APRIL 2018
SPEAKERS
PETER SHAKESHAFT
peter.shakeshaft@btinternet.com 01253 720852
ASPECTS of FRECKLETON
INDUSTRIAL FRECKLETON
THE HISTORY of FRECKLETON MARSH
RELIGION in FRECKLETON
FRECKLETON CLUB DAY 1800 – 1914
HISTORY of HOLY TRINITY FRECKLETON
ST ANNES -
ASPECTS of HEYHOUSES
HISTORY of ST PAUL’S WARTON
HISTORY of ST CUTHBERT’S LYTHAM 1536 -
HISTORY of LYTHAM MANORIAL COURT 1517 -
DICK GILLINGHAM
gill.gillingham@uwclub.net 01253 890105
FISH AND SHIPS History of Deep Sea Fishing from Fleetwood
DECIMUS BURTON Fleetwood’s Founding Architect
FREDERICK KEMP OF FLEETWOOD The Man or the Myth -
VICTORIAN PHILANTHROPISTS & THE NEW INDUSTRIAL SETTLEMENTS
THE HEYDAY OF THE BRITISH CIRCUS
THE PORT OF FLEETWOOD
CHRISTINE STOREY
POULTON-
CARLETON -
MIKE COYLE
mike.coyle@btinternet.com 01253 761778
WAR MEMORIALS as a RESOURCE
RESCUE, RESTORATION and RELOCATION of
WAR MEMORIALS
ANY TOPICS RELATED to WAR MEMORIALS, THEIR HISTORY and PLACE in the MODERN WORLD
Victorian Optical Entertainments
A talk or seminar for students of art history, media, film studies and visual sciences and groups interested in social history, photography, cinema and the Victorians.
Since the earliest times, artists and scientists have tried to capture real life
(movement and perspective) through art and mechanical devices. The Victorians used
the new science of optics to create perspective machines, persistence-
I have collected optical antiques for forty years and presented authentic Victorian magic lantern shows, on a professional basis, for the last twenty. I work with museums; TV companies; academia; festivals; U3As and special interest groups. In addition to my lantern slide shows, I now offer a talk or seminar on the Victorian optical entertainments (peepshows; transformation views; dioramas; panoramas; zoetropes; stereoscopes; magic lanterns; phantasmagoria shows and much more) that led to the invention of cinema and the plethora of visual entertainments we enjoy today.
One hour talk -
Half day seminar -
“A talk, an experience, an adventure even, that took one back to a pre-
“The show was very informative and entertaining. Students and staff alike enjoyed
Andrew’s informative presentation and being able to use some of the items on show.
It really helped join the dots of the relationship between the pre-
“Andrew led us through the fascinating development of pre-
Explore this forgotten world and experience the visual wonders enjoyed by our Victorian ancestors. For further information or to discuss a particular event, project or course, please contact me, Andrew Gill, on 01706 227328 or email me at lanternist@ntlworld.com
Talks currently offered to local societies and organisations
Updated June 2015
Dr Michael (Mike) Winstanley
Retired Senior Lecturer in Social and Regional History, Lancaster University
m.winstanley@lancaster.ac.uk (preferably) or melandmike73@gmail.com 015242 21277
These are talks I have given to local societies and groups across Lancashire and Cumbria. All are based on original research and all, bar two, use illustrations from the North West.
I am always researching and working other subjects up; please ask for further details.
Lancashire History
Lord Burghley and maps of Lancashire: an Elizabethan mystery
Discusses two of the earliest maps of the county which include names of the gentry and some enigmatic crosses by some of the names.
Was Shakespeare in Lancashire? The strange case of John Cottom of St Michael’s on Wyre, Stratford schoolmaster.
A critical re-
Edward Baines and the History of Lancashire (1836)
The first scholarly (4 volume) history of the county with detailed parish histories. Who was Baines? How did he write such a work in an era without local archives and libraries? The people who assisted him, including the young Edwin Butterworth of Oldham who visited every parish. Who supplied the illustrations?
Artists and Prints
Lancashire AND/OR Cumbria Illustrated: early 19th century prints (including local examples)
I can offer this for Lancashire or Cumbria or both. It illustrates the counties from the profusion of prints which appeared in the early decades of the 19th century and discusses the artists behind them why so many were produced at that period and what they can tell us about life in the region at the time.
Thomas Allom (1804-
Not a household name today but once renowned for his work as an artist, architect and draughtsman. This looks at his some of his nearly 200 published prints of Lancashire and Cumbria made in the 1830s (many for sale today in antique shops and on the web) and his fascinating life and work as an artist and architect.
Markets and Shops
Markets to Supermarkets: 200 years of shopping:…
Looks at the development of markets, shops, chain stores, co-
Lancaster’s Markets
A history of Lancaster’s street and covered markets and their place in the town.
Lonsdale and the West Indies
For Tortola: Quakers, (Lonsdale or Lancaster) merchants and West Indies c.1750-
This explores some of the remarkable trading, personal and religious connections
between the Morecambe Bay area and the tiny, often neglected but important Caribbean
Virgin Islands. It expands on the context for a book on Abram, a Lancaster-
The Lune Valley and the West Indies
An exploration of the multi-
Lancaster History (see also Lancaster Markets)
Lancaster Castle as 19th century prison
An exploration of how a medieval castle was converted into a 19th century prison and how the prisoners – and debtors – were treated.
West Indies to Window Blinds: 19th century Lancaster
Georgian prosperity, mid-
Historical Pageants
Historical Pageants in the North West
During the first half of the 20th century, many towns and villages (inc Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston, Liverpool, Manchester, etc) mounted elaborate historical pageants, often with casts of thousands, which depicted their areas’ local histories. This talk illustrates some of these pageants and discusses why they were mounted, what they contained and who participated.
Lancaster Pageants
This talk focuses on Lancaster’s pageants in 1913 and 1930 and also covers the celebrations of 1937 when Lancaster became a city and an indoor pageant of 1953.
Rural Society c1780-
a) Agricultural Revolutions: Feeding the Industrial Revolution
What did the rapidly expanding population of the country, and particularly the industrial North west, eat and where did their food come from?
b) Landowners and tenants
An exploration of the families who owned and farmed the land in C19 North West and some sources for studying them
c) Work on the Land
A discussion of the workforce – men, women and children -
d) Enclosures and Commons
The drive towards Parliamentary Enclosure but also the survival and value of common land, especially in the North West.
e) Ireland: Potatoes, Famine and Emigration OR ‘The Great Hunger: 1845-
Why did the Irish eat potatoes and why did so many die in the Great Famine of the 1840s or leave the country?
f) The Highland Clearances
What were they? How ‘cruel’ were they? What did they achieve?
Victorian Society in Cumbria AND/OR Lancashire
a) Charity, the Poor Law and Workhouse’ – when all else failed
An exploration of the ways in which people sought to ‘make ends meet’ and get through hard times including the poor law and the increasingly dreaded workhouse
b) Muck, Medicine and Mortality: Health and Housing
Water, sewerage, housing, hospitals, medicine – an exploration of the ways in which Victorians coped, or tried to cope with squalor and disease
c) Happy Days? Educating the Masses
Elementary schooling, 1818-
d) Outside the Law: crime, policing and punishment
Patterns of crime, the development of local police forces and the changing role of local prisons
e) Roughs and Respectables: the pleasures and problems of leisure
Some of the various ways in which people entertained themselves – or were entertained – and authorities’ responses to them
f) Getting Away from it all: seaside resorts and the Lakes
The growth of the day trip, seaside holiday and Lakeland tour
g) Child Labour in the 19th century
How extensive was child labour? What were contemporary attitudes towards it?
Sources for Local History
Edwardian Domesday c1910-
An introduction to maps, surveys and descriptions of every property in every parish in the country. Ideally I would need time to research in the National Archives in London to be able to provide local examples.
Making Sense of the Census
The census is a widely used for family history but what else can one do with it?
A Neglected Treasure Trove: 19th century Lancashire and/or Cumbrian History from Parliamentary Publications
British Parliamentary enquiries have information on virtually every aspect of British history: population, factories, enclosure and farming, public health etc etc. And every local MP’s speeches!
Agricultural Returns and the National Farm Survey of 1941
The government has collected details of agricultural output at parish level every year since 1870 and in 1941 instituted a major survey of every farm. The sources and what they tell us