Programme
Meetings are normally held at the Battle Memorial Hall, generally on the third Thursday of each month at 7.30 pm, but please check the programme as there are a number of exceptions in this anniversary year.
Painting of a BDHS lecture in progress in the Wynne Room by Chris O’Brian © BDHS
2025-26 Anniversary Season
75 Years – Britain Then, Britain Now
Date: Wednesday 10 Sept 2025
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
Charles Moore will discuss the 75 years of British History since the Society was founded in 1950.
The Richard Moore Memorial Lecture to be given by Charles Moore
The Lived Experience of Conquest
Date: 16 Oct 2025
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
The history of the so-called Norman Conquest is not just a story of great battles and events. It is a story of how the events affected thousands of lives. The lecture will explore what we can know about these lives.
Commemoration Lecture to be given by Professor David Bates
Klein Hollandia
Date: 20 Nov 2025
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
Since 2019 the Nautical Archaeology Society, Historic England and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands have been recording and researching, the Klein Hollandia, a historic wreck found by a dive boat skipper off the Sussex coast. Built in 1656 and owned by the Admiralty of Rotterdam and drawn by Willem Van de Velde the Elder, the vessel was involved in all major battles in the Second Anglo-Dutch war before being lost in an engagement in the English Channel in 1672. In his talk, chief investigator Mark Beattie-Edwards from the NAS will cover how the wreck was found, the significance of the amazing assemblage on the seabed and outline the research that has been undertaken so far into the life and loss of the Klein Hollandia.
A Lecture by Mark Beattie Edwards
Members Only : Christmas and Anniversary Event
Date: 11 Dec 2025
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
A Christmas event, open to members only, to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Society in 1950
The La Mora Project
Date: 15 Jan 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
Christina Greene will provide an update on the La Mora project, which commemorates the 1000th anniversary of William the Conqueror’s birth. As part of the project, a replica of the La Mora (the flagship that brought him to England) is being constructed in France using traditional methods. Christina will also be talking about her contribution to the project, the Mora Tapestry, which is involving not only Battle residents but visitors as well.
A Lecture by Christina Greene
Portrait of a Lady : The Duchess of Cleveland at Battle Abbey
Date: 20 Feb 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
Battle Abbey is most popularly associated with the Battle of Hastings but this English Heritage site has a rich history of stories and characters beyond 1066 – and our talk will explore and illustrate one of these. The Duchess of Cleveland, who lived at the Abbey during the late Victorian period (1857-1901), literally dug into its history, she landscaped the gardens and opened the site to visitors. Our talk attempts to go beyond biography to find some broader contextual connections and to make a rounded, critical and dynamic Portrait of a Lady.
A Lecture by Robert Catt and Fiona Stapley
The Stolen Crown : Treachery, Deceit and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty
Date: Wednesday 11 Mar 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor Monarch lay dying at Richmond Palace. Almost with her last breath, she whispered that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. Or so we have been led to believe. However, in her new book, Tracy Borman reveals the shocking truth behind one of history’s best kept secrets. In the months that followed her death, history was literally re-written on the orders of the new Stuart dynasty. Newly discovered documents in the British Library even hint that James plotted to have Elizabeth murdered.
A Lecture by Professor Tracy Borman
Archaeology at Bodiam : Exploring the Landscape and the Bodiam 100 Project
Date: 16 Apr 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
‘Bodiam Dig: the road to 100’ is a three-year project to explore the buried archaeology of this iconic site leading up to the 100th anniversary in 2026 of the site being bequeathed to the National Trust. While the 14th century castle forms the central focus of the site, the wider landscape has been less well explored. In the early days of the Society, some members were involved in exactions at Bodiam and some of their finds are on display at Battle Museum.
A Lecture by Nathalie Cohen
Diaries of a Battle Doctor in the 1940s
Date: 21 May 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
Charlotte Moore will paint a vivid picture of what it was like to be a doctor in 1940’s Battle, based on the diaries of her grandfather.
The Springfield Memorial Lecture to be given by Charlotte Moore
A Sussex Farm in the 1950s
Date: 18 Jun 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
To ‘make hay’ and ‘bring in the harvest’ sound like idyllic pastimes but this talk shows how tough life was on the South Downs during the 1950s. The war was over but the battle was still being fought to feed the nation. The talk includes original cine film.
A Lecture by Ian Everest
Fernando Po – SOE’s Secret Operation Postmaster
Date: Wednesday 8 Jul 2026
Start time: 7:30 PM
End time: 9:30 PM
Many daring raids and secret operations were carried out during WWII by British Commandos and Special Agents and became legendary tales, whilst others remained unsung. ‘Operation Postmaster’ was the clandestine seizure of Axis shipping by SOE operatives in Santa Isabel harbour on the Spanish Island of Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea off the West Coast of Africa on 14 January 1942. The operation was so politically sensitive that it could have been the catalyst to bring Spain into the war on the side of the Germans and went unreported until 50 years after the war’s end. Now the story can be told.
The Robertson Memorial Lecture to be given by Brig. Hugh Willing
2025-26 Lecturers
Charles Moore :
Charles Moore, Lord Moore of Etchingham, is the authorised biographer of Margaret Thatcher: the three volumes are all in print. His single-volume centenary edition of the biography will be published in September by Allen Lane (Penguin). He is the former Editor of the Daily Telegraph and is Chairman of the Spectator. He is a columnist for both publications.
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Professor David Bates :
David Bates, President of the Society, is a renowned historian of Britain and France from the 10th to the 13th century. He has written many books, the most recent being a radical revision of William the Conqueror and is currently working on further innovative approaches to the history of northern Europe. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research.
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Mark Beattie Edwards :
Mark Beattie Edwards is Chief Executive Officer of the Nautical Archaeology Society. He is currently the licensee of the Normans Bay Wreck and the Unknown Wreck off Eastbourne, now identified as the Klein Hollandia. He serves on a number of committees and has also represented the Nautical Archaeology Society as an accredited NGO at meetings of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for UNESCO.
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Christina Greene :
Christina Greene has a wide range of interest and talents. In recent years, she has combined her interest in creative sewing and embroidery with local history and, with the support of volunteers of all ages, produced the Battle Tapestry, now housed in St Mary’s Church. As part of the La Mora Project she is working on a new tapestry. Come and find out more!
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Robert Catt and Fiona Stapley :
Robert and Fiona both volunteer at Battle Abbey. They live locally and both are interested in history – and, particularly, local history.
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Professor Tracy Borman :
Tracy Borman is an author of many history books and has worked extensively on television of radio and television as well as contributing regularly to history magazines, notably BBC History. She has worked for a range of heritage organisations: currently, she is joint-curator of Historic Royal Palaces and Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust. She was nominated Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln in 2024. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
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Nathalie Cohen :
Nathalie Cohen works for the National Trust as the regional Archaeologist for properties in Greater London, Kent, and East & West Sussex. She worked for over 15 years at the Museum of London Archaeology Service as the Unit’s Archivist, as a field archaeologist on excavations, and as a specialist in community engagement, inter-tidal zone archaeology and built heritage on sites across Greater London, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Somerset, Devon and Surrey. She led the Thames Discovery Programme for ten years and was the Cathedral Archaeologist at Southwark Cathedral for five years.
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Charlotte Moore :
Charlotte Moore is an author, teacher and lecturer. Her book, Hancox: A House and a Family, uses archive material to reveal the domestic and social history of the place where she grew up, and where she still lives with her partner and her sons.
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Ian Everest :
Ian Everest was brought up on a farm on the South Downs and after attending Agricultural College in the late 1960’s, he worked in the agricultural sector with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. His growing interest in family and military history led to a career change when he was appointed manager of Newhaven Fort, which he prepared for public opening and subsequently managed for 15 years. On his retirement, he has a developed a number of talking relating to farming history, Sussex local history, military and social history.
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Brig. Hugh Willing :
Hugh Willing lectures on British Military and Colonial History. He has travelled widely in Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, Arabia and the Far East both in a military and private capacity. He was a professional soldier for 36 years before retiring in 2007: he served in the Royal Green Jackets and the 2nd KEO Gurkha Rifles in many parts of the world. His final posting was in Oman as the Defence Attache at the British Embassy for 4 years.
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