Surrey Industrial History Group

In 1914 the British aeroplane industry was in its infancy, as was the flying arm of Britain's armed forces. When World War One began in July the British went to France with only a handful of primitive aeroplanes, but by 1918 the Royal Flying Corps was the biggest and most capable air force in the world with many thousands of aircraft in service.  This talk will be given by Richard Marks, Freelance professional historian.

Musings of a miner – A glimpse of life in County Durham a century ago

The life and times of my great grandfather, as gleaned from his notebooks, family photos and a bit of family history research.

A talk by Michelle Howes - social historian

Any member of SIHG or SyAS who would like to receive details about joining one or all of these meetings and don't already  get details sent to them should send their name and e-mail address to :-  meetings@sihg.org.uk

Water is essential for human existence and this talk  will outline how we have obtained drinking water and dealt with the problems of waste water since the earliest of times to modern times. These issues became more urgent with the increase of urban living and particular problems faced by London are used as an illstration. This talk will be given by Doug Irvine, Civil Engineer.  

The River Wandle has long been an attraction to individuals and their families. Some have come to work and have  their business on the banks of the river others have decided to live by the river. This talk tells the story of some famous names and those lesser known people who have lived and worked in the Wandle Valley.  This talk will be given by Mick Taylor, Volunteer/General Manager at the Wandle Industrial Museum.

This illustrated talk looks at the Home Front in Surrey during the Second World War and includes defensive positions, munitions production, the Home Guard and Canadian troops, air raids and aircraft crashes, Civil Defence, the Women's Land Army and transport.  The talk will be given by David Rose, Local historian and writer.

The talk looks at the massive construction programme needed to build what was then the world's largest free standing reservoir and its supporting infrastructure, as well as the village that was partially destroyed to make way for it, and its Royal opening. Along the way we look at the surprising use to which it was put in the second world war. This talk will be given by Nick Pollard, Curator of Spelthorne Museum in Staines.

Ships like HMS Victory remained in active service for more than 50 years. Battleship development was so rapid post HMS Warrior most battleships were obsolete after only ten years and few had a service life of more than seventeen years. This talk will be given by Bob Bryson, Chairman SIHG.

Any member of SIHG or SyAS who would like to receive details about joining one or all of these meetings, and don't already get details sent to them, should send their name and e-mail address to:-  meetings@sihg.org.uk

The talk covers the complete history from the initial ideas in 1827, installation in 1833, and then the evolving method of control. One method of control was due to an electronic system that I designed to take the time from the NPL controlled low frequency time service, MSF. This worked for a number of years until the Observatory was struck by lightning, with time now derived from GPS.  This talk will be given by Doug Bateman, Antiquarian Horological Society

The talk covers the history of motoring in general and UK vehicle registration in particular. Based on the book Car Number Classics, all aspects of registration are investigated up to the introduction of the present system in 2001. The talk will be given by Nicholas Young, author of Car Number Classics.

In 1805 the River Wandle was described as the hardest working river for its size in the world. With around 150 mills and a number of different industries this talk covers over 200 years of history. The talk will be given by Mick Taylor, volunteer/general manager Wandle Industrial Museum.