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Heritage Talks 2019-2020 

This has been our third annual series of Heritage Talks. Once more, we've found expert speakers to cover a wide variety of topics. Our season started in October with a return visit from Dr Rebecca Gregory of Nottingham University. Over 70 people filled the Hastings Hall for her talk on the Vikings in the East Midlands.

In November, we welcomed Roger Wilson to talk about our beautiful stained glass windows in the context of an appreciation of Victorian stained glass. December's speaker was David Budge, from Mercian Archaeology. Mercian ran our 'Finding the Vaults' community project, so it was lovely to welcome David back to talk about some of the medieval pottery found on our site - its age, how it was made, who made it and what it was used for.

January saw a welcome return visit from Peter Liddle, whose talk was on Medieval Pilgrimage to and from Leicestershire. He handed round a fascinating selection of reproduction pilgrim badges during this talk - the medieval equivalent of the bookmarks, pencils and fridge magnets we purchase at tourist sites today.

February's visitor was Steve Woodward, who has visited all of Leicestershire and Rutland's churchyards, searching for the fascinating flora and fauna that thrive within them.  In March, in a change to the published programme, we welcomed Gay Evans, whose topic was Laurence Shirley, Earl Ferrers, the last English Nobleman to the hanged for murder. A particular highlight of her talk was involving the audience in a partial re-enactment of the trial, using original transcripts from the House of Lords.


 

Julie Starkey, 30/03/2020