Meeting

Our speaker Dr Julia Elton, an engineering historian and honorary member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers. John Smeaton is widely regarded as the founder of the British civil engineering profession. His career included pioneering work on lighthouses (most notably the third Eddystone lighthouse), canals, harbours and bridges.   There is no charge to…

Speaker: Nicholas Weedon

Part 1: Before World War 1 Colin Bird will give us the first of his talks about how the railways impacted the Bracknell Forest area. Non-members are welcome for a small fee of £3 to cover hot drink and biscuits.

Dr John Tanner asks how England will choose to remember its coal mining heritage. Once the demand for domestic coal started to fall in the 1950s the number of pits declined sharply. Nevertheless, at the start of the 1980s the National Coal Board still employed some 250,000 workers, but the UK has now moved away…