St Helens Historical Society

Saturday, 11 March 2023

St Helens Heritage Trail : Friends Meeting House - plaque unveiling, 18/03/2023(Sat)

St Helens Friends Meeting House has hosted our meetings for many years and the people therre have always made us feel very welcome. The Friends Meeting House is itself a very historic building as we can see from this link:

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101075910-st-helens-quaker-meeting-house-town-centre-ward#.ZAspLnbP2Uk

and we doubt that there would be too many who would query the council's decision to include it on the Town Centre leg of the St Helens Heritage Trail:

https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/article/6996/St-Helens-rich-history-recognised-through-heritage-plaque-trail

The most recent plaque to be unveiled was the one at the Anglican Parish Church. This unveiling took place in December 2022 and was reported in the St Helens Star as follows:

https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/23194119.st-helens-parish-church-becomes-third-site-heritage-trail-plaque/

At 12 noon on Saturday 18 March, the plaque at the Friends Meeting House will be unveiled. The Meeting House will be open afterwards for people to have a look around and members of Historical Society will be in attendance to hand out leaflets and answer questions. Light refreshments will be available and - weather permitting - people will be able to sit in the garden at the back also.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Monday, 6 February 2023

March 2023 and April 2023 talks: changes to published schedule

Our originally scheduled speaker, Peter Keen, is unwell and unable to deliver his planned talks in March and April about the Runcorn Locks; we are sure that all our readers will join us in wishing him the speediest and fullest of recoveries. We are very grateful that we have found replacement speakers as follows:

Monday 20 March 2023: "The Age of Respectability" - a survey of attitudes and behaviours from the late 19th century. To be given by Peter Harvey.

Monday 17 April 2023: "Mersey Bridges from Widnes to Warburton". To be given by Maurice Handley.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Next meeting: Monday 20 February 2023

We are delighted to welcome the St Helens RLFC historian Alex Service to give our talk this month, a talk entitled:

"Growing Up with Rugby League"

Mr Service has been a rugby league historian for many, many years and there are probably few better qualified than he is to deliver this sort of talk. Examples of Mr Service's writing for the St Helens Star can be found here:

https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/author/profile/36188.Alex_Service/

while here are examples of some of the books he's had published over the years:

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/author/alex-service

The talk will take place at the Friends Meeting House (George Street, WA10 1BU) and doors will open at 7:00pm ahead of the start of the talk at 7:30pm. There is very limited parking at the Meeting House itself, but the adjacent NCP (between the Meeting House and the Raven) offers parking with rates of £0.95 for up to two hours and £2.95 for two to three hours.

We can't wait!

Talks are free for members and there is a charge of £3.00 for visitors. If you haven't already joined, why not consider becoming a member of St Helens Historical Society? It is only £12 for a yearly membership. To find out more, please drop us a line:

Friday, 13 January 2023

Next meeting: Monday 16 January 2023

We are keeping things in-house this month as with assistance from some members of St Helens Historical Society, Ken Robinson will give a talk entitled:

"My Uncle's Liverpool"

We on the social media team have seen the photographs accompanying the talk and it looks like a most intriguing story is to be told about our neighbouring city, a story full of vivid personal anecdotes.

The talk will take place at the Friends Meeting House (George Street, WA10 1BU) and doors will open at 7:00pm ahead of the start of the talk at 7:30pm. There is very limited parking at the Meeting House itself, but the adjacent NCP (between the Meeting House and the Raven) offers parking with rates of £0.95 for up to two hours and £2.95 for two to three hours.

Friday, 9 December 2022

Next Meeting: Monday 12 December 2022

We are delighted to welcome a long-standing well-respected friend of St Helens Historical Society on Monday, Professor Charles Esdaille, to give a talk entitled

"The War in Ukraine"

where Professor Esdaille's knowledge, understanding and perspective as a military historian promises to provide the sort of specialist commentary this topic so desperately needs.

Professor Esdaille is an academic associated with the University of Liverpool. To find out a bit more about him and his work, please follow this link:

https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/staff/charles-esdaile/

The talk will take place at the Friends Meeting House (George Street, WA10 1BU) and doors will open at 7:00pm ahead of the start of the talk at 7:30pm. There is very limited parking at the Meeting House itself, but the adjacent NCP (between the Meeting House and the Raven) offers parking with rates of £0.95 for up to two hours and £2.95 for two to three hours.

Friday, 18 November 2022

Next meeting: Monday 21 November 2022 - change to scheduled talk

In a change to our published schedule, we will instead be welcoming Mr Allan Moore on Monday to deliver a talk entitled:

"St Helens Railway Tracks and Stations of the Past"

which promises to give a fascinating insight into a major part of out town's heritage.

Mr Moore has long been active in local railway research and an example of his previous work can be found here:

https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/2202632.flashback-to-the-old-railway-line/

The talk will take place at the Friends Meeting House (George Street, WA10 1BU) and doors will open at 7:00pm ahead of the start of the talk at 7:30pm. There is very limited parking at the Meeting House itself, but the adjacent NCP (between the Meeting House and the Raven) offers parking with rates of £0.95 for up to two hours and £2.95 for two to three hours.

Wednesday, 12 October 2022

Next Meeting: Monday 17 October 2022

After his fascinating Zoom talk in May about lives of chemical/alkali workers in 19th Century St Helens, we're delighted to have HistSoc member Peter Harvey at our in-person October meeting to deliver a talk entitled

"Witches, Nuns and Nurses"

giving details of how women from various Christian traditions have contributed to medical philanthropy and civic culture. The talk will draw on the work of Dr Carmen M Mangion and will apply this work specifically to St Helens.

For more about Dr Mangion, please click here:

https://www.ifrwh.com/carmen-m-mangion

For more about Mr Harvey, please click here:

https://www.sthelenscatenians.co.uk/brother-profiles/brother-peter-harvey/

The talk will take place at the Friends Meeting House (George Street, WA10 1BU) and doors will open at 7:00pm ahead of the start of the talk at 7:30pm. There is very limited parking at the Meeting House itself, but the adjacent NCP (between the Meeting House and the Raven) offers parking with rates of £0.95 for up to two hours and £2.95 for two to three hours.