Programme. Paul Anderton

Friday September 11   Ian Bailey      10 Questions about Audley churchyard
A well documented village graveyard as a point of entry into the changing nature of a community has mysteries and enigmas requiring careful deciphering as an investigation into one churchyard demonstrates.
No meal available

Friday 9 October          Jim Sutton A North Staffordshire firm of solicitors

This talk will open up a too often ignored theme in local economic and social history by indicating how the activities of a local law firm of over 200 years standing, with special interests in estate management and the manor court of Newcastle, have come to be researched and written up for a particular type of publication.
Butler Library at Estoril    No meal available 

Saturday 10 October   Border History Fair : Kidsgrove
 
Friday 13 November  Andrew Dobraszczyc    A North Staffordshire firm of solicitors
The second part of an exploration of crucial aspects of business history in North Staffordshire will focus on successive stages in the history of a law firm at the centre of much post-1750 industrial and commercial expansion in Staffordshire.
Moorcroft Room    Meal available 
 
Friday  4  December  Dr David Barker FSA   Bringing archaeology to us
The relationship between archaeology and history, the concept of material culture and the

‘thingness’ factor in our understanding of the past could all be well to the fore in David Barker’s presentation when he responds to a very particular invitation to bring archaeology to us as a group.
Butler Library   Meal available 

Friday 8 or 15  January  Guild Supper evening
 [date to be confirmed : or could be 11 December]

Friday 22 January        Thea Randall     title and other details to be announced

Annual Business Lunch, Wilbraham Arms, Sandbach Road, Alsager
 at 12.00 noon on Monday 8 June 2009

Items for discussion must include a Treasurer’s Report and proposals for spending money; future programmes; meals at Wedgwood College; Stoke Centenary Celebrations; membership of FoSSA; progress on Boards of Guardians correspondence and any other items Associates wish to raise.


   Friday June 19                Alun Davies
Observations on the last days of Stoke Workhouse.
Further studies of hospital development and the North Staffordshire Infirmary have brought Dr Davies opportunities to see correspondence from the 1920s revealing the inner workings of the Workhouse for Stoke-upon-Trent in its last decade.

A meal will be available at Wedgwood College before this meeting served at 6.15pm. Please use the Return Form to book this.
The talk will be at the usual time of 7.45pm in the Moorcroft Room, Main Building

Friday 10 July                  Reviews and reviewing – an exchange
                                                and mart for local historians

This is an open evening to allow Associates to share their critical appreciation of books read, exhibitions seen and talks heard which bear upon our common concerns. Among the myriad items which may be touched on are the exhibition Making History at the Potteries Museum which closes on 21 June and the  DVD From Our Hands produced by Mike Pepper.
No meal is possible at the College, but the meeting will start at the usual time of 7.45pm probably in the Moorcroft Room, Main Building

Dates for your diary
9 October 2009
   Jim Sutton. No meal available  Butler Library at Estoril
13 November       Andrew  Dobraszczyc  Meal available  Moorcroft Room
Two related subjects : titles to be announced
A September meeting is under consideration, but offers for 11 September would be welcome especially if a later date would also be acceptable.


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FridayJanuary 23   Tim Cockin  
Staffordshire township and parish boundaries
Tim’s work with maps is well known and this will be an occasion for looking closely at how a variety of maps provide information about ancient and recent boundaries

Tuesday February 3      Visit to the Wedgwood Archives
This afternoon meeting has been kindly arranged by Kevin Salt, Archivist at the new Wedgwood Archives and Study Centre, as an opportunity to see the advantages gained from assembling all the Wedgwood records in one place.  Starting time : 2.15pm at the Archives.

Friday
February 13  Peter Brown
Market Drayton Book Society 1814 – 2009
Book Clubs and Circulating Libraries rarely have long histories, but Peter Brown has found one with remarkable longevity.

Friday March 6    David Jackson  
Investigations into Congleton agriculture in the later seventeenth century
Cheshire’s dairy industry is the particular focus of David’s study and he will explain how and why he has researched this at a micro-level for a particular period.

Friday April  3    Mavis Smith 
Tollet Diaries – social and literary aspects
The journals and letters of Ellen Tollet recently published by Mavis Smith provide ample material for historians of several different genres to mull over and this is one opportunity to do just that.
  
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