I've has another request for my Canals talk, necessitating yet another variant, this time for the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation.

The Strawberry Island Boat Club want the talk in May, having heard about it via the South Yorkshire Boat Club who I spoke to last September.

I now have as many variants of this talk as I do for Remembrance:

A general version, a Yorkshire one, one for Bradford, another for Wiltshire and one for Barnsley - plus the Aire and Calder and the Don Navigation versions.

                      Narrowboat 'Friendship'

Around the World with Ten Famous Monuments or Buildings has been this year's most popular talk by far and has been very well received by a variety of audiences.

This year has also brought me a number of new clients, including the Darfield Wesley Companionship Group;  Honley Civic Society; Honeybunch Women's Club and the Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire Family History Society, in addition to my regular and much valued clients such as Thornton Antiquarian Society; the Howden and Pontefract Probus groups and the Castleford Historical Society.

SOME STATISTICS

While my American Tour Group talk (see my previous post) is something of a one-off my schedule of talks to my more general clients, both old and new, comprises some 100 talks to 84 different groups in 2026.

I now have 18 different talks to offer my clients and much to my surprise the most popular talk is a tie between my two newest talks, A Tale of Two Houses and Four Famous Murders.

Hardwick Hall

 The ever popular Gunpowder Plot, Highwaymen and Model Villages (probably my all-time 'best seller') take joint second place.

The History of the English Canals continues to be a popular choice alongside the newer talk, Around the World with Ten Famous Monuments and Buildings.

 STATELY HOMES and AMERICANS

Much to my surprise I've been asked to again give a talk  to the American tour group, see my post of 12th of June 2025.

This time, after my talk, they will be visiting Nostel Priory and the York Treasurer's House so I've put together an introductory talk for both venues.

Nostel Priory

It's a little shorter in time to my usual talks, about 35 rather than 50 minutes, but that seems to be more what they want.

It's unlikely to be of much use in future, unless I'm asked to repeat the talk for the same group, presumably next year. We shall see, but it's a pleasant challenge to talk English history to Americans.

 CANAL TALKS

The Canals talk is another one with variations to suit the locality of the audience.

The most used one is a Yorkshire version, because most of my talks are in the county, and as well as giving an historical perspective on the history of the canal system it tells the story of the three famous cross - Pennine canals; the Huddersfield Narrow; the Rochdale and the Leeds and Liverpool canal.

Bridge carrying the B6149 over the now  in-filled Bradford canal

However, I've been asked to give the talk in three areas of Bradford  -  Cullingworth, Thornton and Queensbury, so have felt obliged to do a variation of the basic Yorkshire talk to include the now closed Bradford Canal.

 GUNPOWDER and REMEMBRANCE

October and November usually attract two topical talks, The Gunpowder Plot for events surrounding the 5th of November and Remembrance, relating to War Memorials established at the end of World War I, and associated with Armistice Day the 11th of November.

I have eight Gunpowder Plot talks in the two months, and three for Remembrance.

The unique factor of the Remembrance talks is that each one has to be individualised to tell the story of the War Memorial in the town or village where the talk is being held.

The Thorner War Memorial

The success or otherwise of these is dependent on the information that is still available to go with photographs of the memorial itself, but it is one of my great pleasures to research their foundation and perhaps add to the community's knowledge of their precious memorial.

 The talk at Thorner will be particularly relevant as it is being held on the anniversary of Armistice Day itself, the 11th of November and will follow a church service to which I an honoured to have been invited.

 ANOTHER SPECIAL!

I posted on 2nd May about preparing a special, individual version of my canals talk for a local boat club.

By a strange co-incidence I've now been asked to give the same talk to a group in Wiltshire, not in person of course but via Zoom.

This has entailed yet another 'special' version to include the canal local to their area, in this case the Kennet & Avon Canal and the famous Caen Hill lock flight.

I have another version in the pipeline, this time for the Friends of Pudsey Roller.

http://www.pudsey-roller.co.uk

Their special interest is the steam roller but steam never really caught on as a canal boat propulsion method although I've managed to include at least one steam-powered boat in the talk.

Steam narrowboat 'President' with butty

LATEST NEWS

Another new client for my talks is the Oulton Manor Care Home who have booked me to do a whole series of talks, starting last month with one a month planned up to the end of the year.

So far we've done Crime and Punishment and Wonderful Things, with Model Villages and the Gunpowder Plot in the pipe -line.

It is a truly beautiful venue and it's a pleasure talking to the guests there.

August and September are  proving to be a very busy time with no less than eighteen talks booked over the two months, plus I'm also going to repeat my guided walk around Pontefract on the 20th as part of the Pontefract Civic Society's Heritage Weekend.