Thursday 8 February 2024 at 7.30pm (This event has ended)

LAHS Members’ Evening

The members' evening programme on recent work on Leicestershire and Rutland includes presentations on the Third Earl of Leicester; Melton Mowbray and the Reformations; Clay Tobacco Pipes from Bradgate Park and Domestic Sociability in 19th century Lutterworth.

Local Responses to the Reformations - a Case Study of Melton Mowbray.
By Lynn Marriott
Lynn Marriott was the winner of the 2023 LAHS BA History dissertation prize. In this talk, she gives an overview of how the churchwardens in Melton Mowbray went about undertaking the terms of the various edicts and acts relating to the swing between Protestantism under Edward VI, back to Catholicism under Mary I, then back to Protestantism under Elizabeth I, and whether we can say where Melton Mowbray stood religiously by 1563.

The clay tobacco pipes of Bradgate House.
By Jon Walsh.
Jon Walsh was the winner of the 2023 LAHS BA Archaeology dissertation prize. In this presentation, he discusses the tobacco clay pipes recovered from excavations at Bradgate House, Leicestershire. The aim of his project was to show what clay pipes can reveal about social relationships, trade, and consumption behaviours within a post-medieval elite household in the English Midlands. He demonstrates that tobacco pipe smoking was a prevalent activity at the house and stables in the 17th century and suggests why, in contrast to other urban and rural areas it had disappeared almost completely at the house by the early 18th century. He also shows that this was a busy and vibrant social, domestic, and working environment during the 17th century and that local, national, and international trade and social interaction were taking place, especially at elite level.

Domestic Sociability in an Early 19th Century Provincial Town – Lutterworth.
By Denise Greany
Denise Greany was the winner of the 2023 LAHS MA History dissertation prize. In this presentation, she discusses provincial female sociability in the early nineteenth century based on the diary of a lower middle-class woman in a rural provincial location (Lutterworth). She traces the operation of female visit culture from the roads around the town, through the urban spaces of local public culture and into the parlours, kitchens and sick rooms of female activity. This suggests that the domestic realm was characterised by widespread female mobility and agency. In particular, care for the sick provided as significant a motivation, location and routine for provincial female sociable lives as courtship, religious observance and commercial activity.

Revolting Robert: The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Earl of Leicester
By Jim Butler
In 1173, Robert ‘Blanchemains', 3rd Earl of Leicester, became a principal supporter of the revolt against Henry II by three of his sons. Robert's actions not only threatened to upend the fledgling Plantagenet dynasty, they had severe and lasting consequences for the town of Leicester and its inhabitants. In this talk, local historian, Jim Butler, gives a fly-through of the key events of the oft-forgotten 1173-74 revolt, particularly in relation to Leicester and its rebellious Earl.

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, 53 New Walk, Leicester, LE1 7EA

Entry to the talk is free of charge.