The Provisional Langford and District History Society Programme of talks and visits for 2025 is as below.
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LANGFORD & DISTRICT HISTORY SOCIETY |
PROGRAMME 2025 TALKS AND VISITS Visitors £4, Members £2, includes free tea or coffee. |
Meetings generally held in Langford Church Hall at 7.45 for 8pm on the first Wednesday in the month, as shown below. |
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Wednesday, 1 January 2025 |
NO MEETING |
NO MEETING NO MEETING NO MEETING |
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Wednesday, 5 February 2025 |
Annual General Meeting |
Possible showing of Theo Goble’s latest short film about a Langford soldier?? |
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Wednesday, 5 March 2025 |
The Mystery & Magic of Egyptian Hieroglyphs Nick Da Costa |
Nick’s talk shows how Egyptian hieroglyphs were the world’s first form of writing, cleverly using pictures of everyday objects, birds, animals, tools, buildings etc to construct words – which actually makes it surprisingly easy to learn once you have the ‘key.’ He describes how this key was lost for 2,000 years after the fall of the Ancient Egyptian and only rediscovered by the work of an Englishman called Thomas Young, and a Frenchman called Jean-Francois Champollion. His presentation is gloriously illustrated throughout, using original paintings from tombs, temples, coffins and papyrus., showing famous Pharaohs, Queens and, of course, many gods |
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Wednesday, 2 April 2025 |
It’s a Hole – A big, big Hole: The Extraction Industry and the Bedfordshire Landscape Brian Kerr |
The geology of Bedfordshire has provided resources for a variety of extraction industries over a long period, the best known being the brick clay workings of the Marston Vale. Additionally, there are other less well-known mining and quarry operations winning coprolites, Fullers Earth and industrial sand from the landscape. This has left Bedfordshire with a residue of abandoned mining sites which are now important as brown field development areas, nature reserves, and leisure facilities. This presentation includes the hard rock quarrying of chalk and sandstone; the sand and quarrying industry based in Leighton Buzzard; and other extraction sites. |
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Wednesday, 7 May 2025 |
Out of Africa and West with the night! Roy Smart |
Roy will give his delayed talk about a Rutland born woman, who ran wild in Kenya and then was the first person to fly the Atlantic east to west.. |
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Wednesday, 4 June 2025 |
Visit to Biggleswade Market Square Natalie Doig |
Natalie (who won Gold for the Best History Podcast at the British Podcast Awards for her ‘Weird in the Wade’) will tell us some of the fascinating and weird stories around the Market Square including the linking the Great Fire, secret tunnels, body snatchers and brewery. – meet on site Possibly retiring to a local hostelry afterwards |
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Wednesday, 2 July |
Visit to be confirmed |
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Wednesday, 6 Aug. |
NO MEETING |
NO MEETING NO MEETING NO MEETING |
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Wednesday, 3 September 2025 |
The Piece of Paper that Changed the World Nick Peace |
Nick’s presentation is based on the Universal Postage Act of 1840 which lead to the production of the Penny Black. |
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Wednesday, 1 October 2025 |
Domestic Interiors – home life in the archives Pamela Birch |
Pamela takes a look at the homes and lives of the people of Bedfordshire through examples from Bedfordshire Archives. Along the way she will consider such things as: decoration, cooking, servants and pets. |
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Wednesday, 5 November 2025 |
The Short Brothers, Aircraft, Airships and Cardington Ted Martin |
Ted will present his new talk about three brothers who were aviation pioneers for aircraft and airships and left an indelible mark on Bedfordshire. |
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Wednesday 3 December 2025 |
Social Evening |
Details TBA |