We run an annual series of in-person talks on a range of local history topics. Talks are held at Cley Village Hall, unless otherwise stated. Attendance is currently £3 for members, £6 for non-members.
Active members and mailing list recipients will receive an email reminder ahead of each event.
Attendees should check this page and membership emails before travelling in case of any last minute changes to the programme.
Current Programme
- 29-9-26 BAHS members talks – Attack & Defence: A Short History of RAF Langham and its Dome Trainer
- 27-10-26 – BAHS members talks – Holt Doctors: A History of General Practice in Eight Generations
- 24-11-26 – BAHS members talks – King’s Lynn and the Low Countries in the Early Eeventeenth Century: Maritime Trade and Sexual Scandal
Tuesday 29th September 2026 at 7:30 pm at Cley Village Hall
Attack & Defence: A Short History of RAF Langham and its Dome Trainer
Mark Glaister
Tucked away on a disused airfield in a remote corner of North Norfolk lies a strange, dome-shaped building. Its odd, unprepossessing exterior hides one of Britain’s vital World War II military secrets – the invention of a truly visionary man – and its influence is felt even to this day.
Mark Glaister presents a talk on the role of the Dome as well as unforgettable stories of the people and missions flown out of the airfield, RAF Langham, during WWII – including the indomitable Strike Wings of RAF Coastal Command.
Mark Glaister is a local artist and published author. He is one of the Archivists at The Langham Dome Museum and has been entertaining visitors to the Dome with stories of vision, ingenuity, bravery, endurance and sacrifice that he has, with his fellow Archivist, collected over many years – and still discovers today.
Langham Dome Museum is a local attraction that has won multiple prestigious awards, including the late Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. It is a fully-working restoration facility from World War II and attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Tuesday 27th October 2026 at 7:30 pm at Cley Village Hall
Holt Doctors: A History of General Practice in Eight Generations
Stephen Gillam
Stephen Gillam tells the story of general practice over eight generations of his own family most of whom practiced in Holt. Beginning in 1770, he traces the evolution of the discipline from its apothecary roots, focussing on themes such as the burden of disease, scientific advances, developments in policy and working conditions. Recent decades have seen a decline in traditional care with its emphasis on the continuity of personal relationships. Do the gains of biomedicine compensate for what is being lost?
Stephen Gillam enjoyed a medical career which combined clinical practice with various academic roles. At the King’s Fund he was Director of Primary Care, researching the impact of government health policy. From there he moved to the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge. He has published extensively, including eleven books.
Tuesday 24th November 2026 at 2:30pm at Cley Village Hall
King’s Lynn and the Low Countries in the Early-Seventeenth Century: Maritime Trade and Sexual Scandal
G. Alan Metters
Alan Metters will discuss the general pattern of King’s Lynn’s overseas trade as it is recorded in the port books during the early years of the reign of James I and the place of trade with the Low Countries within that overall pattern. He will show how Lynn’s merchants adapted to the emergence of the new Dutch Republic and in particular to the growth of the entrepot of Amsterdam.
Dutch shipmaster-merchants played a major part in the trade with their home ports, but a group of Lynn merchants were also highly significant in the wider picture, with two in particular being dominant. An angry official complaint made by one Dutch shipmaster triggered another less happy relationship between Lynn and the Low Countries and exposed the perverse sexual activities of a senior member of the borough’s political elite.
As this scandal unfolded it became clear that some members of the borough corporation were not just aware of what the scurrilous alderman had been doing, but had actually been his victims. Attempts to remove him from his place on the corporation ultimately failed and, without a criminal prosecution, he seems to have got away more or less scot-free.
Alan Metters read History at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and did his doctoral research at the University of East Anglia. He has been honorary secretary, and later president, of the Norfolk and Norwich branch of the Historical Association and he also served on the association’s national council. He taught at Wymondham College, Norfolk, and then at City College, Norwich, becoming Head of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences. In 1991 he wrote a centenary history of City College, The Tech 1891-1991: one hundred years of technical education in Norwich.
After his retirement he then served for twenty years (2004-24) as honorary secretary of the Norfolk Record Society, for which he has edited a number of volumes: The Parliamentary Survey of Dean and Chapter Properties in and around Norwich in 1649 (1988); The King’s Lynn Port Books, 1610-1614 (2009); and as co-editor, The Papers of Nathaniel Bacon of Stiffkey, volume VI, 1608-1613 (2017), and The Papers of Nathaniel Bacon of Stiffkey, volume VII, 1614-1622 (2023). Volume VIII of the Bacon Papers, Addenda and Miscellanea, is currently in production.
Alan also co-edits the bi-annual Norwich Society publication Aspects of Norwich. He is a fellow of the Historical Association and of the Royal Historical Society, and an honorary research fellow in the School of History at the University of East Anglia.
