Lectures & Speakers 2025 – 2026
Our lecture season runs from October to April, with lectures being held in the Anna McDowell Garden Room at Gold Hill Museum on the first Tuesday afternoon of each month. The exception is the Teulon Porter Memorial Lecture, which starts the season and is held in the evening at Shaftesbury Town Hall. Noel Teulon Porter was a notable Cambridge archaeologist and instrumental in founding The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society in 1946.
The 2025 Teulon Porter Lecture will see the welcome return of Dr Caroline Dakers, Professor Emerita at the University of Arts London. Her topic Millionaire Shopping: The Collections of Alfred Morrison (1821-97) is based on extensive recent research and subject of a forthcoming book. (Further details at the foot of this page.)
Lectures are free to members, while visitors may pay £5 at the door. (£7 for the Teulon Porter). Seats for non-members at afternoon lectures are normally available from 2.20p.m.
Proposals for lectures to the Society on suitable historical subjects are welcome, and may be made via lectures@goldhillmuseum.org.uk
| Date / Time | Topic | Speaker | More |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, 06 August 2025 – 6.30pm – The Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum
* Please note the evening timing | Edwardian Villages as photographed near Shaftesbury by Albert Edward Tyler (1873-1919) | Claire Ryley and Ann Symons | S&DHS members Claire and Ann present by public demand a repeat showing of their sequel to Edwardian Shaftesbury. Their knowledge of the Tyler Collection is unrivalled, and they welcome insights from their appreciative local audiences. |
| Tuesday, 04 November 2025 – 2.30p.m. – The Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum | How Shillingstone could claim to be “Home of The Bravest Village in England” | Andrew Vickers | The road signs still make the claim on Shillingstone’s behalf. In 1914 Britain’s army was vastly outnumbered, and recruitment into a volunteer army became an urgent priority. This presentation describes the little known role which the small Dorset village played in encouraging men to join up. Andrew Vickers is chair of Okeford Fitzpaine Local History Group and has previously given this lively and well researched talk to the Western Front Association, of which he is a member. |
| Tuesday, 02 December 2025 – 2.30p.m. – The Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum | An exploration of lesser known Victorian and Edwardian Photographers of the Shaftesbury area | Claire Ryley and Ann Symons | In an age when ordinary people had no means of taking their own photographs, there was work for several local professional photographers. Claire and Ann reveal the surviving evidence of Albert Tyler’s rivals, including at least one lady photographer. |
| Tuesday 06 January 2026 – 2.30p.m. – The Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum | Plain Tales from the East India Company and India Office Records | Hedley Sutton | Hedley has worked at the British Library for 43 years; as Asia and African Studies Reference Team Leader since 1999. He offers four quirky stories from one of the largest UK archives. He has given this and other talks to branches of the Historical Association, with a notably dry sense of humour. |
| Tuesday, 03 February 2026 – 2.30p.m. – The Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum | Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History | Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid, Wolfson College, Oxford Writer and broadcaster | Moudhy is an Assyriologist, specialising in the cuneiform languages of the early civilisations between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Her much-lauded 2025 book (of the same title) takes as its starting point the 1920s discovery at Ur by our first President, Sir Leonard Woolley, of what he believed was an exhibit label from a museum of already ancient objects. |
| Tuesday, 03 March 2026 – 2.30p.m. – The Garden Room, Gold Hill Museum | Women’s Suffrage in Dorset: forgotten stories | Karen Hunt Professor Emerita of Modern British History, Keele University Trustee of Bridport Museum | Dorset is not a county usually associated with the long campaign for votes for women. However, that does not mean that the women (and men) of the county were indifferent to women’s lack of citizenship. This talk explores where in Dorset women chose to organise, what they did and the effects it had locally. Why did suffragism blossom in some places and not others; why were there far more suffragists than suffragettes; and how did the experience of this campaigning affect Dorset women once the vote was won? |
