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Friday 14 November 2025 – Historic Building Mythbusting – Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology
Lecturer: Dr James Wright
Booking Months: September, October
Cost: £40
Location: Letcombe Regis Village Hall, OX12 9LJ
Go to any ancient building and there will be interesting, exciting, and romantic stories presented to the visitor. They are commonly believed and widely repeated – but are they really true? These stories include those of secret passages linking ancient buildings, spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, ship timbers used in the construction of buildings on land, blocked doors in churches which are thought to keep the Devil out and claims to be the oldest pub in the country.
James Wright will explain the development of such myths and investigate the underlying truths behind them. Sometimes the realities hiding behind the stories are even more interesting, romantic, and exciting than the myth itself. James is the author of the popular Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog and his book Historic Building Mythbusting.
Friday 13 March 2026 – The Golden Age of Books – the world of artistic book production in the 19th and early 20th centuries
Lecturer: Kirsty Hartsiotis
Booking Months: January, February 2026
Cost: TBD
Location: Letcombe Regis Village Hall, OX12 9LJ
The first lecture explores the world of fine book production from the end of the 19th century through the life of the relatively unknown figure, Sir Emery Walker. He was a pivotal figure in the English, American, and continental European Private Press Movement from the 1880s until his death in 1933. He inspired William Morris to start his Kelmscott Press, but had his own adventures into printing in the 20th century, and despite setbacks caused by arguments and war, continued printing into his 80s. This talk charts his journey from 13-year-old draper’s assistant to the ‘Universal Samaritan’, one of the most respected people in the printing world.
The second lecture tells the fascinating and complex story behind William Morris’ last masterpiece, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, and his collaboration with his great friends Emery Walker and artist Edward Burne-Jones, who provided the 87 illustrations in the book. This lavishly illustrated talk takes you through the story of the book, it’s illustrations and through that tells the story of William Morris’s passion for books and the press he created.
In the third lecture we enter the golden age of British book illustration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Illustrators ranged from the decadent Aubrey Beardsley, to whimsical Arthur Rackham and luscious Edmund Dulac; with modernism coming together after the First World War with artists such as Gwen Raverat and the controversial Eric Gill. It was an exciting time of experimentation on the one hand and lavish productions on the other – we’ll explore this fascinating period when book illustration became a high art in and of itself.
