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BLHN Conferences since the year 2000:
Speakers and their subjects

The Buckinghamshire Local History Network has held annual conferences since the year 2000. These annual conferences are listed here from the most recent to the earliest, with the subjects of each talk and the speaker who gave it.

2022: The cottage industries of Buckinghamshire
Pots and potters in Buckinghamshire       Michael Farley, of the Bucks Archaeological Society
The lace industry in Buckinghamshire       Marian Swindells, of the Cooper and Newton Museum
Straw plaiting in Bucks       Veronica Main, Of the Chilterns Conservation Board
The Bucks Archaeological Society Joan Elding Awards 2022 presented by Sandy Kidd, of Historic England • Mike Farley, for a lifetime contribution to the county's archaeology • Tabatha Barton and Milton Keynes Museum, for the Bancroft Roman mosaic
Chair making as a cottage industry       Catherine Grigg, of Wycombe Museum
Needle making in Long Crendon       Julian Hunt, of Bucks Archaeological Society
Are we just careless with our industries?       Peter Marsden
PLUS ‘Bucks Local History Fair’ with stands by 13 local history, archaeology and heritage societies, including displays on Buckinghamshire's cottage industriesa

2021: Shopping in Buckinghamshire – from medieval market places to modern retail parks (in-person and online)
Buckinghamshire market places       Julian Hunt, president of the Bucks Archaeological Society
Closed for stocktaking: Shops, market stalls and inventories in Winslow 1588-1750       David Noy, of the Winslow History Project
Shops and shopkeepers in High Wycombe in the late 18th century       Jackie Kay, Trustee, High Wycombe Society
From market town to Metroland – a history of shopping in Amersham       Alison Bailey, Trustee, Amersham Museum
From market town to Metroland – a history of shopping in Amersham       Alison Bailey, Trustee, Amersham Museum
Retailing 2021: Past, present and future       David Thorpe, founder of Bucks Local History Network
PLUS ‘Bucks Local History Fair’ with stands, displays and online web pages by 12 local history, archaeology and heritage societies, including research on Buckinghamshire shops and shopping CLICK HERE TO View the 2021 Bucks Local History Fair website

2020: Wellers, Wethereds, Wheelers and the ABC – Buckinghamshire brewers through three centuries (delivered On-line)
Wethereds of Marlow       Janet Smith, vice-president of the Marlow Society
Wellers of Amersham       Alison Bailey, Trustee of Amersham Museum
Wheelers of High Wycombe       Jackie Kay, Trustee of High Wycome Society
ABC: the Aylesbury Brewery Company       Julian Hunt, President of Bucks Archaeological Society
PLUS ‘Bucks Virtual Local History Fair’ with ‘virtual stands’ by 18 local history, archaeology and heritage societies, including research on Buckinghamshire brewing and breweries CLICK HERE TO View the 2020 Bucks Local History Fair website

2019: Social Housing in Buckinghamshire – from almshouses to Right-to-Buy
Social housing under the first Poor Law 1600-1834       Professor John Broad, editor of Records of Buckinghamshire
Marlow's overworked workhouse: Problems caused by the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act       Janet Smith
1919: ‘Homes fit for Heroes’       Peter Marsden, Chair of Bucks Archaeological Society
Social Housing in Amersham 1919-1945       Emily Toettcher, Curator of Amersham Museum
Blitz, Bletchley and Milton Keynes: The decentralisation of London after World War 2       Professor Mark Clapson, University of Westminster
The deconstruction of council and social housing since 1979       John Boughton, author of ‘Municipal Dreams: The rise and fall of council housing’

2018: Archaeology ahead of the HS2 rail line
HS2 Archaeology: The Buckinghamshire perspective       Eliza Alqassar of Buckinghamshire Archaeology Service	READ THE REPORT >>
How the HS2 archaeology project can throw light on human interaction with the landscape in central England across time       Jay Carver, Lead Archaeologist for Fusion and HS2
Archaeology within a large infrastructure project and early insights from the urgent-work programme of 2017-18       Richard Brown, Cotswold-Oxford-PCA archaeology team
The Lost Village of Doddershall       Dr Paul Stamper of the Connect archaeology team
Stoke Mandeville: Archaeology in a country churchyard       Andrew Harris, Fusion heritage specialist, and Guy Hunt of LP Archaeology
Archaeological reconnaissance and magnetometry for large-scale landscape assessment       Jay Carver, Lead Archaeologist for Fusion and HS2
Buckinghamshire and the railways last time around       Julian Hunt of the Bucks Archaeological Society

2017: Buckinghamshire Land and People

Who owned Buckinghamshire in 1798?       Dr John Broad, editor of Records of Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire and Parliament 1820-1868       Dr Peter Salmon, editor, History of Parliament

The continuing controversy on the origin of open fields and ridge and furrow       Dr David Hall

From Tudor plaisaunces to Central Milton Keynes – discovering hidden gems of Bucks gardens       Dr Sarah Rutherford, founding member of the Bucks Gardens Trust

Costing the earth – Buckinghamshire and English gardens since 1660       Professor Sir Roderick Floud

Buckinghamshire's Turnpike Roads 1706-1881       Peter Gulland

2016: Buckinghamshire's Time Team

Human activity in the Buckinghamshire Middle Thames from 10,000 BCE to Roman times – the evidence of Kingsmead Quarry, Horton       Alistair Barclay

Researching the Iron Age and Roman landscapes around Aylesbury       Sandy Kidd

Settlement in Buckinghamshire during the Saxon period       Mike Farley

The Evolution of the Landscape in North Buckinghamshire - the evidence from Broughton       Rob Atkins

The Saxon and Medieval History of Wycombe Heath, Penn, Common and King's Woods       Miles Green

The Context of the Lenborough Hoard       Susan Fern

2015: Buckinghamshire Towns

The Evolution of Eton and Windsor – a Historic Towns Trust Atlas       David Lewis

High Wycombe before Chairmaking       David Green

The Birth of Milton Keynes       Professor David Lock

Subtopia and other suburban development in Buckinghamshire before Metroland 1840-1914       Dr David Thorpe

The Medieval Town       Emeritus Professor Christopher Dyer

2014: Defining Buckinghamshire

The Origins of Buckinghamshire – sashes and Buckingham       Jeremy Haslam

Two competing county towns, Aylesbury and Buckingham       Edward Grimsdale

The County Maps of the 16th to 18th centuries       Tom Harper

The Large-scale Maps of the Ordnance Survey 1840-1940       Dr Richard Oliver

The Great War at Home       Dr Kate Tiller

2013: Power, Money and the Landscape in Buckinghamshire

Roman villas and their landscape       Professor Keith Branigan

Lord or Peasant? The origin of the nucleated village and the open fields, with special reference to North Bucks       Dr Richard Jones

Theatres of Power: Buckinghamshire forests and chases       Dr Graham Jones

Conspicuous display: The 18th-century great house, with special reference to Hartwell       Richard Wheeler of the National Trust

Rothschild money moving a mountain: The creation and role of the Waddesdon gardens       Catherine Taylor

Conserving the Chilterns, circa 1920-1950       Dr Roland Quinault

2012: Women in Buckinghamshire

Royal Women and Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire       Professor Pauline Stafford

Mrs Delany and the circle of the Duchess of Portland at Bulstrode in the C18       Clarissa Campbell Orr

The Betsey Wynne Diaries – the Swanbourne Years       Dr Elaine Chalus

The Nightingale Sisters and Claydon House       Sue Baxter

The Suffragettes in Buckinghamshire       Rev Colin Cartwright

The Buckinghamshire Lace industry       Julian Hunt

2011: Military Buckinghamshire

Moats, mottes and castles: status and defence in medieval Buckinghamshire       Mike Farley

The Buckinghamshire gentry and the Hundred Years War       Dr Andy King

Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the Civil War       Dr Alan Thompson

Portraits of the Civil War, and others       Sarah Gray

Buckinghamshire and the First World War       Michael Senior

The secret war in Buckinghamshire: Bletchley and beyond       Jonathan Byrne

Portraits of Buckinghamshire military men       Sarah Gray

The Buckinghamshire voluntary military tradition       Professor Ian Beckett

2010: Some great Buckinghamshire houses and their owners

The Great Houses of Bucks – power, land and money       David Thorpe

Nether Winchendon House and its family       Robert Spencer Bernard

Chilton House – inheritance through the female line       Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher

Ashridge – the Earls of Bridgewater and others       Mike Thompson

Cliveden – the two Dukes, Buckingham and Sutherland       Charles Pugh

The Rothschilds in Buckinghamshire       George Ireland

Chequers       Rodney Melville

2009: Some great Buckinghamshire figures

Edmund Weller of Beaconsfield       Julian Hunt

The first Marquis of Wharton (‘honest Tom’) of Winchendon and Wooburn       Dr Robin Eagles

The Earl of Shelburne, the first Buckinghamshire Prime Minister and MP for Wycombe       David Snoxell

Benjamin Disraeli and Buckinghamshire       Roland Quinault

John Hampden – the Buckinghamshire Connection       Roy Bailey

Ettie Desborough of Taplow       Richard Davenport-Hines

Buckinghamshire Artists       Sarah Gray

2008: Buckinghamshire's transport history

The Transport History of North Buckinghamshire       Peter Jarvis

Military Airfields in Buckinghamshire 1914-1945       Ken Delve

A History of Canals in Buckinghamshire       Steve Morley

The Traffic of Aylesbury Railway Station 1877-1904       Keith Bailey

Turnpike Roads in Buckinghamshire       Peter Gulland

Carriers and stage-coaches circa 1680-1840       Dorian Gerhold

2007: Buckinghamshire industries

Buckinghamshire Industries in the Nineteenth Century – an overview of change       David Thorpe

The History of Brewing in Buckinghamshire       Mike Brown

The History of Brickmaking in Buckinghamshire       Michael Hammett

The History of Papermaking in Buckinghamshire       Trevor Dean

The History of the Wycombe Furniture Industry       Dr Clive Edwards

Wolverton – the Buckinghamshire Industrial Town       John Brushe

2006

Buckinghamshire in the shadow of the Metropolis, 900-1500       Professor Derek Keene

The Men of Nelson's Navy       Pam and Derek Ayshford

Datchet in the Nineteenth Century and its Links with London       Janet Kennish

Buckinghamshire in the late thirteenth century, evidence from the eyre roll of 1286       Dr Lesley Boatwright

Revising Pevsner's Buckinghamshire: exploring a county of contrasts       Dr Elizabeth Williamson

2005

Baptists in Central Buckinghamshire in the Seventeenth Century and Benjamin Keach, the Winslow tailor       Rev Eric Eyre

The Claydons: the role of the Verneys in transforming an English Rural Society 1600-1820       Dr John Broad

Medieval Winslow and the St Albans Connection – "Buying their blood at the Abbot's will"       Dr David Noy

2004

West Wycombe Park: an 18th-century landscape of politics, sex and nature       Richard Wheeler

The Household Accounts of Sir Edward Don of Horsenden and Saunderton, a Tudor Country Gentleman and Courtier       Professor Ralph Griffiths

The Civil War in Buckinghamshire       Professor Ian Beckett

Enclosure and Common Rights in Eighteenth-century Buckinghamshire       Dr Leigh Shaw-Taylor

2003

Landscape Archaeology in Buckinghamshire       Sandy Kidd

Woodland Industries in Bucks and Berks from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century       Professor E J T Collins

The Black Death in Buckinghamshire       Julian Hunt

2002

Early Non-conformity in the Chilterns 1450-1700       Professor Margaret Spufford

The Origins of the Buckinghamshire Village       Professor Christopher Dyer

An Extra-ordinary Industry in North Bucks in the 19th Century       Neil Loudon

The Fall of the Grenvilles in Perspective       Dr Roland Quinault

Buckinghamshire in 1851 – the Evidence of the Census, a story beyond family history       Dr David Thorpe

The Eighteenth Century Landscape Park in South Bucks       Dr David Brown

2001

Farms and Fields in North Buckinghamshire       Professor Michael Drake

The Old Enemies: Buckingham and Aylesbury       Professor John Clarke

2000

The Georgian legacy of parliamentary enclosure       Professor Michael Turner

The changing landscape of Buckinghamshire in the 16th and 17th Centuries       Professor Michael Reed

Aristocrats in Buckinghamshire, with special reference to the Grenvilles       Professor J C Beckett

The archaeological background       Mike Farley

Buckinghamshire History in its regional context       Dr John Broad

Aspects of the Chilterns in the medieval period       Dr Ian Hepple

Villages, hamlets and settlements – a study of the South Midlands and the Whittleworth forest project       Carenza Lewis