The speaker at the latest Henley Archaeological and Historical Group meeting on 1st April was Dr Wendy Morrison, Heritage and Archaeology Manager at Chilterns National Landscape. Wendy told us about the follow-up from the ‘Beacons of the Past’ project. This project used Lidar laser mapping of the landscape, which showed the shapes of archaeological features […]

The Henley Archaeological and Historical Group held its AGM on 4th March at the Chantry House. In addition to the main business of the Meeting, members enjoyed several short presentations. The first of these was given by Steve O’Connor, at the River and Rowing Museum until the end of May, who put forward options for the

Synopsis The temperance movement was woven strongly into the social and political life of Henley in Victorian and Edwardian times. This was a reaction in large part to the place of drink, in the form of malting, brewing and the number and variety of its licensed outlets back to the eighteenth century and beyond. Michael

Professor Martin Bell of Reading University gave a fascinating talk on Mesolithic archaeology in the Severn Estuary to the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group on 4th February. The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age, period lasted from about 9500BC to 4000BC; people during this time survived by hunting and gathering before the arrival of farming in the

At the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group’s first meeting of the new year on 7th January, members enjoyed a talk by Peter Brown on Londoners in Henley before the Black Death. Peter concentrated on the period between 1280 and 1348 when corn merchants from London played a significant role in Henley’s development. The Henley area

The December meeting of the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group on 3rd December featured a talk by Catherine Sampson, a social and local historian based in Reading, on lesser-known Berkshire and South Oxfordshire Churches, including some of their fascinating back stories. Some churches, like Shifford and Widford, are set in isolated locations in the middle of

At the November meeting of the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group on 5 November Dr Ron Baxter, an authority on Romanesque sculpture, gave a presentation on the Rediscovery of Reading Abbey. The Abbey was founded by King Henry I in 1121 on major routes to the North and West and became highly important as a royal

Photo of Henley Police Station built 1854 at the rear of the old town hall The Henley Archaeological and Historical Group’s regular series of lectures resumed after the Summer break on 1st October with an insightful and enlightening talk on Policing in Henley on Thames.  This was given by Andrew King, a native of Henley who

Occasionally, time seems to circle around and the past catches up with the present.  This was true of the recent HA&HG visit to the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in Reading.  Several members of the group fell strangely silent when looking at some of the objects.  They had met their childhoods (many spent on

How remarkable is this week’s loss of the Henley seat by the Conservatives?   It has only happened once before in the 150 years since modern party politics began! In 1906, Philip Morrell, husband of socialite hostess and Bloomsbury Group member, Ottoline Morrell, won the seat standing as a Liberal in a similar national landslide,