Ten years ago four local historians together with the local district archaeology officer started to create a book “Thatcham: An historic town in a changing world.” Sadly the leader of the project, Peter Allen, passed away before completion. I took over and we launched the book, in memory of Peter, at the Thatcham Festival of Arts and Leisure on 10 Oct 2009.
The launch involved a talk by the authors. This was the first history talk I had given at the festival. Since then I have given at least one history talk at the festival each year, so ten years on I though it might be good to have a quick look at the talks I have given:
- 9 Oct 2010 Thatcham 1968: Not just an Olympic Year
- 8 Oct 2011 Thatcham 1972: Not just a Miners’ Strike’
- 13 Oct 2012 Thatcham in 1952: Not just a coronation
- 17 Oct 2012 Thatcham Then and Now
- 12 Oct 2013 The Complete History of Thatcham
- 15 Oct 2013 Echos of Thatcham
- 11 Oct 2014 Thatcham: 40 years a town
- 23 Oct 2014 Curious facts from old Thatcham (a talk given with local historian Mr Stewart)
- 10 Oct 2015 History of Thatcham Pubs
- 22 Oct 2015 Personalities & Places (a talk given with local historian Mr Stewart)
- 8 Oct 2016 Notables of Thatcham
- 10 Oct 2016 How well do You know Thatcham? (a talk given with local historian Mr Stewart)
- 7 Oct 2017 Old Thatcham in Print
- 7 Oct 2017 A tour of St Mary’s Churchyard
- 17 Oct 2017 Thatcham: A postcard tour (a talk given with local historian Mr Stewart)
- 6 Oct 2018 Thatcham and the Great War
- 17 Oct 2018 Finding Your Way (a talk given with local historian Mr Stewart)
There were a few other walks which I have not listed. The list doesn’t include other activities such as several years as a festival photographer, web master, social media, etc. and other non-history events at the festival such as “Debate: Art enhances the quality of life for more people than Science” which I teamed up with Mr Dick for in Oct 2013.And there are a few other talks I have given to various other organisations (see my talks). So 10 years on, what will the next talk be at this years festival? What other talks will I do? This year the joint talk with local historian Mr Stewart is taking a brief look at the history of Transport in Thatcham. We will look at transport in general and specific to Thatcham. The other talk I will give is an updated history of Thatcham pubs.