Historical Lecture Series in Londonderry

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This lecture is the first in a series of talks taking place as part of the New Buildings and District Archaeological & Historical Society's Calendar of events 2008/2009.

Venue: Newbuildings Community Centre, Newbuildings, Londonderry. Time: 7.30 pm on the 3rd Wed of each month except December. Contact:  Hon Sec,  R J Brennan Email: rjbrennan@btinternet.com

November 19^th: The Derry Megaliths. Barry Hartwell.

Summary: Megalithic tombs of the Neolithic. Neolithic tombs are amongst the oldest and most durable remains of the Irish landscape. This talk shows how to identify and interpret them, looks at some local examples and shows how attitudes to death were as varied 5000 years ago as they are today.

December 10^th: Deidre Doherty. Deirdre will outline the nature of the ‘Valuing Heritage by Valuing Memories Project' which is a three-year project aimed at preserving living heritage and lived experience. It will include a brief reminiscence taster-session.

January 21^st: AGM. Back home to Donagheady. Amanda Buchanan and Brendan Houston.

Reflecting on 20+years in the History of Donagheady Parish through recorded oral and pictorial reminiscences.

February 18^th: Newfoundland - Oldest Colony and Newest Province. Jim Foster.

Known as ‘England's Oldest Colony and Canada's newest Province', the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is our closest neighbour on the North American Continent. For centuries its economy was dominated by the famous Grand Banks cod fishery, pursued by hardy people for the West of England and the South-East of Ireland who settled in a multitude of tiny fishing communities studded along the forbidding coastline.

Between 1968 and 1970 Jim Foster worked in the Planning Office of the Provincial Government in St Johns during which time he travelled extensively through the province at a time when traditional patterns of life were changing in one of the least known but more distinctive and fascinating regions of Canada. He will describe one of the places and people he saw through the photographic slides he took at the time.

March 18^th: Visit to the Grey's Printing Press, Strabane (Cost £4.20pp; Society pays for members).

April 15^th: Transition in the Odd Corner of England. Paul Haslam.

Paul will use his study of a family history as an illustration and model of the building of a local history.

May 20^th: Metal-detecting: What does it have to offer to Archaeological Research? Felim O'Neill

June 6^th: Outing to Wellbrook Beetling Mill, Cookstown and the Argory at Moy, Dungannon (Victorian House).