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.