The work women of the Land Army in World War 2 is well known.  This talk tells the story of the less well-known women who volunteered in the 1940s to keep traffic flowing on Britain’s canals. However they may have referred to themselves, they were far form “idle women”.

A welcome return for David Hassard, one of SIHG's favourite speakers, for his first  live talk to us since before Covid.

The world’s first underground public railway opened in 1863, running  between Paddington and Farringdon Street in London.

Chris will explain why it was necessary, how it was built, and how it expanded right across our capital city.

The First World War inspired Heath Robinson to dream up a series of increasingly outlandish and bizarre military inventions with which the opposing armies would try to outwit each other. From the kaiser’s campaigning car or a suggestion for an armoured bayonet curler, to post-war ‘unbullying’ of beef, his cartoons are a fantastically absurd take on wartime technology and home-front life.

Organised by Simon Ritchie.

Leatherhead Institute, Saturday 26th October 2024

Play about the man behind the iconic London Tube map. Could meet in the cafe there an hour or so before. And there's the excellent LT museum as well, of course. 

Ashtead Pottery was an enterprise giving work to disabled war veterans from the Great War, and to "assist in the reconstruction of rural life".  It only lasted 12 years but produced some very individualistic pottery, often in art Deco styles, which now commands impressive prices; their most famous produce was the 1924 Empire Exhibition's "Empire Lions" souvenir.  Come along and hear much, much more from Professor Anne Andersen.

Zoom talk by Benedict O'Looney, an architect and active member of the Victorian Society.

The Victorian era produced some prominent figures who seemed to fit so much into their lives that you might wonder how they had time to sleep. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Morris and William Ewart Gladstone spring to mind, but another example, rather less well known, is Sir Henry Cole.

Retired engineer and volunteer for the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) and the Basingstoke Canal Society will give us an illustrated talk on the history of the Panama Canal.