Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society
Founded 1855

Lectures are normally held at 7.30pm on Thursday evenings at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (please use main entrance from New Walk). All lectures in 2020/21 will be given online unless indicated otherwise.

The AGM is scheduled for Wednesday 25th November 2020 at 7pm and will be held using Zoom. An Agenda has been circulated by email, and invitations to the meeting will be sent to all members by email. Further information will be distributed soon (11/11/20).

Every year the Alan and Joan North Memorial lecture is held in March and covers a topic related to the Roman Republic or Empire. The recently inaugurated John Scarborough Lecture is also held annually, and covers an aspect of the High Medieval in the East Midlands.

Lectures form an important part of the annual programme of activities. Between September and May lectures are held approximately every two or three weeks and consist of a mixture of history and archaeology topics usually on subjects which have local significance. However, on occasions subjects of national and international importance feature in the programme.

Programme for the 2020-21 season.

Alternative arrangements have veen made for our lecture series due to the continuing Coronavirus pandemic. At the time of writing (August 2020), Leicester is still in local lockdown and public lectures are unlikely to be permitted for some time. When restrictions are finally eased, the museum will almost certainly introduce social-distancing measures to ensure the safety of those attending group events. For this reason, we propose to host as many lectures as we can via ‘Zoom’ – an online video-conferencing facility which will be familiar to many, and not to attempt to hold lectures at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (New Walk). This will enable live lectures to be viewed online with a facility for asking questions. Subject to the agreement of individual lecturers, a recording will also be made which can be viewed online subsequently.

Our Lecture Secretary, Yolanda Courtney, has organised an excellent series of lectures for the upcoming season on a wide range of topics. Audience numbers will be capped at 300 for the live streamed lectures, and booking via Eventbrite will be essential. Details (with instructions on how to participate) will be sent out 2-3 weeks before. If un-booked spaces remain available in the final week before the event, we will advertise publicly and hope to attract a wide audience. If you have a personal computer, laptop or even a smart phone, it is relatively straightforward to join a Zoom meeting once you have the meeting number and password.

Whilst we appreciate that online lectures are not ideal, we hope that they will preserve some of the immediacy of a normal live event in a lecture room. The situation will of course be kept under constant review and we thank you for your understanding that maintaining the safety and wellbeing of our audiences must be our prime concern.