All Hoby and District Local History Society events will take place in Hoby & District Village Hall and start at 7.30pm, unless otherwise stated. Membership of the Hoby & District Local History Society costs £5.00 per annum and gives free entry to meetings. The charge for guests is £2.00 per meeting. Tea, coffee and very good cake is served after our meetings for a donation of £1.00. We pride ourselves on a welcoming and friendly atmosphere so why not come along and learn more about the area we live in.
Previous years events can be viewed here: 2014, 2015, 2016 , 2017 , 2018 , 2019, 2020, 2021 ,2022 and 2023
2024
17th January – Garderobes & Gongfermors: Going to the Privy in the Medieval Era – James Wright
Going to the toilet is an everyday event for literally everyone that has ever lived. However, there has been a prudish reticence among architectural specialists to research and present the archaeology of this apparently ordinary practice. Despite this, there is a wealth of data which can be drawn upon to explain the latrinal habits of people in the mediaeval period.
This data is not just limited to the functional – Where in the building were the privies located? What did they look like? How were they kept clean? There are a whole host of other considerations: What were the mediaeval attitudes towards going to the toilet? Who was allowed to access the garderobe? What were the social implications of doing so? How were privies used to promote notions of elite prestige? This talk will plumb all of these depths…
Dr James Wright of Triskele Heritage is an award winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the past.
20th March – ‘Roman Lifestyles in Rural Rutland: Further Excavations at the Rutland Roman Villa.’ – John Thomas
Following the discovery and excavation of a unique Roman mosaic showing scenes from the Trojan War cycle on Rutland farmland in 2020/2021, archaeologists from University of Leicester and Historic England joined forces in 2022 to return to the site of the newly discovered villa to find out more. A highly detailed image of the Roman villa complex had been provided by geophysical survey, which gave an excellent indication of where other buildings lay within the field surrounding the . John Thomas will describe the results of these new excavations at one of the best preserved Roman villas in Leicestershire & Rutland, discussing what they can add to the story of this remarkable discovery, and setting the villa into the wider context of Roman rural life in Leicestershire and Rutland.
15th May – “Burning Passions. The Story of the Struggle for Women’s Suffrage in Leicestershire”– Jess Jenkins
Many in Leicester and the county were committed to the fight to secure votes for women. All faced violence and intimidation. Several were even prepared to face the threat of imprisonment and the hunger strike. A few were even prepared to commit arson… Although suffragettes like Alice Hawkins are well known today, other significant players have been largely forgotten. This is the tale of some of the women -and men – who were prepared to sacrifice everything in the face of the government’s intransigence over the issue.
Jess Jenkins worked as an archivist at Leicestershire Record Office for over thirty years. She accidentally volunteered to prepare an exhibition to mark the centenary of the local branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union in 2007 and was amazed at the array of interesting characters who were active locally. Her book on the subject – ‘The Burning Question’ appeared in 2008 and she is currently updating the work with all that she has learnt since then. The new book will be published shortly. She is the author of several books on local history and most recently of ‘Nursing in Serbia with Lady Paget in 1915’ which tells the story of a Leicester woman who went out to Serbia during the First World War.
17th July – The siege of 1645 for the guided walk of Leicester – Jim Butler
18th September – Leicester Cathedral Revealed – Mathew Morris
The construction of Leicester Cathedral’s new Heritage & Learning Centre has revealed a fascinating snapshot of life in Leicester over the past 2,000 years, including a possible Roman shrine, an Anglo-Saxon building, and a burial ground in use from the late Saxon period to the 19th century. Join archaeologist Mathew Morris from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services for a talk about the recent archaeological excavations at Leicester Cathedral and what they tell us about the lives of the people of St Martin’s parish and the story of Leicester.
Mathew graduated from the University of Leicester in 2003 with a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Landscape Studies, joining ULAS in 2004. In 2012, he directed the successful archaeological search for the lost grave of King Richard III. Recently, he has been digging up more Roman buildings and mosaics in Leicester, at the former Southgates Bus Depot and All Saints’ Brewery sites and is currently leading the archaeological work for the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project.
20th November – The Archaeology of Brooksby Quarry & The River Bytham – Matt Beamish
Matthew Beamish is a graduate of Cambridge University and has been working as an archaeologist in Leicestershire since 1990 is giving a talk on “The Archaeology of Brooksby Quarry & The River Bytham” at the Hoby & District Local History Society on Wednesday 20th November, 7.30pm, Hoby Village Hall (LE14 3DT). All are welcome; the price for non members is £2.00 (pay on door) or visit www.hobyanddistricthistory.co.uk
The talk will include the results to date of archaeological work on the sands and gravels of Brooksby Quarry between 2007-2020 which identified evidence of early human occupation in the area and the environmental backdrop to that activity.
A series of linked investigations were carried out to further the understanding of the character of a distinct deposit of sands and gravels identified near to Brooksby, Leicestershire, the Brooksby Sand and Gravel. These deposits infill a bedrock incised channel of the Bytham river, a major Pleistocene river system that drained the English Midlands prior to the Anglian Glaciation. The deposits which lie between 55m and 60m, are thought to have accumulated during a period of temperate conditions within the Cromerian Complex, a period of the earliest hominin activity in Britain.
Quartzite artefacts and environmental material including some pollen, small vertebrate remains, wood and plant macrofossils were recovered/ sampled from the investigations.
The talk will include what the evidence is, how it is found and what it might mean
Matthew Beamish is a graduate of Cambridge University and has been working as an archaeologist in Leicestershire since 1990. His archaeological expertise covers all prehistoric sites, including wetland preservation and wood technology. A particular highlight in recent years has been the analysis and experimental reconstruction of the first ever bark shield to have been found in the northern hemisphere. Technical expertise includes the development and implementation of database systems, site survey, the use of GIS systems, and the use of aerial LIDAR data. Matthew is the Membership Secretary for the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society.
11th December – members evening – a family object/subject of interest/ DNA results
2025
15th January – Ghost Signs in Leicestershire – Colin Hyde
Ghost signs are not a new phenomenon. As defined by our collection parameters, a ghost sign is a ‘hand-painted advertisement that has been preserved on a building’, typically on houses or buildings at busy intersections. Leicester is privileged with a variety of ghost signs that advertise everything from foodstuffs and pubs to clothing and shoes, funeral directors and car repair to engineering and manufacturing. Scattered throughout the city, they are hard to miss but only once you know to look for them. They are pieces of heritage that blend into the urban landscape; however, their mutual coexistence with the urban turns ghost signs into cultural and economic markers. They become inextricably linked to the identity of a place.
Colin has been working with oral history archives since the 1980s and is currently managing the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project at the University of Leicester. Colin also has an interest in local history in Leicestershire & Rutland, and photographing and recording urban and rural environments, which is how the current talk developed.
19th March ––The stained glass of the Horwood Brothers – the life and times of a provincial Victorian firm – Jeff Hopewell
From very humble beginnings the three youngest of the six Horwood Brothers were educated by the Rector of Mells, Somerset, who was also the Lord of the Manor, at his private academy and his curate taught them the art of stained glass. With his sponsorship they were soon working for some of the major names in Victorian church architecture, such as Butterfield and Street. Their work in this country spans a period of over 40 years, from 1852 to 1895.
The talk is a story of social mobility in which three generations of the same family moved from being an impoverished farm labourer (and convict, having stolen some barley and peas to feed his family) to respected craftsmen to highly-regarded professionals. It looks at how the Horwoods gained commissions, and from whom, and why certain designs were chosen as suitable memorials.
Jeff Hopewell is a retired priest and Canon Emeritus of Leicester Cathedral. He has long been interested in church architecture and furnishings and has written a book on the Glaswegian stained glass artist, Douglas Hamilton.
21st May – Historic Building Mythbusting – James Wright
James Wright said: “Go to any mediaeval building in the land and there will be interesting, exciting and romantic stories presented to the visitor. They are commonly believed and widely repeated – but are they really true?” He goes on to say: “These stories include those of secret passages linking ancient buildings, spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, ship timbers used in the construction of buildings on land, blocked doors in churches which are thought to keep the Devil out, and claims to be the oldest pub in the country. Delightful as these tales are, they can be a tad misleading in some cases and absolute myths in others.”
For example, tales of hidden tunnels are often connected to the Reformation and an emerging cultural identity which was suspicious of Catholicism. The spiral staircase myth was invented in 1902 by an art critic obsessed with spirals, left-handedness, and fencing – it is intricately bound up with the Victorian obsession with militarism. Ship timber yarns can be linked to the ideals of a seafaring nation. Blocked doors in churches are connected to forgotten processions on church feast days. The talk even looks at the archaeological evidence which points to the possible identification of what may genuinely be the oldest pub in the land.
Understanding the truths behind the myths is just one part, he will also seek to understand how those tales came to be.
Dr James Wright of Triskele Heritage is an award winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the past.
16th July – Revolting Robert and the 1173 Siege of Leicester – Exploring the rise and fall of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester – Jim Butler
17th September – Kathleen Kenyon & the Jewry Wall – Mathew Morris
19th November – Moving in the Shadows – A film remembering Leicester’s 1960s’ Creative Scene
10th December – members evening