We have resumed holding a General Meeting on the second Monday of every month. The meetings include a talk given by a guest speaker. For the time being, talks will also continue on Zoom, on the fourth Monday of the month.
Monthly Meeting Talks
Our Monthly General Meetings include a talk from an invited Speaker.
The talks start at 11am.
There will also be talks on Zoom (see below).
Monday 8th November 2021
Staying Alive in the 16th Century Mayflower Period
An illustrated talk by Laura Quigley
Monday 13th December 2021
History of the Christmas Carol
An illustrated talk by Adriennne Hesketh
History of Christmas music and poetry. Adrienne describes the history of the Christmas carol including recent information on Exmoor’s lost Christmas carols, Christmas music, etc.
Monday 10th January 2022
Smuggling in Devon: The Truth Behind the Fiction
An illustrated talk by Robert Hesketh
Between 1700 and 1850 smuggling became a huge industry in Devon, with the majority of Devonians active in it, profiting from it, or at least colluding in it. All social classes were involved. Clergymen and aristocrats were among the backers. None thought cheating the government of exorbitant taxes was wrong and smugglers brought to trail were usually acquitted by sympathetic Devon juries and magistrates.
Smugglers were particularly active in Devon because there were so many sailors and fishermen who could assist.
Talks on Zoom
For talks on Zoom meetings
About two weeks before each talk all members will receive an emailed invite from our Meetings Co-ordinator, asking if they wish to attend the talk. There is a limited of 95 attendees, and these will be allocated to the first 95 responses to that email. A few days before the actual date of the talk, a link to join the meeting will be emailed to those confirmed acceptances. On the day of the talk, all attendees will be automatically ‘muted’ to avoid any interruptions from background noises. Though the talks start at 11am, you can sign in to Zoom from 10:30am.
Monday 25th October 2021
Britain’s Bloodiest Day – The Battle of Towton 1461
An illustrated talk by David Skillen
Ask people to name famous battles in Britain and you get Hastings, Bosworth and occasionally Waterloo! Yet few have heard of Towton, one of the most decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses and, possibly, the bloodiest battle on British soil. On a bitterly cold day in March 1461 the Houses of York and Lancaster struggled for the Crown on a snow covered plateau in Yorkshire. Here fought Kings, Dukes, Lords and ordinary men. And here they died. In this talk you will learn about the two kings who fought, walk the Bloody Meadow and cross the Bridge of Bodies and see how one Yorkist Lord had “a cunning plan”.
Monday 29th November 2021
The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie
An illustrated talk by Steve Dimmer
A look at the amazing career of the most popular crime novelist of all times.
Steve Dimmer examines the writer’s life beginning with the creation of Hercule Poirot in 1920, through the golden age of detective fiction, the emergence of Miss Marple until Agatha Christie became the indisputable ‘Queen of Crime’.
Along the way, he’ll be looking at the real-life mystery involving the novelists’ actual disappearance and perhaps try to solve this intriguing puzzle.
No Zoom talk in December
Monday 31st January 2022
Time Through the Ages
An illustrated talk by John Hope
A journey through time telling over the centuries showing the development and improvement of time telling devices from sundial and water clocks through the introduction of mechanical clocks, railway time, domination of pendulum devices to the atomic clock.