All meetings begin at 7.30pm and are at France Lynch Church Rooms unless otherwise stated
16 July 2025 – Guided walk of Old Bussage
Meet at 7pm outside Frith Youth Centre. Numbers are restricted for this walk and all spaces have now been allocated
Outline programme for 2025/26
17 September – Foxwhelps to Firkins: Cider making in Gloucestershire (Andy Meller). Andy will be talking about the history of cider making in the county from its historical use as payment in lieu of wages to farm labourers to the artisan drinks of today. He will outline traditional cider making processes and examine some cider-related customs.
15 October – The Arts & Crafts Movement in Cotswold Churches (Kirstie Hartsiotis). Kirsty Hartsiotis is a storyteller, writer and speaker on folklore and art history. The Arts and Crafts Movement made a big impact on Cotswold churches – from church building to stained glass, from woodcarving to memorials, including our very own Christ Church, Chalford. Kirsty explores the impact of designers and makers from William Morris onwards.
19 November – Annual Slide Show. Further pictures from the Gardiner / Padin / Mills collections and the Archive of the Stroud News and Journal.
21 January – MOD War Detectives (Alexia Clark). The MOD War Detectives are a small team based at Imjin Barracks near Gloucester, who are tasked with identifying missing British Service Personnel from the two World Wars and the Korean War. With over 527,000 men still missing this is no small task. Join us to find out more about how and why this work takes place, and what happens following the identification or recovery of a casualty of war.
18 February – Local graveyards. A small group of members will be presenting the results of research carried out on local graveyards and cemeteries.
18 March – A History of Gloucestershire’s Inland Waterways (Tony Conder). Tony was curator of the British Waterways Collection for 25 years before coming to Gloucester in 1988 to open the National Waterways Museum. He is one of Britain’s foremost experts on the history of canals and waterways and in this talk he will be examining the development of the County’s inland waterways.
15 April – the Schools of Chalford Parish. A small group of members will be presenting the results of research into our various local schools.
20 May – The Rise and Fall of the Bisley Path (Chas Townley). Chas Townley will explore the history of this ancient route, which ran from Cirencester to Gloucester via Bisley and Painswick. Much of the route is still accessible, though the section through Cirencester Park ceased to be a public way when the park was created.
17 June – Malmesbury Abbey and Athelstan (Tony MacAleavy). Tony published the first full length history of Malmesbury Abbey in 2023 and is a former Schools History Advisor for Glos County Council. He will be tracing the history of the Abbey from its founding in 690 to its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1539 and sharing some of the results of over a decade of research for his book.
15 July – Guided walk of Bisley, led by Bisley Local History Group.