Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society
Founded 1855

Lectures held in person are normally held at 7.30pm on Thursday evenings at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (please use main entrance from New Walk). Lectures given online in 2021/22 will be delivered using Zoom, with prior booking using Eventbrite required.

The AGM is scheduled for Wednesday 24th November 2021 at 7pm. A decision on whether the meeting will be held virtually on in person will be made in due course.

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 2021-22 season.

Alternative arrangements continue to be made on a lecture by lecture basis due to the continuing Coronavirus pandemic. At the time of writing (August 2021), Leicester is no longer in lockdown. Although public lectures are now permitted with restrictions in place, the first lecture of the year, will be given online. Information relating to future events will be emailed to members, and updated on these website pages.

We will continue to make as many lectures as possible available digitally whether live, or a few days after the lecture was given, as previous lectures have been well attended locally, nationally and internationally.

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.