The Town and Manor of Hungerford and Liberty of Sanden Fee is a charity (formed in 1908) that protects the local countryside and a wonderful ancient set of rights, for the Commoners and people of Hungerford. The modern estate managed by the Trustees comprises 423 acres (171 hectares) of land including Hungerford Common, Freeman’s Marsh […]

The talk will look at the history of the parish from evidence of early humans in the Palaeolithic, through the birth of the modern town to the present. Important events that shaped the development of Thatcham will be discussed, key buildings will be looked at and the origin of the name. The talk will give […]

Eric Turner will give a brief overview of his career as an art historian, firstly as a porter in Sotheby’s, followed by his career as a curator in the Victoria and Albert Museum. His talk will focus on how both these institutions have responded to changing tastes and markets over the last 50 years. Eric […]

A talk by sculptor Johannes von Stumm, which relates the journey of how his work developed. He started making sculptures combining glass, stone and metal; but in trying to create larger pieces of glass he had to accept the technical limitations. Replacing glass with empty space led him in the early years of the 21st […]

The Society is restricted to 25 places for this guided tour. There is a nominal charge of £3 per head. Further details to follow.

Nathanael Hodge is from the Reading-based Mills Archive Trust, the national repository for the documentary and photographic records of traditional and contemporary mills and milling.

Newbury Society chairman David Peacock will be reviewing the past year, talking about Newbury today, highlighting some of the town's attractions, and discussing the range of challenges it faces.

Charlotte Hitchmough  is the director of the Marlborough-based charity which works to conserve, protect, rehabilitate and improve the rivers and other waterbodies of the Kennet and Pang catchments.

The Berkshire Archaeological Society (BAS) has undertaken a number of geophysics surveys along the routes of these two major Roman roads across West Berkshire. Most notably in the area of Wickham, where the Roman Road to Bath is believed to intersect with Ermin Street which connects Silchester to Cirencester. Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) […]

RAF Welford was initially planned as a standard World War II 3-runway bomber airfield under the command of Membury but it was handed over to the USAAF in 1943 prior to its completion. Aircraft and gliders flown from the airfield participated in D-day and subsequent support operations – it was transferred back to the RAF […]

Richard Benyon was elected as Conservative MP for Newbury in May 2005 and stood down in November 2019. He had been appointed a Privy Councillor in December 2016 and was raised to the Peerage in January 2021. He served terms as a Minister in the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs both while an […]

The Hartley Trust (formerly Donnington Hospital Trust) was founded in 1393 and is Berkshire’s oldest charity, providing over 70 almshouses for retired people in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Willie Hartley-Russell was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Berkshire in 2016 and served as High Sheriff of the County in 2021/2022.