ALHA Local History Day 2022

The 2022 Local History Day will be on Saturday 22nd October at the St Michael’s Centre, Stoke Gifford and the topic will be “A Roof over your Head”.  Our speakers will be discussing the development and design of local homes and houses over the years.

The Local History Day will be followed by the ALHA Annual General Meeting.

Programme

9.00     Doors open and groups may enter to set up stalls or displays; attenders check in

9.50     Welcome

10.00   Peter Malpass           Shapeshifters in Victorian Bristol: how the middle class semi-                                                                           detached villa escaped the tyranny of the terrace

10.40   Stuart Burroughs    The best for the most with the least: post-war council                                                                                             housing in Bath

11.20   Break for refreshments

11.45   Caroline Gurney        Researching a house history – tips and traps

12.30   Break for lunch

1.45     Roger Leech                Completing and publishing a research project: the town                                                                                        house in medieval and early modern Bristol

2.30     Pete Insole                  ‘Homes for heroes’ – Hillfields Estate, Bristol

3.15     Break for refreshments

3.45     ALHA annual general meeting

4.30     Close

 

Full Details and Speakers

Peter Malpass – Shapeshifters in Victorian Bristol: how the middle-class semi-detached villa escaped the tyranny of the terrace

Until the 1840s, nearly everyone in Bristol lived in a terraced houses of some sort, but by the 1850s the semi-detached villa was becoming popular and no more grand terraces were built after Worcester Terrace in the early 1860s. Peter Malpass will show illustrations of the narrow fronted terraced form, with its basement kitchen and railed front area, and will then show how the semidetached form evolved from the standard terraced form, initially becoming wider and then losing the basement kitchen. He will suggest that there were just three basic types of semidetached villas, although builders were skilled at creating an illusion of difference.

Peter Malpass has lived in Bristol for 46 years and for most of that time he worked at UWE where he specialised in the study of housing and housing policy. Since retiring in 2011 he has written two books, The Making of Victorian Bristol (2019) and Housing the People in Victorian Bristol (2021). He is now working on a third volume, this time looking at the people who held the wealth and power in 19th century Bristol. He is also the author of two books in the series published by ALHA, and the joint author of a third.

Stuart Burroughs – The Best for the Most with the Least: Post War Council Housing in Bath

The talk will examine how planners and local authority staff in Bath approached the problem of providing public housing, in a heritage city, and how the need to retain the traditional fabric of the city could be reconciled – or not- with that of its resident population of modest means, and their need for good quality housing.

Stuart Burroughs is Museum Director at The Museum of Bath at Work. Though a Bathonian, he has worked in museums in South Wales, Bristol and Wiltshire before taking up the Directorship at the Museum of Bath at Work in 1994. With degrees from University of Wales – in History- and the University of Leicester- in Museum Studies- his interests in the commercial development of Bath have overlapped with his professional career in museums and he is an author, a regular lecturer, and a local historian.

He has contributed to History Today, The Newcomen Society and is author of ‘The World’s Cranemakers: Stothert & Pitt’ (1996), ‘The Best for the Most with the Least: Bath and the Council House’ (2013) and co-authored ‘Workhouse to Hospital’ with John Payne.

He is Chairman of the Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society, Curatorial advisor to museums in Somerset and Bath and is a competent church bellringer and an amateurish musician.

 Caroline Gurney – Researching a house history – tips and traps.

Caroline will draw upon 11 years’ experience as a house historian to offer her professional insights into the process of researching a house history and advice about the pitfalls which may be encountered.

Caroline Gurney is a house historian whose work has covered properties from humble cottages to elegant townhouses, between the 17th and 19th centuries. She has also undertaken research for the BBC series A House Through Time. Caroline has a Master’s degree in Family and Local History and is currently researching for a PhD in History at the University of Bristol. She has been awarded a prize by the Jewish Historical Society of England for her project to map and document Bristol’s 18th and 19th century Jewish population as a layer on the Know Your Place website.

Professor Roger H. Leech – Completing and publishing a research project: the town house in medieval and early modern Bristol.

In 2014 Roger Leech completed a long term project looking at urban housing in Bristol, England’s second city for much of the medieval and early modern periods.  Funded initially by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and subsequently by English Heritage, this was published in 2014.  This archaeological and architectural study has been underpinned with a historical study of property holdings in the city, providing vital documentary context for the builders, owners and occupiers of houses, the results of this being separately published by the Bristol Record Society in a series of volumes on the topography of medieval and early modern Bristol.

Professor Roger H Leech is a Visiting Professor in Archaeology at the University of Southampton. In the last twelve years some 120 projects have included the completion of archaeological and architectural surveys of the Redcliff Way corridor, the 1740s Corn Exchange, the Old Council House, O and M Sheds, Prince’s Wharf (the new M Shed Museum), St Nicholas Markets and the Assize Courts or Guildhall, all for the City of Bristol.

Peter Insole – “Homes for Heroes” – Hillfields Estate, Bristol

Hillfields has the first Addison Act council houses built in Bristol. The design of these houses was the result of an architectural competition and went on to define the homes we see in many areas of Bristol from Southmead to Knowle.

A historical and archaeological specialist with over 20 years’ experience of working in the heritage sector in Bristol, Pete is currently Principal Historic Environment Officer for Bristol City Council and maintains Bristol’s Historic Environment Record.

Pete devised and manages Know Your Place and now advises on its various developments such as Know Your Place West of England and Bristol University’s Know Your Bristol projects. Pete is also a research associate at the University of Bristol History Department.

……………

Catering

Tea and coffee will be served at 11.20 and 3.15. The Centre is close to both a Tesco convenience shop and the Beaufort Arms, a large pub with a wide menu. Lunch platters (menus below) can be supplied by the Centre if booked with the ALHA treasurer by 12 noon on 12 October 2022. You can also bring your own lunch if you prefer.

Menus offered by St Michaels Centre, Stoke Gifford

(must be ordered with the form below to be received by ALHA before noon 12 October 2022)

Menu 2A:  A Selection of Finger Sandwiches, Individual Bag of Crisps, Tandoori Chicken Sticks Bacon, Leek and Sundried Tomato, Mini Quiches, Red Pepper and Goat’s Cheese Pizza (V), Cherry Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Skewer, Traybakes, Piece of Fruit – £9.50 per person.

Menu 2C – Vegan Option: Filled Vegan Wraps, Individual Bag of Crisps, Vegan Sausage Roll, Vegetable Samosas, Red Pepper and Vegan Cheese Pizza, Sweet Potato Falafel Bites, Vegan Blueberry Muffin, Piece of Fruit – £9.50 per person.

 

Transport and Parking

Buses passing Parkway station include 10, 11, 12, 19, 73, H2, Y6. There is limited parking at the venue, but on-street parking close by is without time restriction on a Saturday, and the site is close to Parkway station where there is parking. Any bus service going to Parkway is good for the St Michael’s Centre.

Cost

The cost of £19 per person will include tea and coffee, and as usual we offer two free places to any group bringing a display or items for sale.

Booking

Make a booking  via Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-roof-over-your-head-tickets-414723849197

Or you can complete the form below and send it by post or e-mail to the ALHA treasurer

 

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