This presentation takes a tour of the former Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey. It examines both the history of the site and the development of gunpowder and chemical explosives including nitro-glycerine, guncotton and cordite. It looks at the canals and boats that formed the backbone of the transport system within the site.

A talk which explores how our colourful Christmas traditions and customs came into being and how they are celebrated. The presentation also includes some of the lesser-known folklore including Jesse Trees, Chrismons, Mumming Plays and Wassailing.

About the Speaker

Mark is a freelance artist, designer-silversmith and semi-retired university lecturer who has enjoyed a wide-ranging teaching career. Until the summer of 2009, he was a Principal Lecturer in the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design at London Metropolitan University. He currently lectures part-time at the Goldsmiths’ Centre in London and is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham City University.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Horners. Mark is also a folklorist and has been an active member of the Folklore Society since 1987, speaking regularly at their conferences around the UK. Mark has a particular interest in unusual local customs and rituals and in 2013 he published a book on the folklore and popular customs of the church. Furthermore, he is a pharologist (passionate about lighthouses!) being an active member of the Association of Lighthouse Keepers and a founding member of the World Lighthouse Society.

• Do you know how many millions of pounds of our economy are earned for us by our pollinators?

• Do you know that, in the past, bees were used as ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’?

• Do you know that wine and oil were not the only commodites traded across continents in vast quantities and that honey and beeswax were just as important?

The History of Beekeeping starts in the dawn of the history of mankind, and is still being written.

The talk will be presented by Kate Macnish, supported by Chris Bromwich.

From the outside, Barnes Lodge looked much like any other English country house of Edwardian vintage. Set in a clearing at the top of a steep drive overlooking the valley of the River Gade, a discreet notice read “Private”, and motorists driving past the village of Kings Langley on the A41 were unlikely to give a second thought as they negotiated the bend and the railway arch just after the drive. Villagers drinking in the isolated Eagle pub, two hundred yards from the gate, or at Ye Olde Red Lion, beside the railway arch, would have known that the Lodge had been given over to “War Work” but little else. The War Office knew exactly what it was doing when it requisitioned the Lodge soon after the outbreak of the war.