Upcoming
Events & Talks
“Gloucestershire Archives’ Green Pledge Project: What local heritage can tell us about our changing environment” – Marion Hill
Environmental material at Gloucestershire Archives is vast and wide ranging .... from the Court of Sewers and the Verderers of the Forest of Dean to more personal material such as farmers’ diaries, naturalists’ journals and intriguing accounts of events which rocked the countryside. Marion Hill is Learning & Outreach Officer for the Green Pledge Project (a major Heritage Lottery funded project at the Archives over the past 2 years) and she will also explain how access to these collections can be used to inspire engagement with environmental issues – one of the most important topics of the current day.
“Claude Monet and the First World War” – Ross King
2026 is the 100th anniversary of the death of artist Claude Monet but we are delighted to start the centenary commemorations which will follow around the world with a fascinating talk by local Canadian art historian, Ross King. Monet’s response to the First World War may surprise you. How did it affect him and his family? What happened at Giverny? What was Monet’s close connection with the French government? How does Monet’s series of large-scale water lily paintings reflect his thoughts on the war. Did you also know Monet was a motorhead? There is so much more to discover about Monet than we often think!
“Race to the Moon: the US manned lunar exploration programme” – John McCormick
Everyone knows where they watched the first moon landing in 1969. This was one of the great feats of exploration, programme management, scientific development and, most of all, tremendous guts and focus under pressure, of the last 100 years. Our speaker will also highlight some of the fascinating and amusing connections from this exploration programme which include men’s fashion, women’s empowerment, basketball, Elvis, lawlessness, government budgeting and the importance to NASA of felt tip pens and duct tape!
AGM and talk
Our annual AGM immediately followed by the talk “The King’s Jockey: Bertie Jones, the forgotten hero” – Lesley Gray.
Most people have heard of the suffragette Emily Davison who ran out in front of the king’s horse during the 1913 Epsom Derby. But who was the jockey - and what happened to him? On the eve of the 2025 Derby our speaker, author, editor and academic Lesley Gray, explains Bertie’s rise to fame, how he did much to help the popularity of the scandal-prone prince soon to be King Edward VII and how Bertie’s life was changed forever by the fateful horse race that resulted in the death of a woman.
Northleach Workhouse - Isabel Harvey
It was a grim existence for those who found themselves at the mercy of life in a Victorian Workhouse. In a typical Cotswold market town such as Northleach as farming became more mechanized, those already living on the edges of poverty became so desperate they would find themselves at the gates of the town’s Workhouse. However Isabel Harvey, local history speaker, has discovered an unlikely story of hope for the girls of Northleach as through the education of them by their remarkable poor house School Mistress, Jane Hine, it enabled them to find employment and a more secure future.