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February 2022
The Life of Fanny Trollope
Elizabeth Williams, who is a trustee of the Elizabeth Gaskell House in Manchester, will be talking about the exciting life of Fanny (Frances) Trollope. Fanny was well known for writing several strong novels of social protest: The first of these was ‘Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw’ (1836) which was the first anti-slavery novel. This book influenced the American Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of 1852. Then in 1840 Fanny published ‘Michael Armstrong: Factory Boy’ which was known as the first industrial…
Find out more »March 2022
Poison is a Woman’s Weapon
This month we have Angela Brabin, a retired solicitor with an MA in history, who will be using legal records from the 19th century to show how poison was frequently used in Victorian Britain. It became common, particularly in poorer areas, to kill husbands for their life insurance. Despite this we will still be offering tea and coffee at the end of the meeting!
Find out more »April 2022
Queen Victoria – who do you think she was?
And you thought you knew everything there was to know about Queen Victoria. This month Simon La Frenais will be telling us about Victoria's unfortunate influence upon the health of the various royal families in Europe and how this had a significant effect upon the subsequent history of Europe.
Find out more »May 2022
The Liverpool Overhead Railway
Gavin Hunter, a local historian, will be telling us about the founding and development of the Liverpool overhead railway. Known locally as the Dockers' Umbrella or Ovee the overhead railway operated along the Liverpool Docks and opened in 1893, before being finally dismantled in 1957.
Find out more »June 2022
The History of the British Longbow and the Cheshire and Flintshire Bowmen
Bernard Dennis is a member of the British Longbow Society. It can be said that the English longbow was the most important English military invention of the 1300s and that it changed the political face of Europe. Bernard will be telling us about the development of bows and arrows ranging from the need for hunting, the use in war and recreation, and also the legend of Robin Hood.
Find out more »July 2022
Science and the Vikings
Professor Stephen Harding, Professor of Applied Biology at the University of Nottingham, will be following on from his previous talk which looked at DNA samples taken from men of long standing Wirral families. These DNA results illustrated the connections between modern Wirral families and Scandinavians. It's all in the genes.
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