Talks
Each year we hold a season of monthly talks between September and April.
The talks are held usually in the Charing Parish Hall and on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 8pm.
Free entry for members but non-members are welcome too for just £3.
2024/25 Season
12th September 2024
Melody Foreman
The Wreck Hunter.
Battle of Britain & The Blitz (Lives Lost and Found)
In this talk we learn not only about the historical significance of Terry’s own story as a wreck-hunter but the importance of remembering the lives of the men who fought in the skies.
10th October2024
Jennifer Godfrey
Suffragettes of Kent.
Hear stories of hope, determination, courage and sacrifice of those campaigning for women’s suffrage in Kent.
14th November 2024
Jim Gascoyne
The GHQ (Home Forces) Auxiliary Units aka Churchill’s Secret Army.
The Auxiliary Units were a secret resistance network of highly trained volunteers who operated in a network of cells from hidden underground bases around the UK
12th December 2024
The Christmas Social
With ‘fun’ (i.e. non-competitive) quiz
Bring and share’ buffet
glass of wine /tea/coffee
9th January 2025
Len Howell
Dover Castle.
Dover Castle has a longer and more complex history than most people think.
13th February 2025
Claudia Suckling
William Morris - Craftsman, designer, and much more.
This talk will explore the breadth of Morris’s work and achievements, the influence that his work had then and the impact it continues to have.
13th March 2025
Simon Marsh
The Kent and East Sussex Railway.
The Kent & East Sussex Railway was the first light passenger railway built in Britain in the early 20th century. Learn more about its history, present projects, and future.
10th April 2025
Sally Finn-Kelcey
Guédelon, a 'brand-new medieval' castle”
Guédelon is a castle being built in Burgundy using just medieval methods.
Find out what’s been learned so far.
2023/24 Season
September 14th 2023
Tony Singleton
Clothmaking in the Weald of Kent
The talk covers the growth and decline of high quality woollen clothmaking in the Weald, how it employed a large number of people and the skills required in the several stages of its production.
Tony Singleton is a retired teacher and has been an active member of the Cranbrook History Society for about 35 years. Since moving to the Weald he has been fascinated by the various apects of its history and has spent much of his spare time researching local history.
October 12th 2023
Claudia Suckling
Grinling Gibbons, Britain’s Most Famous Woodcarver, 1648-1721
The talk will cover Gibbons’s background and workshop practices, examining how his style, techniques and materials changed over his 40 year career and why decorative limewood carving became central to the short-lived English baroque interior. His work can be seen in Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, several other London churches, and Petworth House.
Claudia Suckling has a post-graduate degree in Building Hisory from the University of Cambridge and now works for Spitalfields, the British architectural conservation charity. She is involved at present in the conservation work at the Archbishop’s Palace in Charing.
November 9th 2023
Matthew Wilson
The Artists who Outwitted the Nazis
The ingenious schemes of a group of artists during World War ll proved to be a decisive factor in the Allied victory over the Nazis. They created fake tanks and depots to fool enemy reconnaissance planes and turned the front line into a real theatre of war, their artistic skills blurring fiction and reality.
Matthew Wilson studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and is an author, lecturer and educator. As a freelance journalist he has written for numerous publications including Culture, The Spectator, The Economist and Aesthetica Magazine. He has written two books on symbols in art, and his latest book, An Introductory Guide to Art History, was published in September 2023.
December 14th 2024
Social Evening
January 11th 2024
Wayne Perkins
Medieval Graffiti
The talk will discuss historic graffiti found locally in Kent and then compare it with graffiti found elsewhere, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Wayne Perkins has been an archaeologist for over 20 years. He spent seven years on digs in France and now oversees excavations in the City of London, Sussex, Surrey and Kent. He is currently researching medieval and historic graffiti in the buildings of England and France.
February 8th 2024
Rebecca Warren
‘Our World Turn’d Upside Down’: religious revolution in mid-17th century Charing.
From the abolition of the bishops and Book of Common Prayer to the emergence of extreme religious sects, the two decades of Oliver Cromwell’s revolution changed the religious and social life of Britain forever. This talk looks at these changes through the experiences of those who lived in Charing and its neighbours: ordinary people whose lives were disrupted and challenged by extraordinary ‘goings on’.
Rebecca Warren is an honorary research fellow at the University of Kent, specialising in early modern religious history. Her doctorate was on the church during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, a subject on which she is currently writing a book. She has a particular interest in religious non-conformity, especially in Kent, but she has also worked, taught and lectured extensively on many aspects of medieval and early modern social, political and religious history.
March 14 2024
Hugh Cunningham
What Happened to Childhood? A History.
Since the late twentieth century there has been a negative narrative of what is happening to children. People born in the middle years of the century commonly compare their own childhoods favourably with what is happening to their grandchildren. They were told (and often believed) that their schooldays were the happiest days of their life. The negative narrative was preceded by a positive narrative dating back to the 1830s in which childhood was thought to be getting better from a nadir in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. Hugh Cunningham will explore this positive narrative and ask whether it stands the test of time.
Hugh Cunningham is Emeritus Professor of Social History at the University of Kent. He has written three books on the history of childhood: The Children of the Poor, Children and Childhoood in Western Society since 1500, and The Invention of Childhood ( based on a Radio 4 series done jointly with Michael Morpurgo).
April 11th 2024
Imogen Corrigan
Viking Life and Legend
The popular and not inaccurate view of the Vikings is of thuggish invaders and ferocious fighters who were masters of navigation and great traders; but not much attention is paid to their culture which influenced later church art in Britain. The lecture looks at Sagas, Skaldic poetry, runes and picture stones and how the various artistic styles deceloped over the two centuries of the Viking Age. It may show the more sensitive side of the Viking character but it never forgets that they were warriors at heart.
Imogen Corrigan has a degree in Anglo-Saxon & Medieval History. She has written: Stone on Stone; the men who built the cathedrals. She has the Freedom of the City of London as a Freeman of the Company of Communicators. She is also a Monuments Specialist for the Diocesan Advisory Committee.
May 16th 2024
A.G.M.
2022/23 Season Posters
