Events
Our programme of public lectures and other events reflects high quality scholarship on regional and local history.
Our lecture programme is currently being held online. Please follow links to pre-book our future talks via Eventbrite. We are also adding recordings of past talks to YouTube – these will be shown here when they are available.
Another chance to see our February 2025 lecture where Professor Paul Salveson covers the historical significance of the Liverpool and Manchester railway and the events that preceded it ahead of its bicentenary in 2030 and offers a glimpse of plans for 2029 and 2030.
Green belts have been part of the UK planning system for more than 70 years, and are perhaps unique as an example of a social policy which is largely unchanged over that period. In this lecture - preceded by the Society's AGM - Professor John Sturzaker will explore the origins of green belts in the UK, and on Merseyside, trace their influence since their introduction, and consider how they might (need to) change in the future.
Another chance to see our June 2025 lecture. Against a backdrop of ever-increasing social malaise and ongoing private sector inertia, Liverpool Corporation embarked upon an energetic programme of slum clearance and concomitant working-class housing construction. Such was its success that by 1914 it was, with the sole exception of the London County Council, the largest single provider of municipal social housing in country. This talk will provide an overview of both the changing nature of policy and the individual developments constructed by Liverpool Corporation in the pre-WWI period.
Another chance to see our October 2025 lecture where Professor Katrina Navickas examines the rise of the footpath and commons preservation movement, and some of the early contests between walkers and landowners, culminating in the famous Winter Hill dispute in 1896, and lesser well known conflicts in Darwen and other parts of the southern Pennines.
Steve Shuttleworth's talk will explore who were 'the gentry'; the huge variations in their wealth, land ownership, and their role in society; the debate about the 'rise and fall' ir the gentry in general; what we know (or think we know) about the Lancashire gentry; and then consider how these issues are reflected in the story of his ancestors, the Shuttleworths of Asterley, near Whalley.
Past Events
- Another chance to see our October 2025 lecture where Professor Katrina Navickas examines the rise of the footpath and commons preservation movement, and some of the early contests between walkers and landowners, culminating in the famous Winter Hill dispute in 1896, and lesser well known conflicts in Darwen and other parts of the southern Pennines.
- Another chance to see our June 2025 lecture. Against a backdrop of ever-increasing social malaise and ongoing private sector inertia, Liverpool Corporation embarked upon an energetic programme of slum clearance and concomitant working-class housing construction. Such was its success that by 1914 it was, with the sole exception of the London County Council, the largest single provider of municipal social housing in country. This talk will provide an overview of both the changing nature of policy and the individual developments constructed by Liverpool Corporation in the pre-WWI period.
Another chance to see our April 2025 lecture where Dr Lewis Darwen presents a new perspective on the 1853-1854 Preston Strike and Lockout. Previously remembered for the peaceful conduct of the operatives involved, the reality for many was far more complex.- Green belts have been part of the UK planning system for more than 70 years, and are perhaps unique as an example of a social policy which is largely unchanged over that period. In this lecture - preceded by the Society's AGM - Professor John Sturzaker will explore the origins of green belts in the UK, and on Merseyside, trace their influence since their introduction, and consider how they might (need to) change in the future.
- Another chance to see our February 2025 lecture where Professor Paul Salveson covers the historical significance of the Liverpool and Manchester railway and the events that preceded it ahead of its bicentenary in 2030 and offers a glimpse of plans for 2029 and 2030.
Another chance to see our November 2024 lecture when Local Studies librarians from CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, talked about their freely accessible online guide.