John Abel

Peter Slater has been a sports reporter for 35 years and for much of that time he worked for BBC radio.  Born in Newcastle, he went to the University of Sheffield, where he started his reporting career as “V Boring” a regular contributor to a student magazine.  After graduation, he returned to Newcastle and in … Read more

By way of introduction Lee suggested that there were two frontiers of Physics – the very large (astrophysics) and the very small (particle physics).  Lee’s research is looking at matter in its smallest dimensions. He presumed that many of his audience had studied O level physics and reminded them of Thomson’s discovery of cathode rays … Read more

Tom is a solicitor in Belper as well as a very knowledgeable and obsessed devotee of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill.  He rates Sir Winston on a par with Albert Einstein as the most memorable “good” men of the twentieth century.  His talk was so far ranging and captivating that for this short report, I will … Read more

Norman Jones has been interested in heraldry since a young age and even now in his eighties, he is still reproducing coats of arms for commissions.  His talk covers briefly the many aspects of heraldry.  As this is such a large and complex subject, this report will just outline the early stages of the subject … Read more

Pat started his talk in the Stone Age after the ice cap had receded.  He identified four relevant aspects that were: mining, agriculture, the first permanent settlements and metal working.  He surprised many with his illustration of Grimes Graves in Norfolk and the size of the bell pit mining in these prehistoric times. With knowledge … Read more

The great race refers to the 1049 mile annual Iditarod race between Anchorage and Nome in Alaska by dog sled. The race is 1049 miles long because Alaska is the 49th state of America. He started by explaining the immense size of Alaska and its tiny population of 723,000 people.  Originally it was purchased from … Read more