Lecture Programme 2024

Friday 19 January, 2pm

Vere Foster – Changing Lives for the Irish Poor

During the Great Famine of the 1840s in Ireland, Vere Foster set up an agricultural training school and assisted the poor wherever he could. He personally helped with the re-settlement of thousands of emigrants to North America escaping starvation and disease.
For those unable to emigrate he set his sights on improving their life chances by lifting educational standards in Irish schools, spending a vast fortune building and equipping schools and designing his own ‘Copy Books’ for the teaching of writing.
These were the achievements of a remarkable man whose life story is a ‘record of unselfish devotion to humanity’.
Jean Cannon shares the story of one of the most remarkable and unifying figures in the history of post-famine Ireland, as part of our Barton Heritage Project partnership in association with Barton Civic Society.

Friday 16 February, 2pm

Capability Brown – Gardeners and Landscape Architect

Andrew Robinson shares his research about the gardener and landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown who became the UK’s most famous landscape designer of the 18th century.  Brown redesigned hundreds of parks and gardens throughout Britain and developed the natural-looking English landscape style that became renowned throughout the world.  You can see his work around the country at places like Belvoir Castle, Blenheim Palace and Harewood House.  Closer to home, the estate of Burton Constable in East Yorkshire is another of his creations.

Friday 15 March, 7.30pm

Through Kirton Tunnel

As part of this year’s 175^th anniversary commemorations of the railway branch line from New Holland reaching Barton-on-Humber, railway historian Stephen Gay returns with a virtual train journey from Kirton Lindsey to Cleethorpes – via Barton.  The branch line was opened in 1849 in the hope it would be extended westwards from to Winterton and beyond, though this never happened.
This 72 mile virtual rail journey begins in Sheffield and travels through Darnall, Woodhouse and Kiveton Park, through Nottinghamshire and over the River Trent into Lincolnshire.  The towns of Gainsborough, Kirton Lindey and Brigg are passed as we head to Grimsby and Cleethorpes – with an important detour up the scenic North Lincolnshire branch line  to Barton upon Humber.

Friday 19 April, 7.30pm                                

The Royal Coach

O Howard Boyd is a talented local woodcarver, sculptor and artist who has created life-size sculptures of George Stubbs and John Harrison, the ‘Father of Longitude’, among other incredibly detailed masterpieces.  His greatest claim to fame, however, is his carving of the Imperial Crown – the centrepiece for the Royal Diamond Jubilee Coach ’Britannia’. The coach had its first public ‘airing’ for the State Opening of Parliament in 2014.  Howard shares this unique story of Barton’s link with the Royal Coach.
Based on an article by Mike Webster in Lincolnshire Life, December 2014

Friday 17 May, 7.30pm

The Early History of Hull’s Municipal Parks

As with all social and economic trends in modern history the local and national events cannot be divorced. So this presentation by landscape historian Richard Clarke will begin with the national background before dovetailing in relevant trends and facts from the development of Kingston upon Hull’s municipal parks up to the late 1930s.

Friday 21 June, 7.30pm

Wicksteed, Warden & Dale: Heroes or Villains

Continuing our focus on Hull, this is the story of the City’s nineteenth century water supply.
Peter Claxton talks about the political intransigence, combined with individual and collective ineptitude during a period of rapid industrial and urban development. Covering a period of a mere 45 years, the talk will focus on the three main individuals associated with the provision of a ‘wholesome supply’ of water to the town: Thomas Wicksteed, William Warden & Thomas Dale.   will At the end of the presentation we can reflect on whether all three individuals were heroes or villains.

Friday 19 July, 8pm (following the Society’s AGM at 7.30pm)

St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church

Barton has been home to Catholic priests since 1842. Benedictine priests and monks from Ampleforth Abbey served Barton from 1848. During the Second World War Barton’s priests were chaplains to the American Air Force stationed in Lincolnshire.
Today, standing above the busy Barrow Road, the St Augustine Webster Catholic Church is a striking sight for those travelling through Barton Upon Humber. The current church has stood at its home on Whitecross Street since 1988.
But this is the third Catholic church in Barton, as Ursula Vickerton will explain. In 1842 a chapel on Priestgate became Barton’s first Catholic place of worship. 1925 saw the beginning of a fundraising drive for a new church. This opened in 1938, together with a neighbouring presbytery, on a paddock at Bardney Hall. Fifty years later a major structural fault led to its demolition.  A new church dedicated to North Lincolnshire martyr St Augustine Webster opened in 1988.
Based on an article by Ursula Vickerton and bartonandbriggcatholicchurches.org

Heritage Open Days 2024

6 – 15 September

This is the 30^th year of the heritage festival and Barton will be joining Heritage Lincolnshire to celebrate how people and ideas have moved around and come together throughout history.
As part of the Barton Heritage Project a number of venues and organisations in the town are planning exciting experiences that bring local history and culture to life, for free! 

Friday 18 October, 2pm

Henry Treece – Barton’s National Treasure

The Civic Society’s commemorative plaque at Henry Treece’s house on East Acridge simply says “Henry Treece (1911-1966) writer, teacher and poet”.  He was a prolific writer (Wikipedia attributes 75 works to him, not including his contributions to magazine and journals!).  His best known are his juvenile historical novels, particularly those set in the Viking Age.  He published five volumes of poetry in the 1940s and his poetry was included in the anthology The New British Poets (1949).  Treece was Senior English Master at the Grammar School, and he sometimes used this locality as a background for his stories.
Many people will have come across  Treece through his writing, poetry or broadcasting.  Others will remember him as a teacher at the Barton Grammar School.  Whatever your connection with him, or if you have yet to discover this world-famous author, David Newman begins this two-part session looking firstly at the life story of the man and his association with Barton before moving on to consider his immense cultural legacy to the nation as a writer and poet.

Friday, 8 November, 2pm

Henry VIII, His Wives and Mistresses

Married to his first wife for nearly a quarter of a century, Henry managed to get through five more in the space of only fourteen years.  This is history they didn’t teach you at school!
Marilyn Roberts traces the king’s six marriages from his first as a 17-year-old in 1509 when he married his brother’s widow, to his last in 1543 when he married another widow who was already in love with someone else. We shall see why and how he went to such extremes to rid himself of unwanted spouses and the lasting effects on those who survived the ordeal.
Marilyn Roberts worked in Education for a number of years, and since the 1990’s has been writing and lecturing on British history and the complexities of British Royal and Noble genealogy. Marilyn’s latest book Queen Katherine and the Howards: a Tudor Family on the Brink of Disaster will be published by Pen & Sword Books towards the end of the year.