Coffee break is back - and session only costs £2

We don't take ourselves too seriously. We encourage healthy debate and a questioning attitude. All sorts of subjects are considered.

WE MEET ON THE SECOND WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH 2PM - 4.00PM IN THE MAIN HALL

PLEASE CONTACT ELWYN FOR FURTHER INFORMATION BY CLICKING THE EMAIL LINK

Forthcoming events

HISTORY OF MEDICINE

- WEDNESDAY MAY 13TH

The History of Medicine.

Presenter: Chris Heaven

This is really a look at how the understanding of disease , and what to do about it, has developed from the time of the ancient Greeks up to the antibiotic age. It is a personal perspective and will deal just with medical thinking in Europe and Britain.
How did the beliefs on how the human body works change, or remain entrenched, over these 2,000+ years?

What were the key events and who were the key people? What factors brought about advances in treatments and disease control? Are there things we can still learn from the past? Some of the surgical instruments found at Pompeii seem remarkably modern, and some of the ancient strange potions actually work – even if much of past practices now seem wacky.

There will be a little bit about my specialty – eyes, and my interest in railways – where accidents have helped our understanding of mental health issues.

2026

• Prince Albert - June
• The Rise of Stalin - July
• What a difference an invention makes - August
• The Cold War - September
• Introduction to Rise and Fall of British Empire- October
• The Strange Death of Liberal England - November
• The Hanoverians - December
• OTHERS:
• Crime and punishment in Britain
• Thatcher v Heath
• Pistols at Dawn - deadly political rivalry
• David Lloyd George
• Mutiny on the Bounty and The Wager
• The formation of the RAF

Previous sessions:

2026

• The First Day on the Somme (Nigel)
• The Rise of the Nazis (Elwyn)
• The Weimar Republic (Elwyn)
• The Russian Revolution (Elwyn)

2025

• Queen Victoria and John Brown (Ray)
• Battle of Waterloo (Nigel)
• Mary Queen of Scots (Susan)
• Elizabeth 1 (Elwyn)
• The Tudor inbetweeners - Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey and Bloody Mary (Elwyn)
• What a difference a spear or two makes (Kevin)
• Henry Vlll (Elwyn)
• SOE - Special Operations Executive (Elwyn)
• Henry Vll (Elwyn
• Asquith (Ray)
• Clive of India and the East India Company - two separate sessions (Elwyn)
• Victorian Railways (Chris)

2024

• Dreyfus (Nigel)
• The massacre at Oradour / David Irving (Susan and Elwyn)
• The Princes in the Tower / Shakespeare’s histories (Ray)
• What a difference the Tudors made (Kevin)
• Wars of the Roses (Elwyn)
• Plantagenets (Elwyn)
• Norman Conquest (Elwyn)
• What a difference a Plague makes (Kevin)
• Otto von Bismarck (Ian)
• Wigan Dispensary, 1824-1873 (Chris)
• The Suez Crisis 1956 (Elwyn)

2023

• Queen Victoria (Ray)
• The Education Act 1944 (Ray)
• Churchill and Attlee (3 sessions) (Elwyn)
• The History of Pantomime (Ray)

2022

• The Origins of the Second World War (five sessions) (Elwyn)