Lectures

Forthcoming Lectures

Visitors welcome. Admission: Members free, Visitors £4, Student Visitors £2

2025

Thursday 3 July 2025: Chester Festival of Ideas
Venue: Chester Town Hall, Northgate Street, Chester CH1 2HJ
Free public talks by members of Chester Society for Landscape History:
10am-11am:  What’s in a Name? Understanding Place-Names and their Link with the Local Landscape (Speaker: Dr Sharon Varey)
1pm-2pm:  Magna Carta: Take Two (Speaker: Emeritus Professor Graeme White)
3pm-4am:  Unforgotten Children: The Moving Story of the Foundling Hospital at Chester (Speaker: Dr Anthony Annakin-Smith)
More details: https://festivalofideas.chester.ac.uk/events/

Saturday 27 September 2025, 2pm
Title tbc
Speaker: Dr Alan Crosby, British Association for Local History and
Editor of The Local Historian
Venue: All Saints Church Centre, Vicarage Road, Hoole, Chester, CH2 3HZ
NB: For directions, please scroll to the bottom of the Centre’s own website and click on the text which says ‘Map and Directions’: https://allsaints.church/venue-hire/

Saturday 25 October, 2pm
Title tbc
Speaker tbc
Venue: St Columba’s Church Hall, Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1SA
NB: Free car park; for directions see:
https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/about/st-columbas-church/directions-and-location/

Saturday 29 November, 2pm
Excavations at Ironbridge
Speaker: Mike Nevell
Venue: St Columba’s Church Hall, Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1SA
NB: Free car park; for directions see:
https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/about/st-columbas-church/directions-and-location/

2026 and 2027

Although subjects and speakers have yet to be confirmed, the following dates have been booked for lectures in 2026 and 2027 at our usual venue of St Columba’s Church Hall, Plas Newton Lane, Chester, CH2 1SA (NB: Free car park; for directions see:
https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/about/st-columbas-church/directions-and-location/):

2026

Saturday 31 January 2026, 2pm
Saturday 28 February 2026, 1.30pm (AGM followed by lecture)
Saturday 28 March 2026, 2pm
Saturday 25 April 2026, 2pm
Saturday 26 September 2026, 2pm
Saturday 31 October 2026, 2pm
Saturday 28 November 2026, 2pm

2027

Saturday 30 January 2027, 2pm
Saturday 27 February 2027, 1.30pm (AGM followed by lecture)
Saturday 20 March 2027, 2pm
Saturday 24 April 2027, 2pm
Saturday 26 September 2027, 2pm
Saturday 30 October 2027, 2pm
Saturday 27 November 2027, 2pm

Speakers, top to bottom:
Philip Hume of the Mortimer Society;
Diane Johnson, CSLH; Professor Graeme White, CSLH;
Dr Tom Pickles, CSLH; Dr Sharon Varey, CSLH;
Maggie Taylor, CSLH (Photographs: Carol Sparkes).

Previous Lectures

25.01.2025: Four Medieval Mishaps in their Landscape Context (Emeritus Professor Graeme White, Chester Society for Landscape History)
22.02.2025: The Dyfrdwy to the Dee: From Source to Sea (Jim Holmes, Royal Geographic Society)
22.03.2025: Saving Parks and Gardens (Glynis Shaw, Welsh Historic Gardens Trust)

27.01.2024: Suffer Little Children: The Foundling Hospital at Chester (Dr Anthony Annakin-Smith)
24.02.2024: AGM followed by The Chester to Holyhead Railway (Dr Philip Lloyd)
23.03.2024: Archaeology and Landscape Changes at Norton Priory (Dr Robert Philpott, FSA)
27.04.2024: Liverpool: Landscapes, Geology, History (Emeritus Professor Jim Marshall, Wirral Geology and Landscape Project)
04.07.2024: Chester Festival of Ideas: We Look, But Do We Really See? Exploring and Understanding Local Landscapes (Emeritus Professor Graeme White & Dr Sharon Varey, Chester Society for Landscape History)
28.09.2024: Investigating Motte and Bailey Castles (Chris Matthews, Landscape Archaeologist, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust)
19.10.2024: Cheshire History Day: Cheshire History: Past, Present Future (Emeritus Professor Graeme White & Dr Sharon Varey, Chester Society for Landscape History)
26.10.2024: Coal-Mining in East Cheshire: Aspects of Social and Landscape History (Dr Alan Crosby, British Association for Local History, Editor of The Local Historian)
30.11.2024: Common Ground: The History of Common Land (Speaker: Emeritus Professor Angus Winchester, Lancaster University)

28.01.23: Buildings of Ruthin (Gareth Evans)
21.02.23: Canals and the Landscape (Peter Brown)
25.03.23: Place-Names and the Landscape of Medieval Cheshire (Alan Crosby)
22.04.23: The Topographical Travels of Thomas Pennant (1726-98) (Paul Evans)
30.09.23: The Antonine Wall (Geoff B. Bailey)
30.10.23: Levelling the Levels: Draining the East Anglian Fens: An Historical Survey (David Savage, CSLH). This talk described the history of the drainage of the southern peat fens from Roman times to the present day. A number of the major schemes were mentioned, successes and failures, together with some of the key figures – monastic, establishment and even royal.
25.11.23: Literary Landscapes: Lost City: Searching for Bradford in the Novels of JB Priestley (Dr Chris Green)

29.01.22: The Dee Valley (John Brinkley)
26.02.22: Unlocking the Landscape: Historical Maps in the Digital Age (Scott Lloyd and Jon Dollery, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)
26.03.23: Latest Country Houses: 1985 to present (Mike Hope, The European Academy of Design)
01.10.22: Peasant Perceptions of Landscape in the Middle Ages: Findings from Oxfordshire and Potential Approaches in Other Regions (Stephen Mileson, Oxford University)
29.10.22: A Railway, Its Engineers and Their Houses (David Savage, CSLH)
26.11.22: In Search of Roman Rural Settlement (Dr Caroline Pudney, University of Chester) plus: Book Launch: Looking at the Landscape

22.02.21: Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943): Unsung Hero of Agriculture (Christine Robinson, CSLH) via Zoom
25.02.21: Secret Britain: Unearthing the Nation’s Mysterious Archaeology (Dr Mary-Ann Ochota) via Zoom
29.03.21: Mapping Chester’s Landscapes: Past, Present and Future (Dr Keith Lilley) [in conjunction with the Historic Towns Trust] via Zoom
26.04.21: The Horngarth or Penny Hedge, Whitby: The History of a Ceremony in its Historic Landscape, AD 600-2020 (Dr Thomas Pickles, University of Chester) via Zoom
24.05.21: Newfoundwell, Timperley (Hazel Pryor, CSLH) via Zoom
28.06.21: A Brief Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Merseyside (Maurice Handley) via Zoom
11.09.21: Domesday Book and the English Landscape (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)
9.10.21: CSLH 35th Anniversary Research Day: Recent Research into Landscapes of the North-West
Birkenhead Park (Dr Ian Wray)
The Early Christian Landscape of Chester and the Wirral (Dr Tom Pickles)
Contrasting Frontier Settlements along the Dee Valley (Professor Graeme White)
‘Cringlemire’ – Taming a Lakeland Landscape (Maggie Taylor)
‘Estimating the effects of the railways on Chester in not easy’ (Dr Chris Pilsbury)
Carnegie Libraries in Cheshire (Dr Vanessa Greatorex)
Identity Words: Landscape, Heritage and Us (Julie Smalley)
16.10.21: ‘The King’s Writ does not run here’: the Marcher Lordships (Philip Hume, Mortimer History Society)
29.11.21: Spatial Analysis for Landscape History (Ray Carpenter, CSLH)

25.01.20: Rhydymwyn Valley Site (Jeff Spencer)
24.02.20: Wirral’s Dee Coastline (Gavin Hunter)
29.09.20: Offa’s Dyke: A Watery Perspective (Professor Howard Williams, University of Chester) [online]

26.01.19: Lordly Landscapes (Dr Philip Morgan, Keele University)
25.02.19: (following AGM) Hidden Histories: How to be a Landscape Detective (Dr Mary-Ann Ochota)
25.03.19: Connections between Local Hillforts (Dr Erin Lloyd Jones)
30.09.19: Bersham Ironworks (Steve Grenter, Wrexham Heritage)
28.10.19: Norton Priory: Monastery to Museum (Rob Sanderson, Norton Priory Museum Trust)
30.11.19: Glimpses of County Durham’s Ancient Landscapes (David Mason, Principal Archaeologist, Durham County Council)

27.01.18: The Osmington White Horse: A Regal Restoration (Professor Stewart Ainsworth, University of Chester)
26.02.18: (following AGM) Grand Designs 1860: Building a Holiday Home in the Lake District (Maggie Taylor, CSLH)
26.03.18: Crossing the Menai (Bob Diamond)
30.04.18: History of the Chemical Industry: Widnes, Runcorn, Northwich (Diana Leitch)
17.05.18: Rediscovery of Arcadia: Capability Brown and the Pastoral Idyll (Gareth Williams) [jointly with Grosvenor Museum Society]
24.09.18: Cheshire Maps and Mapmakers (Jonathan Pepler, County Archivist)
29.10.18: The Vikings and the Church (Dr Tom Pickles, University of Chester)
24.11.18: Landscape and Land Use in Roman North-West England (Sue Stallibrass)

30.01.17: Soundscapes of English Towns (David Mitchell, Chester’s Town Crier)
25.02.17: Reading the Wirral Landscape (Anthony Annakin-Smith, CSLH)
27.03.17: Mapping the Marches: Marginal Places and Spaces of Cartographic Innovation (Professor Keith D. Lilley, Queen’s University Belfast)
25.09.17: South and North: Offa’s Dyke and the Landscape of the Western Frontier of Mercia in Gloucestershire and Cheshire (Keith Ray)
30.10.17: Oral Landscape Histories (Professor Mark Riley, University of Liverpool)
27.11.17: The Chester Odeon and Other Recent City Excavations (Leigh Dodd, Chartered Institute for Archaeologists)

25.01.16: The Houses of North Wales (Dr Mark Baker, Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust)
29.02.16: Industrial Villages of Cheshire (Elizabeth Davey)
21.03.16: The Leeds and Liverpool Canal (Mike Clarke, Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society)
25.04.16: Land Use in Upper Glenalmond (Professor Richard Oram)
26.09.16: Forging a Liberty in the Landscape: Whitby Abbey, the Liberty of Whitby Strand and the Cult of St Hild, c.1078 – c.1250 (Dr Tom Pickles, University of Chester)
15.10.16: Society for Landscape Studies’ annual conference hosted by CSLH: From the Peak to the Sea, From the Mersey to the Dee: The Landscapes of Cheshire and its Regions
Where Does Cheshire Belong? (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)
Horton cum Peel: A Tale of Two Halls and the Landscape Beyond (Dr Sharon Varey, CSLH)
Living with The Edge: The Story of the Alderley Edge Landscape Project (John Prag, Alderley Edge Landscape Project)
Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon Wirral (Dr Chris Lewis, Institute of Historical Research)
Landscapes on the Link: Some Historic Parks and Gardens in North Cheshire (Barbara Moth, Cheshire Gardens Trust)
A Sedimentary Approach to the Landscape History of Cheshire (Professor Richard Chiverrell, University of Liverpool)
31.10.16: The Slate industry in North Wales (Dr David Gwyn, OBE, Llechi Cymru)
28.11.16: Underground Wirral (Gavin Hunter)

26.01.15: Architecture of the Jazz Age (Adrian Sumner)
23.02.15: Hedgerow Trees of the Cheshire Plain (Mark Rogers)
23.03.15: Roman Roads in North-West Wales (David Hopewell, Gwynedd Archaeological Trust)
27.04.15: Trenches of the Great War on Cannock Chase (Stephen Dean, Staffordshire County Council)
28.09.15: Mercantile Palaces of Liverpool (Stephen Guy)
10.10.15: CSLH Research Day at St Mary’s Centre, Chester: Landscapes Past and Present: Cheshire and Beyond
Keynote address: Enclosure and Enclosures in Mid- and East Cheshire (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)
Medieval Moated Sites in the Cheshire-North Wales Borderland (Ray Jones)
The Geography of Crime: Misbehaviour in Medieval Chester (Vanessa Greatorex)
Ways and Meres: Pre-Turnpike Roads, Tracks, Boundaries and Their Markers in the Cheshire Peak District (Tom Swailes)
Tracing the Eighteenth-Century Landscape of Thelwall, Cheshire (Dr Mike Taylor)
Cheshire’s Airfields: A Legacy in the Landscape (Tony Barratt)
Landscape as History: Probing its Public Interface (Julie Smalley)
26.10.15: A Very Fair Field Indeed: An Archaeology of Town Commons in England (Mark Bowden, Historic England)
07.11.15: Building Paddy’s Wigwam: The Building of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool (Philip Harrison)
30.11.15: The Landscape of the Cheshire Magna Carta (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)

27.01.14: Victorian Villa Estates (Elizabeth Davey)
24.02.14: Excavations at Holt Castle (Steve Grenter)
24.03.14: Surveying the Landscape (Mike Blackburn)
28.04.14: Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site (Mark Suggitt)
14.05.14: The Walls of Chester (Tony Barratt) [Oliver Bott memorial lecture in conjunction with Chester Civic Trust]
29.09.14: The Landscape of the Staffordshire Hoard (Della Hooke)
27.10.14: Gwrych Castle, Abergele (Mark Baker)
24.11.14: The Mapping of Mold Mountain (Kevin Matthias)

21.01.13: Parkgate: Port and Resort (Anthony Annakin-Smith, CSLH)
25.02.13: History in the Raking – Discovering Cheshire’s Designed Landscapes (Barbara Moth, Cheshire Gardens Trust)
25.03.13: Pontcysyllte – its Place in History (Dr Barrie Trinder, Birmingham University)
29.04.13: Medieval Parks and Other Early Enclosures in Derbyshire (Mary Wiltshire)
30.09.13: Monastic Farm Buildings (James Bond)
28.10.13: Border Crossing: The Landscape of the Cheshire-North Wales borderlands (Ray Jones, CSLH)
25.11.13: What’s in a Name? Place-names, Surnames, and the Viking Settlement of Wirral (Dr Stephen Harding, Nottingham University)

30.01.12: Cheshire’s Forgotten Salt-Makers: Sea Salt Making on the Wirral (Anthony Annakin-Smith, CSLH
27.02.12: Widely as his Mersey Flows (Hugh Beggs)
26.03.12: Boogie-Woogie, Flappers, Bathtub Gin and the Modernist Garden (Ed Bennis)
30.04.12: Cotswold Landscapes from Prehistory until 1600: Some Myths Exposed (Professor Chris Dyer)
24.09.12: The Business of Investigating Timber-Framed Buildings (Duncan James)
29.10.12: A Georgian New Town: The Rise of Birkenhead (Elizabeth Davey)
26.11.12: The Storeton Quarries and Tramway (Gavin Hunter)

24.01.11: Wirral’s Historic Dee Coastline (Gavin Hunter)
28.02.11: Making an Exhibition: William Roscoe and Liverpool’s Botanic Gardens (Dr John Edmondson)
28.03.11: Wat’s Dyke (Pete Lewis)
26.09.11: The Landscape of the Civil War in Chester and Further Afield (Professor Peter Gaunt)
31.10.11: The Peak District Grouse Moors (Professor David Hey)
28.11.11: Geodiversity and Geoconservation in Cheshire’s landscape (Professor Cynthia Burek, University of Chester)
10.09.11: 25th anniversary conference at Ness Gardens: 25 in 2011:  Landscape Discoveries in the North West
Keynote address: LIDAR (Professor Stewart Ainsworth, University of Chester)
Black and White Houses to Black and White Cows: An Untold Story (Dr Sharon Varey)
Walk Mill on the River Gowy, Foulk Stapleford (John Whittle)
Settlements and their Shapes in North-East Wales (Mike Headon)
Large Enclosures in the Cheshire Landscape (Anthony Annakin-Smith)
Ness Gardens and the Landscape (Paul Cook)
New Views of Old Roads: Turnpikes in the Cheshire Landscape, 1700-1900 (Dr Alan Crosby)
The Enclosure of West Cheshire: Keeping Ahead of Champion England (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)

25.01.10: Ranulf de Blondeville and his Castle Building in 1225: Necessity as the Mother of Invention (Iain Soden)
22.02.10: Recent Excavations at St Alban’s Church, Tattenhall (Kevin Cootes)
29.03.10: Walled Gardens (Susan Campbell)
26.04.10: Hedges around Edges (Hugh Beggs)
27.09.10: Edward Kemp – His Work in Cheshire and Beyond (Elizabeth Davey)
25.10.10: Stonehenge (Julian Richards)
29.11.10: Romano-British Settlement in the Landscape of the Lowland North-West (Dr Robert Philpott, University of Liverpool)

26.01.09: Landscape-Scale Approaches to Integrating Management of the Natural and Built Environment Case Study: The Heather and Hillforts Project (Fiona Gale)
23.02.09: Death and the Landscape (Dr Howard Williams)
23.03.09: Picturesque Chester: The City in Art (Peter Boughton, Grosvenor Museum)
06.04.09: The Anglo-Saxon Landscape in North-East Wales (Dr Chris Lewis, VCH)
28.09.09: The River Dee: From Source to Sea (Hugh Beggs)
26.10.09: Houses of Mold and District (David Rowe)
23.11.09: Habitats and Hillforts of Cheshire’s Sandstone Ridge (Dan Garner)

28.01.08: Ness Collieries (1759-1855): Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in West Cheshire (Anthony Annakin-Smith, CSLH)
25.02.08: Homes and Gardens in Medieval Chester (Dr Jane Laughton)
31.03.08: “So Where Exactly did the Bluestones of Stonehenge Come From?” (Professor Dai Morgan Evans)
28.04.08: What has Shaped the Landscape of Derbyshire? (Dr Fred Broadhurst)
29.09.08: Cheshire Airfields – Their Story and Significance on the Landscape (Tony Barratt)
27.10.08: Early Historic Sculpture and Landscape: A Case Study of Cladh a’ Bhile (Dr Meggen Gondek, University of Chester)
24.11.08: Ridge-and-Furrow versus the Hedge-and-Ditch Presumption: A Boundary Dispute at Threapwood (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)

29.01.07: Thelwall – No Mean City (Dr Mike Taylor, CSLH)
26.02.07: Tramping the Fields and Trawling the Archives: Investigations in West Cheshire (Doug Haynes)
26.03.07: Landscape and Society in the Kingdom of Gwynedd in the Middle Ages (David Longley, Gwynedd Archaeological Trust)
19.04.07: From Chester to the Centre of the Earth (Dr Fred Broadhurst [jointly with the Royal Geographical Society]
24.09.07: Wirral Villages: From Eastham to Landican (Gavin Hunter)
29.10.07: Gainford: an Anglo-Saxon Estate in County Durham? (Dr David Petts)
26.11 07: Roots of the Chester Landscape (Stewart Ainsworth, English Heritage & Time Team)

19.01.06: What Landscape Means to Me (Richard Purslow, Windgather Press)
16.02.06: A Recent Survey of Burton Point (Gary Crawford-Coupe)
16.03.06: Discovering a Welsh Landscape: Archaeology in the Clwydian Range (Dr Ian Brown)
20.04.06: The Lost Treasures of a Denbighshire Landscape (Mark Olly)
28.09.06: The Whittlewood Project (Professor Chris Dyer)
17.09.06: (following AGM) Llangar Church (Dai Morgan Evans, Society of Antiquaries of London)
15.11.06: Peopling the Landscape: Manorial Life in Westmorland in the 17th Century (Philip Holdsworth)

20.01.05: Patterns of Landholding in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire in the Middle Ages (Dr Nigel Tringham)
17.02.05: Sycharth Castle – an Owain Glyndŵr ‘Llys’ site (Spencer Smith)
17.03.05: Marshville and Saltport: Frodsham and its Shipping Business (Tony Barratt)
21.04.05: The Evolution of the British Landscape (Dr Fred Broadhurst) [jointly with the Royal Geographical Society]
15.09.05: The Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) of Cheshire Project (Rob Edwards, Cheshire County Council)
20.10.05: (following AGM) The Evidence of Place-Names: A View of North-East Wales (Professor Hywel Wyn Owen, Director of the Place-Name Research Centre, University of Wales, Bangor)
17.11.05: Landscape and Settlement in a North Wales River Basin (Ray Jones, CSLH)

15.01.04: Urban Geology of Chester (Norman Harrison)
19.02.04: Planned Towns in Wales and the Welsh Marches (David James Lloyd)
18.03.04: The Heronbridge Project (Dr David Mason)
16.09.04: “What’s in a Name?” – Field Names and the Landscape of a Shropshire Parish (Sharon Varey, CSLH)
21.10.04: (following AGM) The Myth of Discontinuity: Carew in Pembrokeshire and “Little England Beyond Wales” (David Austin)
18.11.04: Forces for Change in the Medieval Landscape (Professor Graeme White, President, CSLH)

16.01.03: Parliamentary Enclosure of Upland Waste in Northern England (Professor Ian Whyte, Lancaster University)
20.02.03: The Restoration of Hawkestone Park (Simon Walding)
20.03.03: Palaces, Ponds and Prelates: The Great Fishponds of the Bishops of Winchester (Alan Crosby, British Association for Local History)
18.09.03: Heaton Norris: The Evolution of a Town on the Mersey (David Reid)
16.10.03: (following AGM) English Villages (Professor Brian Roberts, formerly of Durham University)
20.11.03: Shropshire Towns in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Dr Sylvia Watts)

24.01.02: The Williamson Tunnels (Claire Moorhead, Friends of the Williamson Tunnels)
21.02.02: Elite Landscapes and Lordly Identity in England, 1066-1500 (Dr Robert Liddiard, University of Wales)
21.03.02: Lord Leverhulme and the Wirral Landscape (Gavin Hunter)
19.09.02: Aerial Archaeology Update for Shropshire (Michael Watson, Shropshire Archaeology Service)
17.10.02: (following AGM) The Yorkshire Landscape (Dr Richard Muir)
21.11.02: The English 18th-Century Landed Estate: Architectural Experiments and Social Differentiation (Christopher Christie, Manchester Metropolitan University)

18.01.01: Tabley Park (Barbara Moth, Cheshire Gardens Trust)
08.02.01: The Roman Impact on the Landscape (Tim Strickland, Gifford & Partners)
15.03.01: Medieval Agriculture in Cheshire and its Problems (Paul Booth, University of Liverpool)
11.10.01: (following AGM) The Limestone Quarries of Caldon Low (Basil Jeuda)
08.11.01: Christleton – A Unique Village (David Cummings, Christleton Local History Group)
06.12.01: Early monasteries in the British Isles (Professor Mick Aston, University of Bristol)

03.02.00: The Rise and Fall of Birkenhead (Peter de Figueiredo, English Heritage)
02.03.00: Monasteries in the Landscape (Professor Mick Aston, Bristol University)
23.03.00: Dry Land from the Waters: The Draining of Martin Mere, Lancashire, 1692-1850 (Dr Alan Crosby, Lancaster University)
05.10.00: (following AGM) Thomas Telford and the A5 (Rick Turner, Cadw)
09.11.00: Lyme Park (Dr Richard Newman, Lancaster University)
07.12.00: The Alderley Edge Landscape Study (Clare Pye, Manchester University)

14.01.99: Speke Hall (Dr Jennifer Lewis, University of University)
18.02.99: The Altrincham to Chester Railway (Basil Jeuda)
11.03.99: Architectural Biography in the North West (Frank Kelsall, English Heritage)
21.10.99: Sociable Cities: The New Towns Movement (Graham Bell, Town & Country Planning Association)
18.11.99: Two hundred years of Rudyard Lake (Basil Jeuda)

15.01.98: The Landscape of Battles in the North West (Philip Morgan)
12.02.98: Recent work on Place-Names and Landscapes (Dr Margaret Gelling, English Place-Name Society)
12.03.98: Buildings and Livestock in Cheshire and Cornwall: Neglected Areas of Agricultural History (Paul Barnwell, Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England)
29.10.98: The Industrial Archaeology of North Wales (Dr W Lloyd Jenkins)
26.11.98: Stone Circles in the North West (Dr Aubrey Burl)

16.01.97: Shotwick Castle (Marcus Jecock, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England)
13.02.97: Upland Landscapes of the Medieval North (Angus Winchester, Lancaster University)
13.03.97: The Palaces of the Bishops of St David’s (Rick Turner, Cadw)
25.09.97: Gardens of a Golden Afternoon: Jekyll and Lutyens (Jane Brown)
16.10.97: Thomas Pennant and the Transformation of the Downing Estate (Dr Paul Evans)
20.11.97: Stonehenge and Brittany: the French Connection (Aubrey Burl)
11.12.97: History and Heritage: the Rediscovery of Ironbridge (Judith Alfrey)

11.01.96: Dunham Massey, Past and Present (Clive Alford, National Trust)
08.02.96: The Impact of Modern Agriculture in the Environment (Dr C. Morris, Chester College)
07.03.96: “Prefabs”: The Post-War Emergency Housing Campaign (Dr Julian Holder, Chester College)
07.11.96: The Vernacular Architecture of Wales in its Setting (Professor Ronald Brunskill, De Montfort University, Leicester)
05.12.96: The Archaeology of Chester Cathedral (Simon Ward, Chester Archaeology Service)

19.01.95: Landscape History and Conservation in the Peak District (Professor John Tarn, University of Liverpool)
16.02.95: Public Parks in the North West (Arthur Oldham, Garden History Society)
16.03.95: Eaton Park, Past, Present and Future (T.B. Barter, Eaton Estate Office)
05.10.95: Planned Villages in Cheshire (Dr Jon Talbot, North East Wales Institute)
02.11.95: The Northwest Wetlands Survey in Cheshire and Shropshire (Mark Leah, Lancaster University)
30.11.95: Castles (John Ellis, Cheshire Military Museum)

06.01.94: The Prehistoric Landscape of Shropshire (Michael Watson, County Archaeologist for Shropshire)
17.02.94: The Rows of 19th Century Chester (Peter de Figueiredo, Chester City Council)
03.03.94: Medieval Roads of Cheshire (Dr Paul Hindle, Salford University)
24.03.94: Tithe Awards and Beyond: Settlement and Field Systems in Rural West Cheshire (Dr Graeme White, President, CSLH)
06.10.94: Woods & Forests in the Medieval Period (André Berry, Clwyd County Council Archaeological Service)
27.10.94: Recent Discoveries from the Air in Cheshire (Jill Collens, Cheshire County Council Archaeology Service)
24.11.94: Origins of Cheshire (Dr Nick Higham, University of Manchester)
15.12.94: The Impact of Mining in North Wales (Pat Frost, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust)

21.01.93: Attingham Park: Not Only a Repton Landscape (Belinda Cousens, Regional Historic Buildings Representative, National Trust)
18.02.93: John Tollemache 1805-1890: Agriculturalist and Shaper of the Landscape (Ian Dunn, Cheshire County Archivist)
18.03.93: The Listed Buildings of Chester (Oliver Bott, Cheshire Chief Conservation Officer)
13.10.93: Burton Manor and its Gardens (Steven Jardine, Principal Historic Buildings Officer, Cheshire County Council)
09.12.93: The Conservation of Trees in Cheshire (Robert Price, Chief Conservation Officer, Cheshire County Council)

09.01.92: Anglo-Saxon Agriculture (Dr David HiIl, University of Manchester)
06.02.92: Inns, Taverns and Ale Houses: A History of the Public House in Chester (Eileen Willshaw, Chester City Conservation Department)
05.03.92: Recent Archaeological Work in Cheshire (Adrian Tindall, Cheshire County Archaeologist)
26.03.92: The English Civil War and the Landscape in the North West (Dr Peter Gaunt, Chester College)
12.11.92: Woodland Landscapes and Dispersed Settlements in the Medieval West Midlands (Professor Christopher Dyer, University of Birmingham)
10.12.92: The Wat’s Dyke Project (Margaret Worthington, University of Manchester)

18.01.91: The Work of John Douglas (Dr Peter Howell, Chairman, The Victorian Society)
21.02.91: Place-Names in the Landscape (Dr Margaret Gelling, President, English Place-Name Society)
21.03.91: Structural Refinements of Gothic Churches (Oliver Bott, Cheshire County Conservation Officer)
07.11.91: The Manchester Ship Canal (Michael Bailey, Trustee of the Greater Manchester Museum of Science and Industry)

25.01.90: From Prehistoric to Modern Times: A Field Survey of Stanton Moor, Derbyshire (Paul Everson, Royal Commission for Historical Monuments)
22.02.90: A Tale of Two Cities: The Buildings of Medieval York and Chester (Jane Grenville, Council for British Archaeology [Northern])
22.03.90: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (Michael Bailey, Trustee of the Greater Manchester Museum of Science and Industry)
15.11.90: The Development of Shrewsbury (Angus MacInnes, University of Keele)
13.12.90: The Liverpool Dockscape (Adrian Jarvis, Merseyside Maritime Museum)

09.02.89: Lord Tollemache, Anthony Salvin and the Building of Peckforton Castle (R. Durdey, CLSH founder member)
16.03.89: Forest Laws and the Landscape (Paul Booth, University of Liverpool)
05.10.89: (i) The Cheshire Special Landscapes Project (Alan Bowring, Project Officer); (ii) Mapping the Open Fields of West Cheshire: a further report on the work of the Society’s study group (Dr Graeme White, President, CSLH)
12.10.89: The Anglo Saxon Landscape (Dr Della Hooke, University of Birmingham)
16.11.89: Agricultural Change in 19th Century Cheshire (Tony Phillips, University of Keele)

28.01.88 Cloisters and Granges: The Monastic Influence on the Landscape, 1066-1540 (Dr Ann Dawtry, Chester College)
18.02.88 Buildings in the Landscape: The Survey of Listed Buildings in Cheshire, 1974-87 (Oliver Bott, Cheshire County Conservation Officer)
17.03.88: Aspects of Townscape: Liverpool (Dr Quentin Hughes, Reader in Architecture, University of Liverpool)
27.09.88: (following AGM) (i) The Resources of Chester City Record Office (Miss J. Forster, Assistant Archivist); (ii) Mapping the Open Fields of West Cheshire: a report on the work to date of the Society’s study group (Dr Graeme White, President, CSLH)
10.11.88: Iron Age Hillforts in Clwyd (John Manley, County Archaeologist for Clwyd)
08.12.88: The Making of the English Village (Dr Brian Roberts, University of Durham)

05.02.87: Aerial Photography as a Source for Landscape History in Cheshire (Rhys Williams, former Cheshire County Archaeologist)
12.03.87: Farmhouses and Farm Buildings of Cheshire (Dr Ronald Brunskill, Reader in Architecture, University of Manchester)
24.09.87: (following AGM) The Victoria History of Cheshire (Dr Alan Thacker, editor of VCH, Cheshire)
19.11.87: Medieval Settlement and Farming, with particular reference to Shropshire (Trevor Rowley, University of Oxford)

06.11.86: The Archaeology of Cheshire Gardens c.1300 to late 19th century (Richard Turner, Cheshire County Archaeologist)