Forthcoming Events
Monday 11th December 2023. Christmas Meeting
No meetings in January & February 2024
Monday 11th March 2024
Talk by Chris Widdal "The Archers of Ossett"
This is an interesting story about the speaker’s direct ancestors who were from the small West Riding town of Ossett. We will learn a little bit about the history of archery, the occupation which gave name to her family, then look at her earliest traceable ancestors - the village blacksmiths, before following the family's progression into manufacturing textile machinery. Her talk includes the family’s misdemeanours and madness, their successes and failures, from bankruptcy to suspected industrial espionage during the Napoleonic Wars with the story ending on the battlefields of Europe, at Passchendaele.
Monday 8th April 2024
Talk by Dr Colin Elder & Ian Miller. "Dig Dig 2,the Rochdale Excavation of 2023".
The excavation took place behind Rochdale Town Hall. What exiting discoveries didthe excavation reveal.
Monday 13th May 2024
Talk by Christine Herd. "Agecroft Hall"
Agecroft Hall in Salford was built in medieval times and rebuilt by a local family in Tudor times. The Hall stayed in the same family until the twentieth century.This Tudor Hall has an unusual and moving history, which goes further than you might think.
Monday June 10th 2024.
Talk by Michael Lawson & Mark Johnson. "Gone but not Forgotten"
Chadderton Cemetery opened in 1857. It is the largest in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and contains approximately 100,000 burials. This illustrated talk looks at a varied selection of gravestones and memorials and considers the lives and backgrounds of the people they commemorate. Members of Parliament and local councillors are among those buried here, but there are also persons of less significance, whose lives are equally worth recalling. As the title of the talk suggests, they might be gone but they are not forgotten.
All meetings 7:30pm start. Downey House. Church St. Royton.