the Prosecution Of Felons	The apprehension and control of felons mainly by the community
4 May 2001	Philip Leese	North Staffordshire Canals	dealing with the historical origins with illustrations.
6 July 2001	Malcolm Thurston	The Roman Road to Middlewich. Why Middlewich?	The road led to Chesterton area as well as to Nantwich and Wrenbury.
7 September 2001	Gordqn Sandland	Discover History by Metal Detector
2 November 2001	Andrew Dobraszczyc	Newcastle -Capital of the Potteries
4 January 2002	Malcolm Henson	Social History of Football in the Potteries 1870-1890
1 March 2002	Sandra Burgess	Servants of Keele Hall 1780-1800
3 May 2002	Gerald D'Arcy	Tribute to Mining in Silverdale	why the village was in existence.
5 July 2002	Ruth Grocott	In Search Of Uncle Harry	A tribute to a guardsman in the Second world war
6 September 2002	Gordqn Sandland	Further Historical Discovery with a metal detector	He recounted many of the discoveries he had made
1 November 2002
3 January 2003	Andrew Dobraszczyc	The Newcastle Hatting Industry - Boom or Bust	The industry dominated the town foe 150 years
7 March 2003	John Levitt	A Skeleton History of the English Language	He showed how language is forever changing, also talking about dialects.
2 May 2003	Katy Banks	The Archaeology of Enoch Wood, Father of the Pottteries
4 July 2003	Dan Gardener	The Archaeology of the Roman site at Holditch
5 September 2003	Gordqn Sandland	Further Historical Discovery with a metal detector
7 November 2003	Ian Bailey	First World War	Can we ever understand it?
2 January 2004
5 March 2004	Philip Morgan	Architecture in Audley	the fascinating history of some of our buildings
7 May 2004	John Potter	Arnold Bennett Life and Works	Chairman of the A B Society
2 July 2004	Philip Morgan	Adventures in tracing the Morgan family tree
3 September 2004	Denis Small	HMS Kelly in World War II	William Henry Small served on this destroyer under the command of Louis Mountbatten.
5 November 2004	Rosemary Dear	The 1910 Land Tax Survey ref Holmes Chapel
7 January 2005	Alan Treherne	Clockmakers of Newcastle	Gabriel Smith, born in Audley, worked in Barthomley before moving to Nantwich. Betley Church clock made by him.
4 March 2005	Brian Nixon	History of Silverdale
6 May 2005	Reg Goulding	Mining 1940-1986
1 July 2005
2 September 2005	Harold Forster	Between The Tracks	He reminisced about his 48 years on the railways
4 November 2005
6 January 2006	Sandra Burgess	Manor Court Rolls	The talk included the manors of Keele and Tunstall and became important after the Norman conquest
3 March 2006	Philip Leese	Linley Hall and Mow Cop	The speaker failed to turn up so an impromptu talk given
5 May 2006	Philip Leese	A History of Lawton Hall with illustrations
7 July 2006	Sandra Burgess	Bastardy-The Workhouse
1 September 2006	Miranda Goodby	19th century Flatback Figures, from Royalty to Murders and everyone in between
3 November 2006	Sandra Burgess	Civil Registration	Births, Marriages and Deaths
5 January 2007	Andrew Dobraszczyc	A 17th Century Mystery, Josiah Stringer of Talke and the Wedgwood family in Burslem	His daughter married Thomas Wedgwood and whose youngest son was Josiah Wedgwood
2 March 2007	Philip Leese	A History of Linley Hall
4 May 2007	Andrew Dobraszczyc	A Revolutionary Affair: the strugglefor the control of Newcastle constituency 1789-1815
6 July 2007	Andrew Dobraszczyc	TBA
7 September 2007	Miranda Goodby	What about the worker?	This lecture brings to life the people behind the pots in the 19th century, illustrated with contemporary engravings and ceramics.
2 November 2007	Miranda Goodby	Our home in the west.	Emigrant potters in America in the 1840's and what became of them following hard times in the Staffordshire potteries during the hungry 40's.
17 November 2007	Cedric Barber	Abolition of Slavery and tracing his slave ancestry
4 January 2008	JJ Heath Caldwell	James Caldwell Protégé of Josiah Wedgwood
7 March 2008	Roger Pask	From the Flying Dutchman to Petticoat Lane	A light hearted tale of Roger tracing his Dutch/Jewish History
2 May 2008	Philip Leese	Masters and Men	Coal industry in the 19th century
4 July 2008	Brian Nixon	Newcastle Under Lyme - The Road to Re-inventionA film from Medieval times to present
5 September 2008	Fred Hughes	The Private Life of Arnold Bennett
7 November 2008
9 January 2009	Dr. Christopher Harrison	The Pleasures and Pitfalls of a Local Historian.
6 March 2009	John Lumsden	Floods at Diglake 1895, Gas at Sherrif 1870 and Joseph Cook
1 May 2009	Mrs Mavis Smith	Diaries of a Betley Lady (1835-36)
3 July 2009	Dr Pamela Sambrook	A History of Staffordshire Oatcakes
4 September 2009	Dr Philip Morgan	John Emberton- Audley and the International Style of Architecture
6 November 2009	Ian Bailey	10 Questions about Audley Churchyard
1 January 2010	No Talk
5 March 2010	Janet Bradshaw	Nine Lives (or 750 years in a Dirty Shift)
7 May 2010	Doug Pickford	Mystery, History and Folklore
2 July 2010	David Bell	Memories of Coalfields of Staffordshire
3 September 2010	Ian Bailey	Audley's Poor 1838
5 November 2010	Duncan Hindmarsh	Chesterton in the Second World War
7 January 2011	Dr Nigel Tringham	The Victoria Society with Reference to Audley
4 March 2011	Patsie Jarman	The Story of the Circus
6 May 2011
1 July 2011
2 September 2011
4 November 2011	Stephen Dean	The Staffordshire Hoard	Stephen was the principal digger
6 January 2012	Kate Dobson	John Gerrard the Nantwich Herbalist
2 March 2012	Levision Wood	The Battle for Blore Heath
4 May 2012	Robert Mayer	Walk - along Apedale Road, Wood Lane	This talk included many Thomas Warham photos
6 July 2012
7 September 2012	Peter Thompson	A Wee Story	A piece of true family history
2 November 2012	Barbara Andrew	Grandma was a suffragette	The story of how British women achieved electoral equality
4 January 2013
1 March 2013
3 May 2013	Stephen Booth	Staffs Soldiers on the Western Front
5 July 2013	David Wilkinson	The Discovery of Stafford Castle
6 September 2013
1 November 2013
3 January 2014
7 March 2014	Neil Collingwood	Newcastle Through Time
3 May 2014	Robert Mayer	Walk - Apedale
6 June 2014	Mark Smith	North Staffordshire Railway
4 July 2014
5 September 2014
7 November 2014
5 December 2014	Dr Roger Joy	The Fourteenth Century Lord Audley family, their Ancestors and Descendents
6 February 2015	Les Mason	The North Staffs Rich Mining History. Mines.	The extent of the coalfields, and talked about the various kinds of
3 April 2015	Levision Wood	Dear Duchess' The life and loves of Millicent Fanny St. Clair-Erskine, the Duchess of Sutherland
5 June 2015	Steve Booth	Lidice 1942 its destruction and part played by Staffordshire in its rebirth	The small Czech mining town that was destroyed by the Nazi's
7 August 2015	Philip Morgan:	Heighley Castle.
2 October 2015	Jon Honeysett	Private Charles Honeysett - First World War Experiences
4 December 2015	JJ Heath Caldwell	Anne Marsh Caldwell of Linley Hall
5 February 2016	Dr Chris Harrison	The Medieval Mindset	The period was 1300-1500 looking at the lower classes in Society
1 April 2016
3 June 2016	Robert Mayer	History of Wood Lane
5 August 2016	Andrew Dobraszczyc	The gardens of Apedale Hall
7 October 2016	Julie Bagnall	Beyond the Prescription book
2 December 2016	Robert Mayer	Three chapels and no pub
3rd February 2017	Andrew Dobraszczyc	A Social History of Apedale Gardens
7th April 2017	Paul Anderton	Local responses to Napoleon’s plans 1803-14: opening a new source for family and local historians.
2nd June 2017	Andy Fear	Blood and Sand:Gladiators in the Roman Empire
4th August 2017	Philip R. Leese	Miners Lives; Social Life of Mining Villages in the 19th & 20th Centuries
6th October 2017	Tim Coltman	The Story of Two Crosses	A presentation on the life of William Coltman VC as told by his great grandson.
1st December 2017	Philip Astley	Staffordshire University Project "Philip Astley"
2nd February 2018	Dr Robin Stud	Potters and the Abolition of the Slave Trade
6th April 2018	Julie Bagnall	What to Do with 323 Post Cards ?
1st June 2018	Mervyn Edwards	Potteries Parks
3rd August 2018	J Eardley	Letter from Poitou - The Remarkable Story of a Medieval Audley Woman
5th October 2018	Steve Booth	The Lost Treasure of Stone - the Mystery of the Unique Privy Seal
7th December 2018	Dr Chris Harrison	A Baronial Household in The Age of Elizabeth
1st February 2019	Philip Leese	"Local People are History or Local Places in History ? Which Side are You On ?"
5th April 2019	Mervyn Edwards	The North Staffordshire Miner	www.merver.co.uk
7th June 2019	Peter Lead	Early 18th CenturyAudley Entrepreneurs and The Spread of The Newcomen Steam Engine
2nd August 2019	Tony Bostock	Place Names and Field Names: A source for local history.	www.tonybostock.com (Names of towns and villages, and those of fields, hold clues to interpreting the past. In this talk the meanings of local names will be discussed and how they can assist in the understanding the local history of an area)
4th October 2019	Andrew Hunt - (Silverdale Country Park Ranger)	Abandoned Colliery to Wildlife Haven	www.silverdalecountrypark.org.uk
29th November 2019 note change of date	Graham Dodd	A Crewe Factory Girl – the life of Ada Nield Chew	The story of Ada Nield who came to prominence locally when she fought for improved conditions for those working in local clothing factories at the turn of the nineteenth century. She campaigned on behalf of the Labour movement, trades unions and for women’s suffrage before running her own business
7thFebruary 2020	Steve Booth	The Golden Age of Stagecoaching
3rd April 2020 CANCELLED	Barbara Andrew	Fanny Deakin: The Silverdale campaigner.	Feminist, Communist, councillor and Alderman who was a the champion of the local working class for 50 years
5th June 2020 CANCELLED	Jim Worgan and Lloyd Boardman	Coal Mining in North Staffordshire at the time of the Diglake Disaster 1895
7th August 2020 CANCELLED	Mervyn Edwards	Cranks, Characters and Queer Fish of North Staffordshire	www.merver.co.uk
2nd October 2020 CANCELLED	Tony Bostock	My Genealogical Journey.	An account of Tony’s researches into the Bostock name conducted over many decades. The talk covers the methods used along with the problems encountered. This is an interesting and amusing talk from which family historians might gather some ideas for themselves.
4th February 2022	Mervyn Edwards	Cranks, Characters and Queer Fish of North Staffordshire	www.merver.co.uk
1st April 2022	Stuart Haywood (of the Welsh Society of North Staffordshire)	The Story of a Moustache Cup	The speaker, Stuart Haywood, has been promoting his recent book (The Welsh in North Staffordshire) on various English & Welsh facebook pages. What he didn’t expect was for a lady in Australia to contact him regarding an ancestor that had migrated from Anglesey to Hanley, Elias Hughes. She is a direct descendent of a cousin of Elias who was also from Anglesey. She carried out an Object Biography as part of a genealogy course and the object chosen was a moustache cup which links the two cousins. This presentation compares the lives of the two cousins and is based on the joint research by Stuart and his Australian contact.
27th May 2022	Haydn Thomas Crewe and Nantwich Metal Detecting Society	"Raising Money for Good Causes in the Community - An Introduction to Crewe & Nantwich Metal Detecting Society"	poster
5th August 2022	Michael Eardley	"Eve and the Audleys"	Eve and the Audleys Eve de Clavering was married into the wealthy and influential Audley barony in 1307. Married and widowed three times she lived through most of the turbulent 14th century. Baronial rebellion, Bannockburn, the start of the Hundred Years War and the Black Death all came to her door. poster
7th October 2022	Philip Morgan	"A Saint and a Sinner from Medieval Audley".	Philip Morgan lives in Audley, and for over 35 years taught medieval history and local history at Keele University’ Two lives compared – one the subject of a Wordsworth sonnet the other haunted by his role in a murder. poster
25th November 2022	Philip Leese	"Miners Lives in the 19th and 20th centuries".	A look at the working lives of miners in the villages of Kidsgrove and Silverdale using two contemporary accounts. poster
3rd February 2023	Mervyn Edwards	‘Oatcakes – the food of the Gods’	poster www.merver.co.uk
14th April 2023	Tony Bostock	‘The Colour of Heraldry’	poster
2nd June 2023	JJ Heath-Caldwell	‘The Caldwell Family Library at Linley Wood (and a big book project!)’	poster
4th August 2023	Marion Armstrong	Chasing Paper Skeletons	A light hearted talk about the working life of a Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths and building family trees from unexpected sources without spending lots of money! poster
6th October 2023	Philip Leese	Writing Local History
24th November 2023	Graham Dodd	A Glimpse of Life on the Shropshire Union Canal	Graham aims to capture the essence of life on the canal including its day-to-day operation, the challenges facing the boatmen and their families, the role of the horses and the variety of cargoes. poster
2 February 2024	Dr Keith Lawrence (Nantwich Museum)	The Battle of Nantwich 1644	poster
2 August 2024	Les Mason	The Fall and Rise of the Apedale Heritage Centre	poster