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 , 2023 , 2024 and 2025
2026
21st January –The Melton Navigation – Brian Fare
The Melton Mowbray canal was set up in 1791 by an Act of Parliament; the Act gave the Melton Mowbray Navigation Company of Proprietors powers to “make the rivers Wreake and Eye navigable for the carriage of coal, stone, lime, limestone, timber, lead and all kinds of merchandise”. For decades, the Melton Navigation was a healthy business seeing a comfortable return for its investors but the introduction of the Syston to Peterborough Railway started to take traffic away from the water & it fell into a dramatic decline.
In this talk Brian Fare will take us through the history of the Melton Navigation from inception in the late 18thcentury to abandonment in 1877.
Brian is a Melton based historian, with a particular interest in military history & the history of Melton & surrounding areas. This talk was researched & developed for the Melton & Oakham Waterways Society as part of an 18-month research project into the history of the canal, made possible by grant aid from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
18 th March –– The Diet of the Grey Family at Bradgate House. – Rachel Small
Leicestershire is familiar with Bradgate House & the story of the ill-fated Lady Jane Gray, the nine-day Queen.
In this talk Rachel Small introduces us to the Grey family of the 18th century & more particularly their diet. Using a combination of analysis of the animal bones & plant remains uncovered during recent excavations at Bradgate House and historical documents kept by the Grey’s stewards & cooks, Rachel compares the Grey’s consumption to popular recipes & food related medical theories of the day.
Rachel Small is an Environmental Officer at the University of Leicester Archaeological Services. In 2023, she completed her PhD, which considered the extent to which humoral theory (a medical ideology) influenced consumption behaviour in early modern England
20th May – Honest Men but Destitute – the Plight of Leicestershire’s Framework Knitters – Jess Jenkins
Jess Jenkins, archivist and author, will give a talk on “Honest Men but Destitute – the Plight of Leicestershire’s Framework Knitters” at the Hoby & District Local History Society on Wednesday May 20th, 7.30pm, Hoby Village Hall (LE14 3DT). All are welcome; the price for non-members is £3.00 (pay on door) or visit www.hobyanddistricthistory.co.uk for more information.
Many families from Leicestershire will find at least one framework knitters amongst their forbears. By the middle of the 18th century the trade of knitting stockings, socks, shirts, gloves and other garments on ‘stocking frames’ had become centred on Leicestershire and surrounding counties. The numbers increased and by 1844 it was calculated that there were over 18,500 frames working in the county. By this date, however, the trade was already in the grips of a severe depression, and many framework knitters faced destitution and even starvation.
This talk will look at the plight of framework knitters in the 1840s in particular when a government report was carried out looking into the condition of the framework knitters.
Jess Jenkins worked as an archivist at Leicestershire Record Office for over thirty years. 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.
15th July – Painting the Town Red, a walking tour of Melton Mowbray – Brian Fare
16th September – The Archaeology of the Melton Bypass – Ben Turner
18th November – The Archaeology of The Wreake Valley – Peter Liddle
16th December – members evening