Histories for the Millennium Conference

Friday 23 & Saturday 24 June 2000
Conference Suite, Public Record Office, Kew

The PRO, in association with the Family and Community Historical Research Society, presents a millennium conference that provides two days of community, local and social history!

A wide range of speakers are lined up for the ‘Histories for the Millennium’ (HFM) conference, organised in conjunction with FACHRS, to be held at the Public Record Office on 24-25 June. The provisional programme includes an overview by co-ordinator John McKay and a special talk by Stan Newens, as well as 50-minute presentations on each of the five HFM options: the years 1851, the 1930s &1953; a special event in the community; and the changing local landscape. On the first day this will include the trial of Kenyatta in 1953, the 1931 battle against the means test in Salford and parliamentary enclosure in Harrow; the second day offers descriptions of the 1953 North Sea surge effects on the Essex coastal community, 1930s recollections of the railway town of Swindon and a study of Southwell workhouse, among others.

Friday 23 June 2000  Chairman: Stella Colwell

9.30-10.00

Registration and coffee

10.00-10.10

Welcome to the PRO

Elizabeth Hallam-Smith

10.10-10.30

Background to the Histories for the Millennium Project

John McKay

10.30-11.20

Option 1: 1953 ‘The trial of Kenyatta - passion and bias in history’

Marion Wallace

11.20-11.40

Coffee

11.40-12.30

Option 2: The 1930s ‘The road to Bexley Square: battling against the means test in Salford, 1931’

Sarah Price

12.30-1.30

Buffet lunch

1.30-2.20

Option 3: 1851 ‘Two schools of thought: “linger and die” or “save and prosper”’

Ann Morton

2.20-3.10

Option 4: A special event in your community ‘The rise and fall of Thomas Armstrong (unmasking the smuggler king of Cullercoats)

Nick Barratt

3.10-3.30

Tea

3.30-4.20

Option 5: Some feature of the changing local landscape ‘Closing the countryside - Parliamentary Enclosure in Harrow, Middlesex, 1790-1820’

Paul Carter

4.20-4.45

Review of the day and any questions

Saturday 24 June,

Chairmen: John McKay, Stan Newens

9.30-10.00

Registration and coffee

10.00-10.10

Welcome to the PRO

10.10-10.30

Histories for the Millennium, a personal experience

Stan Newens

10.30-11.20

Option 1: 1953 ‘Terror in the night! The 1953 North Sea Surge and its effects on the Essex coastal community’

Michael Holland

11.20-11.40

Coffee

11.40-12.30

Option 2: The 1930s ‘Toeing the line: Recollections of growing up in a railway town in the 1930s (Swindon)’

Christine Phillips

12.30-1.30

Buffet lunch

1.30-2.20

Option 3: 1851 ‘Ironbridge and its neighbourhood at the time of the 1851 census’

Philip Ryder

2.20-3.10

Option 4: A special event in your community ‘The impact of World War II on Hampstead Garden Suburb’

Michael Holton

3.10-3.30

Tea

3.30-4.20

Option 5: Some feature of the changing local landscape ‘People, pamphlets and the poor: collecting evidence on the Workhouse,   Southwell, a local example of a national phenomenon’

Susanna Smith

4.20-4.45

Review of the day and any questions