LEICESTERSHIRE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FOUNDED 1855
Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society
The Society meets in Leicester's
historic Guildhall, dating back to
1390 as a meeting place for the
Guild of Corpus Christi and was
purchased by the Corporation
when the Guild was dissolved in
1548.
The Upper Floor houses the
Society’s Library, open to
members on Sunday afternoons.
At the moment, the
Guildhall houses the
Richard III Exhibition!
LECTURE SERIES 2012-3
•
4 October 2012
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•
Viking Leicester
Dr Michael Wood
•
18 October 2012
•
•
Vernacular Erections: Lincolnshire Coastal Development
and Conservation before 1940
Dr Susan Barton
•
1 November 2012
•
•
Orson Wright: Champion of the People
Peter Cousins
•
•
•
•
15 November 2012
•
Centres of Royal Power in Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire:
The place-name evidence
Dr Jill Bourne
•
•
14 March 2013
•
Deeply buried prehistoric archaeology at Must Farm,
Cambridgeshire: Understanding past peoples’
movement in a time transgressive environment
Mark Knight
•
•
10 January 2013
•
The identity and Leicester associations of the important
early Tudor composer, Hugh Aston
Professor Patrick Boylan
•
A Blessing to the Town: the Vaughan Working Men's
College
Cynthia Brown
•
4 April 2013
•
•
In Search of the Heartland of Mercia
Dr Paul Bowman
•
•
24 January 2013
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Excavation of a Roman Temple at Egleton, Rutland
Jim Brown
•
7 February 2013
•
W. Alan North Memorial Lecture Chedworth Roman Villa:
research and redisplay
Professor Simon Esmonde Cleary
•
21 February 2013
LAHS AND ULAS
• The Society benefits greatly from its association with
the University of Leicester Archaeological Unit
(ULAS) which carried out the Richard III dig.
• The LAHS website is run from ULAS: one of the
Directors, Richard Buckley, is the Chairman, and the
other, Patrick Clay, oversees the annual report on
Archaeology in Leicestershire and Rutland, which in
the last issue of Transactions ran to 70 illustrated
pages. Major articles are also published in
Transactions by members of ULAS.
PUBLICATIONS
Transactions
• From 1862, LAHS has
produced an annual volume
of Transactions. These have
been fully indexed and hard
copies of the Index have
been produced as well as the
facility for on-line search.
• A major project is under way
to scan and make fully
searchable all volumes: many
are already available on-line,
including the earliest ones.
The most recent
volume contained an
update on the Hallaton
Hoard , including an
account of the
conservation and
display of the
important 1st century
A.D. helmet.
LAHS also produces The
Leicestershire Historian, which
first appeared as the annual
publication of the Leicestershire
Local History Council in 1967, but
when that body ceased to exist
in 1995, the Leicestershire
Archaeological and Historical
Society took over its publication.
Two Newsletters per year are
also published
RESEARCH
FUND
• Thanks to a legacy, LAHS
maintains a small Research
Fund which makes grants
of up to £1000 per year
available to local
archaeological and
historical societies for small
projects, publication etc.
• Recent examples have
included:
• A local history trail
• Funding for the drawing of
artefacts from a local dig
• Pottery reports
NETWORKS PROJECT
• As the oldest history society in the county, LAHS felt
it should stretch out its support and interest into the
wider community, encourage local groups,
embrace amateur historians, and throw off its
possibly somewhat elitist, over-academic image!
• 70-80 interested groups joined the scheme in 2007,
and their names, contact details and activities were
published as an appendix in the Leicestershire
Historian 2008, so that participants could “network”
to share information or advertise their events.
• Three History and Heritage Fairs have so far been
held in 2007, 2009 and 2012.
Sir John Moore’s School, Appleby Magna
Right: Beaumanor Hall, 2012
LAHS
• LAHS aims 'to promote the study of history, archaeology,
antiquities and architecture of the county‘.
• Runs a lecture series with good speakers
• Tries to maintain high academic standards of
publication in its annual Transactions, and publish the
most recent archaeology of the county.
• Produces a newsletter and The Leicestershire Historian
as more popular publications.
• Has a small Research Fund to assist local groups.
• The Networks Project aims to bring local groups together
so that they can ‘network’ on speakers etc and
participate in major collective events.
LAHS PROBLEMS
• Membership stands at around 400 and in addition
some 100 institutions receive our annual
publications around the world. But elderly
membership and lack of young people.
• Much of the work done by a few people – that’s
why the involvement of ULAS is so important.
• Increasing costs of publication – should we continue
to produce hard copy journals?
• We need to run more excursions but lack of time by
committee members.
• Competition – history and archaeology groups in
local U3As -21 in Leicestershire and Rutland.