Mike Richards, who was due to speak to us on October 9th, is now sadly unavailable.  His place will be taken by Jenny Bennett, who will be explaining how the River Exe has changed over time - with reference to geological,  archeaological and historical evidence.

In addition the December 18th slot has now been filled.  The event on that day will be a further talk by John Davidson.  This time he will talk about Exeter at Christmastide, presenting a selection of less familiar stories from Exeter's past.

More details have been posted within the Autumn programme under the "Talks" tab on this website.

The following changes have been made to the programme for the period to the end of the year:
​
Wednesday 11 October:  PC Rhys Thomas is the confirmed speaker on Police Dogs

Wednesday 1 November: Brian Fernley will speak on Destination Utah
​(in place of Dr Martin Grossel who is undergoing hospital treatment then)

Wednesday 13 December – Musicians from Exeter School should be coming to do another programme of seasonal music

The talk due to be given by David Brandreth on 19 July 2023, "Jane Austen's Purse - History of Coins from the Restoration to the Great Recoinage of 1817" - cannot now be given on that date.  This talk has been rescheduled and will now be given on 25th October 2023.

The talk to be given on 19 July will instead be given by George Hislop and is titled “Lifeboats”. George's talk will cover the whole range of RNLI activity, from history to crew training, the various boats, lifeguards, some rescue stories, and something on their overseas work.

The speaker due to present to us on October 26th, Mike Richards, has had to postpone his talk "A History of Exeter Hospitals", for personal reasons.   Instead we will hear a talk by Geoff Pettinger  entitled "A romp through a lifetime of domestic appliances".

​Mike hopes to be able to give his talk in early 2023.

The speaker originally booked to visit us on October 5th has had to withdraw at short notice. 

Fortunately our speaker secretary, John Davidson, is able to present in her stead.  His talk is titled The River Exe floods from 1286 to the present day."

The talk on Wednesday, 6 July, was due to be about Exeter’s Mediaeval Exe Bridge and was to be given by Bill Ford. Unfortunately Bill will be unable to give the talk on this day but we hope to be able to arrange for it to be given later in the year.

We are grateful for our Chairman, Geoff Pettinger, for volunteering to give a talk next Wednesday, 6 July. The subject of Geoff's talk will be "The Silk Road" and he will describe the development of trade between China and Europe from 130 BC and the consequences arising from this, such as the introduction of silk, paper and gunpowder, and the rise and fall of the great trading cities like Samarkand.

The speakers kindly supplied a couple of photos they had taken just prior to the start of the meeting on 26th January.  Sharing those photos seemed worthwhile along with a short report.   

The National Coastwatch Institution is, I think, not well known.   In part this could be because it is a relatively new body, being formed as a charity only in 1994.  Like me you might have thought that coastal safety was adequately covered by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the RNLI.  However, after the Government of the day decreed the retrenchment of the Coastguard, such that only a very small number of coastal stations remained in operation, there was a fatal marine incident off Cornwall, which, had it been noticed earlier, might have saved the 2 lives lost.  By 1994 this tragedy had resulted  in the creation of something to fill the gap in physical observations - the National Coastwatch Institution.

It is self funded - each station is responsible for finding its own running costs - and the charity receives no money from central Government.  Today there are 57 stations dotted around the English and Welsh coasts.  Each is manned entirely by volunteers who, after thorough training, maintain a watch from each station during daylight hours throughout the year.

The Exmouth station, which occupies the building that used to be manned by the coastguard, is the second busiest in the country and costs some £6000 to run each year.

Our hard-working Speaker Secretary, John Davidson , has now managed to fill the outstanding date in our pre-Christmas talks programme, December 15th.

The date will be filled by David Pugsley, Professor of Law, who will tell the story of the famous duel at Haldon Racecourse between the hero of the 1832 Exeter Cholera Outbreak, Dr Peter Hennis and Judge Sir John William Jeffcott.

​David Pugsley was born in Tiverton. He was a European civil servant in
Strasbourg for 3 years and taught law for 40 years in the universities of
Southampton, Johannesburg, Bari and Exeter. Since 1993 he has been the
Hon Archivist of the Western Circuit. He has a special interest in causes
célèbres in the West Country in the 19th century.