The Friends of Chelmsford Museums

Future Events

Spring Talks 2026 

The talks will take place at the Museum. Refreshments will be served from 1.30 p.m. until the talk commences at 2.00 p.m., finishing at approximately 3.00 p.m.

Monday 12th January   A DEEP HISTORY IN WALLS by Ian and Ros Mercer.

Ian, a retired geologist and gemmologist, takes a close look at the walls of St. Mary’s Broomfield and provides an intriguing insight into the links between ‘gravel’ and human history and geology.  There is much gravel in Essex.  Why is it here and what part does it play in the story of church materials?  Ian’s degree in geology and x-ray crystallography at Birkbeck, his work with the Geological Survey and his Fellowship of the Gemmological Associations help provide the answers.

Monday 9th February   A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: A HISTORY OF SURNAMES by Julian Whybra.

Julian’s talk provides a fascinating study of the meaning of our names.  Surnames, now meaning an inherited family name, originally it denoted simply an additional name, arose from 10th to 15th centuries and provided a key to where our ancestors came from, their trade, their appearance and sometimes even their name.  It can even be used to trace your family’s origins.  I will ask one or two of those attending the talk if I can give their name to a speaker some days before the talk so that he can do some research into them.  He may tell us too the origin of his surname!

MONDAY 16TH MARCH   BRAINTREE’S ROMAN DOCTOR by Richard Bale.

Richard read Roman History and Archaeology at Nottingham University and has spent fifteen years as a volunteer digging Roman sites in Kent, Essex and London.  He is the Rayne Heritage Advisor and is a member of The Roman Society and The Association for Roman Archaeology.  In 1983 an engraved Roman gemstone depicting Asklepios (the Greek God of Medicine) was discovered by Brain Valley Archaeological Society.  This talk highlights the uniqueness of the find in Roman Britain and explores Roman medicine, identifying some known doctors who might have used it as their personal seal.

The cost is £7.00 for members, (£20.00 for all three talks), and £9.00 for non-members, (£25.00 for all three talks). To download a flyer/booking form, please click here.

If it is more convenient for you to use Microsoft Word please click here.

Please note that the flyer has fillable fields in the booking section. This means that you can fill the indicated empty spaces on your computer with the requested information without affecting anything else on the form. Then the completed form can be saved and emailed back to David Jones (david_jones@btinternet.com). This will be helpful for members who pay on line by credit transfer to the Friends’ bank account.

 

Back to Top