The Hull and East Riding branch meets at the University Library, Hull University, Cottingham Rd, Hull HU6 7RX.

Our meetings are on the third Thursday of the month, 7.30pm until about 9 pm.  Coffee and tea can be purchased in the University Library Coffee Bar before the meeting, and there is time then to look at the donated second-hand History books on sale. We do not meet in December or in January.  Annual local membership- £15; visitors- £3.  All students, Hull University staff, and those unwaged are free.

Contact: Sylvia Usher (Secretary) 01482 448065 or email usher@usher.karoo.co.uk

 

 

Hull & East Riding Branch Programme 2026-27

 

 

Thursday 15 October 2026

Samuel Wilderspin. A Schoolmaster Abroad in a Foreign Land

Ian Wolesley, Education Lead, Wilderspin School Museum

Samuel Wilderspin was a teacher who believed children learned more if they were happy. From the 1820s he moved to various towns setting up schools. In Barton on Humber, he designed his ideal school and garden to enable young children to do well.

Wilderspin’s understanding of young children will interest anyone who watches their development. Wilderspin’s school is now a museum where people can see how well his ideas worked. You may wonder why we hear about wise headmasters of 19^th century boarding schools for boys, but nothing about Wilderspin’s perceptive ways to educate poor children.

 

Thursday 19 November 2026

Hull in the 1926 General Strike

Emeritus Professor Tony Collins, De Montfort University

Events and strong working-class feelings in Hull, a seafaring city surrounded by rural communities, during the national General Strike.

 

Thursday 18 February 2027

‘Conversion or Coercion’? King Edwin’s Baptism and Christianisation

Dr. Louise Hampson, Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, York University

Bede's account of Edwin, King of Northumbria, a significant conversion in 627, is remembered for the story of the sparrow flying through the hall, and his nobles' support. How much did Papal pressures and other contemporary ideas drive Edwin’s conversion, and what changes in religion and society did this bring?

 

Thursday 18 March 2027

The Purge. How Spain expelled its Muslims 1609-14

Matthew Carr. Author and Journalist

The Reconquista in Spain led to harsh Christian conversion of the long-settled Jews (conversos) and Muslims (moriscos). The Spanish leaders believed they ‘purified’ Spain by driving out the two religious groups, with the Muslims shackled, marched many miles, and shipped to North Africa.

 

Thursday 15 April 2027

Homosexuality, Persecution and Reform before 1967

Dr, Chiarro Beccalossi, Lincoln University

Laws, and social attitudes, forbidding sexual relations between men brought deep suffering, Victims such as Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned, and Alan Turing, who who suffered chemical castration, show how both the law and social attitudes persecuted gay men. What was the significance of the 1967 reform act?

 

Thursday 20 May 2027

HA Hull & East Riding Branch AGM followed by

Hull’s ‘Old Town’ Revealed

Paul Schofield, Accredited Guide

Hull's Old Town is often pictured. Visitors walk the cobbled streets, but how much do they find out what almost each building can reveal? Come and find out! The talk follows the AGM, starting about 7.50