Over the last few weeks I have been hither and yon, speaking at a variety of venues and having the opportunity to learn at the same time. Firstly, the annual conference for the Society for One-place Studies. This was held in Manchester. I end up in Manchester more often than I’d like. Please don’t take this personally Manchester, you are bigger than a very small market town – too big. The Friday afternoon was to be spent on a guided tour of Manchester’s religious heritage. To begin with we did get a tad lost leaving the car park. Said car park cost more than I had earned that week but hey. The instructions were to ‘meet under the map’ at Manchester Victoria station. Map? What map? We wandered high, we wandered low, scanning the concourse for something that resembled a map. We asked a handy charity promoter who claimed he’d been there all week but had no knowledge of a map. Just as we were wondering if we were even at the right station we spotted the map. Clearly we weren’t wandering high enough. The map is set in tiles by the entrance and is of seriously impressive proportions. In our defence it is considerably above the eye-line but 0/10 for observation skills. Considering that this was Manchester and the last weekend in October, the weather was uncharacteristically kind. It didn’t rain and there was even a hint of sunshine. The tour itself was excellent and it was a pleasure to learn something about the city from an expert. This just highlights how much you miss just wandering around on your own (maps for example).

The next day was the non-conformity themed conference, with several thought-provoking presentations. Owen Roberts from Methodist Heritage did us proud, explaining the various resources they and their family of websites can offer. We heard about the impact of non-conformity on World-war 1 conscription and about Huguenot resources. The round-table discussion was very valuable and a chance to learn about the latest mapping opportunities. I finished off the day with my presentation about the impact of non-conformity on communities and their inhabitants. As a speaker, there are always talks you particularly like giving and others that, when they are requested, make you wish that you had taken them off the list. This non-conformity one is new for this year and when I was first asked to do it I wondered if I could really make something of it. At first I couldn’t. Then I realised that I didn’t need to talk about sources for non-conformist research at all. Light bulb moment! Shove all that boring stuff in a handout the size of War and Peace (abridged version) and talk about what really interests me: people. So this is a talk about how having options for worship makes a difference to people and places. At the moment I am quite liking this one.

Gratuitous picture from the early C20th – just because I can!

This was also my last conference as chair of the society. I really needed to step back from a few things to make time to do the other things properly. I felt that it was time to let someone else take the helm. I shall still be very much involved in one-place studies, an area of research that I am committed  to and I wish the new committee well. Next on the one-place agenda is a presentation of my online Discovering Your British Family and Local Community in the early 20th Century course for Pharos tutoring. This starts in January. Put it on your Christmas list why don’t you?

Home from Manchester to some more local presentations, mostly in Mistress Agnes mode. Then it was down to the soft south of the county for a Guild of One-Name Studies’ seminar about west country migration. We were rather cosily crammed into a conveniently located venue but this was another excellent day, with a programme of experts on various aspects of the subject. I always enjoy being part of a conference or seminar as this has the bonus value of being able to learn from others. What was particularly pleasing about this day, was the way in which our presentations dovetailed together, without any prior consultation. My contribution was about motivations for migration from north Devon. This is an old favourite and I have given it many times, although I vary the case studies.

Just four more talks to give before the Christmas break then, after that, it will be the mayhem of 2018 with 30 events booked already. To say nothing of Daisy. There are some very exciting Daisy developments, which I hope to reveal very soon. She also has some more finished chapters, which will probably be as much of a relief to Blue Poppy Publishing as it is to me. This week has seen me describe Victorian privvies, research C19th Methodist Sunday School songs and wallow in the horrors of a WW1 trench. Writing is never dull!