Friday 5 December 2014

Members’ Christmas Visit and Buffet The Building of Bath Collection

Thursday 11 December 2014

Meeting place: Inside The Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, The Vineyards, Bath, BA1 5NA. Enter by the door on the western side of the building. Please bring the food you have promised on a plate and take it to the table inside the chapel. This wonderful building was not built to modern standards of warmth. A lot of effort will be made to warm it for us, but please be prepared.
Time: Before 7.30 in order to be ready to start the visit on time.
Our guide: Dr Amy Frost, Curator of Beckford’s Tower

The nearest car parks are off Broad Street and at The Podium. Bear in mind that the Christmas Market will be open until 8.00.

Tuesday 2 December 2014

The Rise and Fall of the Spa Doctor 22 January 2015

Dr. Roger Rolls is the author of Diseased, Douched and Doctored: Thermal Springs, Spa Doctors and Rheumatic Diseases and Hospital of the Nation: Story of Spa Medicine and the Mineral Hospital at Bath 

Friday 21 November 2014

The Downfall of Napoleon 27 November 2014

Our Speaker Professor Munro Price is a historian of modern French and European history, with a special focus on the French Revolution, and is Professor of Modern European History at Bradford University. His publications include The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil, which won the 2002 Franco-British Society Literary Prize, and The Perilous Crown: France between Revolutions (2007. His most recent book (with Stanley Price), The Road to Apocalypse: the Extraordinary Journey of Lewis Way (2011) was shortlisted for the Wingate-Jewish Quarterly Prize. A regular reviewer for The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, History Today, and BBC History Magazine, he has also appeared on Radio 4, on French radio, and on BBC2's Reputations series.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Badminton trip

Badminton confirmed for Wednesday 20 May 2015 14.00.

 Shuttlecocks provided.

Thursday 23 October 2014

Museum of Bath at Work presents BBC film - The Dead Past -from 1965

As part of the Museum of Bath's Autumn Film Programme a film made by the BBC in 1965  is being shown with free admission - a fable, of a sort. The film will be introduced by the Director Stuart Burroughs and followed by a Question and Answer session to discuss the themes.

The film will shown at the Museum of Bath at Work, Julian Road BATH BA1 2RH

01225 318348 / mobaw@hotmail.com

The Dead Past .- A Fable for Historians
Wednesday December 3rd 7.30 p.m.
Free Admission Refreshments

In the near future an historian applies to use advanced technology to 'view the past' on a screen in 'real time'. When his request is turned down and he refuses to keep quiet, no one anticipates the consequences. If everyone could  see the 'real' past would we get more than we bargained for?


First shown in 1965 as part of BBC TV's Out of the Unknown series.

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Women in the First World War

I first heard Paula Kitching speak at the HA Conference in York last year. Paula was a late substitute for another speaker who was ill. When I saw that her subject was going to be Women in the First World War I was disappointed - women doing great work at home, supporting, supplying and covering for the men at the front ... it's very important and, yes, it helped persuade more people in the UK that women should be given the vote, but I felt that it was a very familiar subject.

And then I heard Paula. He talk was not about women on the home front at all but about four remarkable women who were with the fighting men overseas. These are great stories, and it was a pleasure to ask Paula to come to Bath to tell them.

Paula Kitching speaks on Women in the First World War at the Friends Meeting House, York Street, on Thursday 23 October at 19.30.

Saturday 18 October 2014

Members’ Visit to Downside Abbey Archives and Library

An addition to our usual programme this season is a visit to the archives and library of Downside Abbey.

Downside Abbey has been in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, about 13 miles southwest of Bath, for 200 years. Downside is the Mother House of the English Benedictine Congregation, which claims continuity with the original Benedictine corporation of the thirteenth century.

Downside Abbey houses the largest monastic library in the United Kingdom. It contains more than half a million volumes, built up over 400 years from the time of the monastic community’s foundation in Douai, France. The main focus of our tour will be the rare book collection, which consists of 45,000 texts dating from 890 to 1829. Members will be able to see these rare volumes and to hear about their history and importance.

Our tour will be led by Dr Simon Johnson, Keeper of the Abbey Archives and Library. Simon will speak to us about the history of Downside and its collections, and we will then go to the Edmund Bishop Room, the main repository of the rare book collection. We will be able to see medieval books of hours, antiphonals, papal bulls, the recusant collection and Gatty’s ‘sundialiana’ as well as the seventeenth and eighteenth century collections.

We will be able to tour Francis Pollen’s renowned library building, opened in 1972 and recently refurbished using funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors. It is on six floors with access by lift for those who need it.


The visit will begin at 19.30 and should last about an hour.

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Next year's HA Annual Conference

Next year's HA Annual Conference will be held at:
Bristol Royal Marriott Hotel
Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May 2015.

Friday 22 August 2014

Members’ Christmas Visit and Buffet

Our members’ Christmas visit and buffet this year will take place at the Building of Bath Collection on Thursday 11 December beginning at 7.30 pm.

The Building of Bath Collection is based in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, built in 1765 for Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, a prominent evangelical Methodist whom you may remember from Boyd Schlenther’s lecture in September 2013. At the time the chapel was the only significant post-medieval Gothic building in Bath.

The collection interprets the rich architectural history of Bath and the men who transformed a provincial town into a world-renowned Georgian spa. It demonstrates how classical design influenced the buildings and illustrates the construction of a house from the cellars to the roof. It includes a large detailed architectural model of the historic city centre.

Our evening at the Building of Bath Collection will begin with an introductory talk given by Dr Amy Frost, Curator of Beckford’s Tower and a popular authority on the architecture of Bath. Members will be able to view the collection and to enjoy together a festive buffet.

The association will provide wine and soft drinks, and we ask you to bring something for the finger buffet.


Do come if you can. The building and its contents, the expertise and enthusiasm of Amy Frost, and an opportunity to meet each other informally all promise an enjoyable evening. This year there is no limit on the numbers who may attend.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Bath Spa University Centre for History and Culture

Annual Lecture Series 2014-15

Holburne Museum, Bath
6.00 pm – Free – All welcome


15 October 2014             The First Sexual Revolution
                                        Prof Faramerz Dabhoiwala (Oxford)

12 November 2014         Domesticities, material culture, and the naval warship,
                                        1768-1815
                                        Elin Jones (Queen Mary, University of London)

10 December 2014         Recovering an Early Eighteenth-Century Family Scandal
                                        Dr Lisa Smith (University of Saskatchewan)

14 January 2015             Being manly in England c 1760-1860: a material-cultural approach
                                        Prof Joanne Bailey (Oxford Brookes)

11 February 2015            Re-arranging the furniture: new and old in the Georgian
                                        country house
                                        Prof Jon Stobart (Northampton)

11 March 2015                Evaluating the survival of Christianity in England during
                                        the twentieth century: Narratives of belief
                                        Prof David Nash (Professor in History, Oxford Brookes
                                        University)

8 April 2015                     Making Space for Islam: the origins and diversity of British
                                        Muslim communities
                                        Prof Humayun Ansari (Professor of History of Islam and Culture,
                                        Royal Holloway)

13 May 2015                   British Co-Presents and the Holocaust
                                        Prof Tony Kushner (Professor of History and Director of the
                                        Parkes Institute for the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations,
                                        University of Southampton) and Dr Aimee Bunting (Honorary
                                        Fellow of the Parkes Institute and teacher at Godolphin and Latymer School, London)     

Thursday 31 July 2014

Welcome to our new blog

We have created this new blog as another way of keeping people up to date with our programme of talks and events.

It is also where we share our plans for the future and new development and where you can comment and share your ideas.

We hope you find this new facility useful.

Mike Short - Branch Secretary