The Wallingford Historical & Archaeological Society - TWHAS

22/09/2026

October 14 (Weds): - Dr Garry Elliott (Wallingford Museum & TWHAS); "Shops and shopping in Victorian Wallingford"
Garry Elliott has chaired the TWHAS Research Group for the past 2 years.
Why did a young people like 15 year-old Edith Cole leave her home in Gloucestershire in 1880 to work long hours and live in the attic at Pettits?
Garry looks at the changes in shops and shopping during the 19th century and explores how these can be seen in Wallingford, and what this meant for the town, the shoppers, the shops, and the people like Edith working in them.

12/07/2026

September 9 (Weds) - Simon Townley (editor, Victoria County History of Oxfordshire): “South Oxfordshire Chilterns, with special reference to Crowmarsh Gifford and Newnham Murren”

13/06/2026

NEXT TALK
July 8 (Weds) – Charles Boundy: “Before the Conquest – Wessex versus the Vikings – the wider picture”
Charles has a legal background, including a period as a Legal Director for a major publishing group. He is author of ‘Ice to Athelstan – The Emergence of England’ (pub. Nov 24) and ‘Conquest to Charter – The Resilience of England 940 to 1272’ (due out June 2026). Charles has been giving talks about the various periods covered, including (by zoom) to the national U3A audience which have built up a considerable following.
Charles’s talk will fill in some of the gaps between the reigns of King Alfred and Edward the Confessor, including Viking inroads, the role of Wessex as the ‘Last Kingdom’, and the Vikings in Dublin, York and Normandy through to the Danish Conquest under Sweyn and C**t. It will be an overview of events that were later to lead to the Norman Conquest of 1066.

24/05/2026

June 10 (Weds) – Joe Trevorrow: “Drawings in the Jungle - the wonders of Makunaimá Cave"
Deep in the Pakaraima Mountains of Guyana there are stories of caves full of mysterious drawings unknown to only the indigenous Patamona of the Village of Kopinang. In 2025 an expedition led by Patamona guides investigated these stories. What the expedition found was one of the most significant archaeological sites in Guyana and something no one expected.

04/05/2026

19/04/2026

May 13 (Weds) - – Ben Ford (Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology): “Reflections on recent archaeological discoveries in Oxford”

Over the last 15 years Ben has principally focused on excavations in Oxford; his project at the Westgate won British Archaeology's 2016 Project of the Year.

Recent excavations by Oxford Archaeology at Oriel and Hertford Colleges in central Oxford will be discussed, showing how their results shed new light on the form of the earliest Anglo-Saxon burh defences. The main focus of the talk will be on very recent excavations at Old Buildings Quad, Hertford College, with evidence about Catte Street as a centre of medieval book production.