Directory of Previous Talks

The ‘Woodland Trust’ is an organisation, which if it did not already exist, would have to be invented. It was founded in 1972 by a retired farmer and agricultural machinery dealer by the name of Kenneth Watkins, in Devon. By 1977 he had acquired 22 woods. The purpose of the Trust is to sympathetically manage … Read more

At a time when we are celebrating VE Day 70 years on, we are indebted to our forefathers who fought in WW2 to ensure we have the freedom and way of life we enjoy today. Eric Allsop, a member of Stumperlowe Probus Club gave us a stimulating and emotional talk on D-Day through to the … Read more

In 1914, in the Don Valley, in an area 3.5 miles long by half a mile wide, Sheffield was home to five of the leading armaments manufacturers in the world – Vickers (the biggest, where Forgemasters are today), Cammell Laird, John Brown at the Atlas Works, Firths, and Hadfields at the Hecla Works (now the … Read more

Dr Roderick Gross is a senior lecturer in robotics at the University of Sheffield.  His Department is researching the use of small, moving robots.  It has the second largest “swarm” of robots in the world. There is great interest in the behaviour of swarms of creatures that individually have limited intelligence.  When you consider the … Read more

My wife and I once had a trip in a hot air balloon.  It was an enjoyable experience floating around in the “ether” but our direction was entirely at the mercy of the prevailing wind. Airships were a step forward from this mode of travel and were the number one height of luxury travel in … Read more

The title of the talk did not give much away regarding the content of the talk; in fact it was quite misleading because we thought we were going to be given a lecture on the history of the camel. How wrong we were. The title of the talk is in actual fact the title of … Read more