NOVEMBER 2025 LECTURE: The Lancashire gentry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Another chance to see our November talk where Dr Steven Shuttleworth asks who were 'the gentry' and talks about 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.
Another chance to see this lecture, recorded and shared by Zoom on Wednesday 19 November 2025,
LECTURER: Dr Steven Shuttleworth
Steven is a native of Oldham. An environmental scientist/town planner by profession, his final post was as Director of Environment/Head of Planning for a local authority. Since retiring, Steven has spent some of his time researching his family history, which has rekindled his long standing interest in the socioeconomic history of Lancashire. His talk asks who were ‘the gentry’. He talks about 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 considers how these issues are reflected in the story of his ancestors, the Shuttleworths of Asterley, near Whalley.
[Image: Easterley Farm, formerly known as Asterley, in the 1950s]