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Speaker season for 2023/2024
Our talks are held at our usual venue of St Marks Church Hall, Lincoln Road, PE1 2SN, to which NON-MEMBERS are welcome to attend, but please be aware we rely entirely on subscriptions and voluntary contributions to cover our expenses. We therefore request a donation of at least £5.00 per head is made for each non-member attendance, or this is waived if you join while at the meeting. Details of our subscription rates are on our Join Us page.
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11 December 2023 7.30pm - The Strategy and Plan for Managing Peterborough's Trees and Green Spaces | |
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8 January 2024 7.30pm - Annual General Meeting followed by RAF Wittering, a Z-A of defending the UK from Zeppelins to Atomic Warfare and 100 years of everything in between | |
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12 February 2024 7.30pm - Delivering Social Housing in Peterborough | |
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11 March 2024 7.30pm - Keynote Lecture - 'Living Landmarks': buildings and history past and present | |
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22 April 2024 7.30pm - Reaching the High Notes: Cathedral Music in our time | |
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13 May 2024 7.30pm - Peterborough: a cycling city? |
Completed events
Completed talks
11 September 2023 7.30pm - Culture & The Arts in Peterborough: Where we are, where we should be
with Kate Hall, Creative Producer, Jumped Up Theatre
Some of us are old enough to remember a certain veteran Leader of the City Council describing Peterborough’s cultural offering as being “second to none”. Well, he had some justification, as the city had seen significant progress in the cultural field. The Development Corporation had conjured up The Cresset, established the Thorpe Meadows sculpture trail, and helped to fund the new Central Library. It had even, for a short period, promoted the Peterborough String Orchestra. Meanwhile, the Key Theatre, built by voluntary initiative, maintained an exciting programme with its running costs fully supported by the Council. However, the vision of a major concert hall, passionately pursued by some, remained unrealised, perhaps just as well, as, probably, we could never have afforded to run it.
More recently, in 2021, the Arts Council declared that “whilst cultural engagement in Peterborough is relatively low, there is powerful ambition and momentum among local stakeholders to transform the cultural offer in the city – including the forthcoming launch of a new cultural strategy.” The Arts Council stated that this ambition would be backed with £3.4 million funding from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
So, where are we now and what is the way forward? To guide us, we welcome Kate Hall, co-chair of the Peterborough Cultural Alliance and Creative Producer of Jumped-Up Theatre. She has a wealth of experience in theatre and the arts, including working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and serving as Arts Programme Manager with Vivacity Peterborough. Kate has a degree in Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts from Loughborough University.
9 October 2023 7.30pm - Saving the small creatures that run the Earth - we depend on them
with Alan Stubbs, vice president, Buglife, The Invertebrate Conservation Trust
Those of us with a casual interest in nature are often eager to pursue colourful butterflies or darting dragonflies, but beyond that the world of insects, spiders, and other “bugs” is normally left to the committed specialist. In consequence, public interest in invertebrates tends to home in on the more negative stories about alien invaders, insect plagues, and so on.
Buglife was founded some twenty years ago to fight the bugs’ corner and has its headquarters here in Peterborough. Britain alone is home to more than 40,000 invertebrate species many of which are under threat. These creatures are vitally important to a healthy planet - we couldn’t exist without them. Buglife’s aim is to prevent invertebrate extinctions and to maintain sustainable populations in the UK and beyond.
Our speaker, Alan Stubbs, is the founding father of Buglife and served as its chairman for seven years up to 2012. He is currently a dedicated volunteer offering training and support to Buglife staff and the general public. Alan graduated from University College, London, with a BSc in Geology and has spent his entire career in conservation. He has held numerous significant roles in the conservation sector and contributed to over one hundred publications. His achievements have been recognised with various academic awards and also a Daily Mirror Animal Hero Award in 2017.
13 November 2023 7.30pm - Fifty years at the Peterborough Telegraph ... and beyond
with David Lowndes, Press Photographer
So much has changed since 1973, perhaps nowhere more so than in the world of the local press. If memory serves us correctly, Peterborough then had several local papers and freesheets operating in fierce competition. If you wanted to search for a new house, a used car, or bargain merchandise, a local paper was the indispensable starting point. In turn, the assured flow of advertising revenue allowed the papers to maintain cadres of experienced staff, reporting on the full range of local events and keeping a close eye, in particular, on the ups and downs of local politics. Photography, not yet digitised of course, was central to keeping these papers engaging and topical.
Later on, we lost our choice of local paper, but the Peterborough Telegraph reigned supreme boasting daily editions. New technology helped to keep daily printing viable but soon brought entirely new and formidable competition in the shape of the internet. We are lucky to retain still a weekly Telegraph, but for how much longer in print format?
Our speaker this month is photographer David Lowndes who has been immersed in the local press scene throughout those fifty years both as an employee of the Telegraph and latterly as a freelance contributor. As well as covering news and sport, he specialises in theatre production pics, aerial shots, and work in schools. He has served as a school governor for over twenty years.
David was educated at Deacons School and says that being a photographer runs in his blood, as his uncle and two cousins were also so employed, while his wife, Jean, was a reporter. “Not much happened in the city without us knowing about it”, he commented.
“There are far too many stories to tell”, he says, but we hope he will come armed with a prime selection ready to share with us at this meeting.
Summer visits for 2023 are now concluded
Only members of the Society can book so for obvious reasons only part of the information is shown below.
For details on our very modest subscription rates and how to join please visit our Join Us page. The larger our membership the more influence we can bring over matters of concern.
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Afternoon visit to Bourne on a Wednesday in May - cost £10.00 per personThe Bourne visit is now fully booked. We met at Bourne Museum and then were taken on a tour of the town by Brenday Jones, returning to the Museum for tea and cakes |
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Afternoon visit to King's Cliffe on a Wednesday in June - cost £10.00 per personSue Trow-Smith of King's Cliffe Heritage led us on a tour of the village starting and finishing at the church where refreshments were provided at the end of the walk. Photos from the visit are below. |
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Afternoon visit to Crowland on a Wednesday in July - cost £10.00 per personThe Crowland visit is now fully booked. Davis Searle gave us a guided tour of the Abbey and then led us through part of the town to the triangular bridge, returning to the abbey for tea and cakes. Photos from the visit are below. |
Photos from the 2023 summer visits
Sadly no photos were provided from the visit to Bourne, webmaster unable to go on that one.
Photos from the visit to King's Cliffe All Saints and St James Church and village click image to see full size
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Photos from the visit to Crowland Abbey click image to see full size
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Photos from our summer visits from past years can be found by following the link..
Previous speakers and photos from visits from past years
Follow the link for our previous speakers and their subjects, and photos from past summer visits.
Committee Meetings
Committee meetings are normally arranged on the first Monday of each month throughout the year, except January and May which are on the second Monday.
Summaries of the society's talks and accounts of its visits appear in our Annual Report. The contents of our most recent Annual Reports are listed here, some of which can be downloaded. To obtain a copy please write or email our Secretary.
page last changed 7 November 2023