Events

Our regular programme of talks is held at 7.30 on the last Wednesday of each month, from September to April, at West Harptree Village Hall, BS40 6EB. They feature speakers on a wide range of historical subjects and are an opportunity to meet other members and join in discussions. During the summer months of May to July we have half day or evening visits to places of interest (entry tickets may vary in price).

Programme of Events

All meetings are at West Harptree Village Hall at 7.30pm unless mentioned.

2026

  • 25 November – Steve Osman, ‘Thankful Villages of Somerset and Gloucestershire’

2027

  • 27 January – Nick Roberts, ‘Harptrees in 20 Objects’, plus winter supper
  • 24 February – Chris Eldridge, ‘Medieval Wells’
  • 31 March – Mike Harvey, ‘Somerset v Hitler’
  • 28 April – Peter Lander, ‘Birnbeck Pier (Part 1, History)’

Summer Visits:

  • 26 May – English Heritage SW Archaeology Store, Temple Cloud
  • 30 June – proposed visit to New Rooms, Bristol (oldest purpose-built Methodist Chapel)
  • 28 July – Stowey Church, Royal Coat of Arms and Henry Strachey murals


Hall location

Past events

  • 30 September 2026 – AGM: 6.30 followed at 7.30 by Prof. Ronald Hutton, ‘Oliver Cromwell’
  • 28 October 2026 – Elaine Cook, ‘Keynsham Abbey; characters and events’
  • 29 July 2026 – Guided tour of Underfall Yard Bristol
  • 24 June 2026– Blagdon 2; From Hill to Lake, guided walk with Ken Parsons
  • 27 May 2026 – Cameley Church visit
  • 29 April 2026 – Sue Bucklow, ‘Casting the World: The Story of J.W.Singer and Sons, Frome’
  • 25 March 2026 – Christine and Joe King, ‘The Mapping of Somerset’
  • 26 February 2026 – Dr. Jo Edwards, ‘Hannah More’
  • 28 January 2026 – Prof. Richard Coates, ‘Rails in the Avon Gorge’
  • 7 January 2026 – Nick Roberts, ‘A Field Through Time’
  • 26 November 2025 – Laura Beckwith, ‘Recent Finds from Somerset 2023’
  • 29 October 2025 – Phil Curme, ‘Somerset Military Coastal Defences’
  • 24 September 2025 – AGM: 6.30 followed at 7.30 by Prof.Ronald Hutton, ‘The English Civil War’
  • Wed 30 July 2025 – Guided walk around Blagdon
  • Wed 25 June 2025 – Guided tour of Compton Martin Church
  • Wed 28 May 2025 – Guided Behind the scene tour of M Shed Bristol, 2.30pm. £5
  • Wed 30 April 2025 – Jim Pimpernell, ‘The Agricultural Revolution, 1700-1850’
  • Wed 26 March 2025 – Prof. Richard Coates, ‘Shirehampton Remount Depot’
  • Wed 26 February 2025 – Michele Day, ‘Portraits, Landscapes and Murals; the Art of Henry Strachey in Somerset and Beyond
  • Wed 29 January 2025 – Philip Ashford, ‘Travel in the Severn Estuary before the Age of Steam’
  • Wed 8 January 2025 – Dr. Colin Chapman, ‘Some Festive Customs and Traditions’. With supper, bar and games.
  • Wed 27 November 2024 – Clive Burlton, ‘Bristol’s Lost City’
  • Wed 30 October 2024 – Dr. Christine Jones, ‘John Wesley’s New Room, Bristol’
  • Wed 25 September 2024 – AGM: 6.30 followed at 7.30 by Prof. Ronald Hutton, ‘The Personal Rule of Charles I’
  • Wed. 31 July 2024 – ‘Blue Plaque walk of Clifton’ guided by Gordon Young
  • Wed. 26 June 2024 – ‘Mendip Hospital cemetery’, afternoon guided walk and exhibition
  • Wed. 29 May 2024 – ‘Stanton Drew Stones’, a guided walk with Colin Budge
  • Wed 24 April 2024 – Jonathan Holt, ‘Somerset Follies’
  • Wed. 27 March 2024 – Prof. Richard Coates, ‘Surnames’
  • Wed. 28 February 2024 – Mary Coward, ‘The Clifton Observatory’
  • Wed. 31 January 2024 – Garry Atterton, ‘Reflections on Coalmining in the Pensford Area”
  • Wed. 13 December 2023 – Kate Lynch, ‘Crafts, Paintings, Drawings and Somerset Voices,’ A two year project documenting over 20 traditional craftspeople in Somerset in paintings, drawings and recorded interviews. Kate tells their stories illustrated with her paintings and artefacts. Followed by supper and other entertainments.
  • Wed. 29 November 2023 – Bob Jones, ‘Mapping the Medieval Town, Bristol 1480’
  • Wed. 25 October 2023 – Prof. Ronald Hutton, ‘James VI of Scotland and I of England’
  • Wed. 27 September 2023 – Colin Budge, ‘Local Roads and Bridges’
  • Wed. 26 April 2023; Gina Merrett Smith, ‘The Intrepid Marianne North – Remarkable Victorian Botanical Artist and her Connections with Kew Gardens’
  • Wed. 29 March 2023; Steve Clews, ‘The Romans in North Somerset’
  • Wed. 22 February 2023; Heather Toomer, ‘The Honiton Lace Industry and its products’
  • Wed 25 January 2023; James Bond, ‘Knights Templer’
  • Wed. 14 December 2022; Martin Horler, ‘Somerset Stories’ followed by supper
  • Wed. 30 November 2022; Dr Amy Frost, ‘The Bombing of Bath’ (this year is the 80th anniversary)
  • Wed. 26 October 2022; Professor Ronald Hutton, ‘Elizabeth 1’
  • Wed. 28 September 2022; AGM at 6.30, followed at 7.30 by Prof. Richard Coates, ‘Local Place Names based on the Tithe Schedule’
  • Wed. 27 July; Guided visit to Wells Cathedral Chained Library, TBA
  • Wed. 29 June; Guided walk of Pulteney Estates, Bath, TBAWed. 30 March; Gill Hogarth, From Lords and Ladies to Serfs and Servants: ‘How far can we know the real life of people in each successive age of the past’
  • Wed. 25 May; guided visit to Royal Mint, Llantrisant, TBA
  • Wed. 27 April; Colin Budge, ‘Boundaries and Walls – a Journey Through History’
  • Wed. 23 February; Stuart Burroughs, ‘Out of the Earth, Bath’s Mineral Wealth; Coal, Stone and Clay’.
  • Wed. 26 January; Members evening with talks by three members of the Research Group.
  • December 2021: Martin Horler, ‘Not All Beer and Skittles’. Followed by refreshments.
  • November 2021; Tony Coverdale, ‘The Late Avon Valley Copper and Brass Industry’.
  • November 2021: St Laurence’s Church, East Harptree, successful second round Lottery Grant for Project Newton.
  • October 2021: Prof. Ronald Hutton, ‘The Mid Tudor Crisis’.
  • October 2021: Soft launch of Society website; www.harptreeshistorysociety.org
  • September 2021: Prof. Richard Coates, ‘The Somerset Dialect’.
  • No meetings from March 2020 – September 2021
  • February 2020: Jo and Kevin Brown, ‘Perfect and Fresh, Memorialising the Dead in Paint and Glass’.
  • January 2020: Chris Eldridge, ‘The Normans in Somerset’.
  • December 2019: Geof King and Jane Bennet, ‘Georgian Clothing’. Followed by supper.
  • November 2019: Nick Roberts, ‘Mudlarking on the Thames’.
  • October 2019: Prof. Ronald Hutton, ‘Henry VIII’.
  • September 2019: Gill Hogarth, ‘Those Magnificent Mendip Men and their Motoring Machines’.
  • July 2019: Guided walk by Bob Jones of Bristol Old City.
  • June 2019: Guided tour of Shepton Mallet Prison.
  • May 2019: Guided visit to Saltford Brass Mills.
  • April 2019: Mike Hooper, ‘ Victorian Bristol.
  • March 2019: St Laurence’s Church, East Harptree, successful first round Lottery Grant for Project Newton.
  • February 2019: James Bond, ‘Deserted Medieval Villages in Somerset’.
  • January 2019: Chris Eldridge, ‘Alfred the Great and the Somerset Connection’.
  • December 2018: Somerset Russets in Concert, Followed by supper.
  • November 2018: Jim Ross, ‘France 1918, the British Victory’.
  • October 2018: 3 different talks by members of the Society.
  • 2018: Third reprint of, ‘Before the Lake’.
  • September 2018: Jenni and Terry Stevens, ‘Tyntesfield; Progress and Discovery’.
  • September 2018: Booklets researched and written by Gill Hogarth on the Great War Fallen of Hinton Blewett and East and West Harptree deposited in each Parish church.
  • July 2018: Mike Chapman, Bath riverside walk from Pulteney Bridge to Widcombe.
  • June2018: Gary Nott, guided tour of Wills Memorial Building, Bristol.
  • May 2018: Felicity Metcalf, Newton Park, history and guided walk.
  • April 2018: Prof. Alan Jocelyn, ‘Bristol Riots, 1831’.
  • March 2018: John Page, ‘The Royal Palaces of Cheddar’.
  • February 2018: Jerry Sampson, ‘The Churches of East and West Harptree’.
  • January 2018: Richard Ross, ‘Avon Valley Copper and Brass Industry, 1700-1750’.

Our events continue back to 1997 – the following are highlights:

  • December 2017: Guided walk with Primary School children around Victorian Harptree.
  • November 2017: 20th Anniversary Exhibition in East Harptree and workshops with Primary School.
  • Sept-Nov 2016: Society exhibit 13 panels and 2 display cases at Radstock Museum.
  • January 2015: David Hart, ‘The Tudor Map Project’.
  • September 2013: Prof. Mick Aston, ‘The Winscombe Project’.
  • April 2013: Research group landscape walk with James Bond.
  • Summer 2012: Geophysical surveys, East and West Harptree
  • June 2009: English Heritage and Society members architectural survey of East Harptree Buildings
  • April- May 2009: English Heritage 6 week, archaeological training dig in Haydons Field, East Harptree
  • 2009: Second reprint of, ‘Before the Lake’.
  • September 2009: English Heritage, update on ‘The Mendip Landscape Survey project’.
  • September 2008: English Heritage, ‘The Mendip Landscape Survey Project’.
  • July 2008: English Heritage training geophysical survey of Haydons Field, East Harptree.
  • September 2006: Prof. Mick Aston, ‘The Shapwick Project’.
  • April 2005: Exhibition of ‘Before the Lake; Memories of the Chew Valley’.
  • 2005: First reprint of, ‘Before the Lake’.
  • March 2005: Earthwork surveys in East Harptree.
  • February 2005: James Bond delivered a series of 5 lectures and fieldwork on ‘Understanding the Landscape’.
  • 2004: Exhibition of ‘Before the Lake; Memories of the Chew Valley’ at Bishop Sutton.
  • 2004: Exhibition and Launch of ‘Before the Lake; Memories of the Chew Valley’, at Woodford Lodge.
  • 2004: Publication of, ‘Before the Lake; Memories of the Chew Valley’.
  • 2003-2004: Chew Valley Lake Project
  • March 2003: Exhibition of Maps and Photographs, West Harptree.
  • February 2000: Pat Hase delivered a series of 6 workshops ‘Sources for Family and Local History’.
  • February 1999: Exhibition and launch of ‘Millennium Memories of Bishop Sutton’.