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If you have an interest in local history either as a researcher or resident and would like to discover more about your locality, then the BLHA is here to help you.

As well as running our own events such as Talks, Study days or even walkabout trips we also publicise Local History Societies events and talks.

We also provide a common meeting ground for individual members, the various local history societies and groups within the county, and the professionals working in archives, museums, and education.

Speakers List and Talks

We have a list of Speakers and Talks from Member Societies and other associated individuals. Take a look at the wide variety of talks on Local History in Berkshire.

Diary Dates

Take a look at the Diary Dates to find out about events provided by the BLHA and its Member Societies. The list is updated fairly so check back often to keep up to date with what is going on!

Journals

Take a look at our Journal contents lists and find out what has been included in past Journals. Even better, why not download and read the full content of each Journal that we have ever published!

Membership

There are three types of membership, individual, family and corporate.

All members receive the Newsletter three times a year, which gives details of lectures, exhibitions and other local history activities taking place, book reviews, and news of members.

  • Individual

    The BLHA offers individual membership at £12.00 per annum (£9.00 per annum if you elect to take the Newsletter electronically)

  • Family

    The BLHA offers individual membership at £12.00 per annum (£9.00 per annum if you elect to take the Newsletter electronically) . Family membership entitles you to two votes at the AGM

  • Corporate

    The BLHA offers corporate membership at £20.00 per annum (£18.00 per annum if you elect to take the Newsletter electronically). Corporate members receive three copies of the Newsletter, plus a speakers list to help them plan their meetings.

Our Latest Newsletter

You can learn about the BLHA by reading the Latest Newsletter, or maybe read some of our past Newsletters which are full of information on the BLHA as well as articles from our Member Societies, Book Reviews and more.

• Chairman’s Corner
• A Word from the Editor
• Notices
• Berkshire OnlineHeritage Fair 2024
• Building Schools for Berkshire
• Study Day: Robert Gibbingsandthe Golden Cockerel Press
• Twyford’s Heritage Osier Bed
• Churchwardens Accounts for Stanford in the Vale 1552–1705
• The Hills and Saunders Glass Plate Negative Archive
• “Fair-well” to Carter’s Steam Fair
• Friends of Reading Abbey
• Society Contributions
• What’s On
• History Societies
• Archives, Libraries and Museums
• Berkshire Local History Association

Book for Sale

Living in Tudor Windsor: the Records of the Sixteenth-Century Town

Edited by David Lewis

Windsor’s documentary archive, which dated from the late twelfth century, was destroyed in the late seventeenth century, and in consequence the town’s history before this date was thought irrecoverably lost. New archival research, however, has uncovered previously neglected material which allows a significant portion of this ‘lost’ history to be recovered, information that supports the detailed introduction in this volume. For the first time, the town’s turbulent existence between c. 1510-60 is revealed, supported by transcriptions of the town’s most significant historic source material, including detail about the widely overlooked but important Windsor castle water conduit.

This volume traces the town’s transition from its medieval existence to that of the early modern period, when it flowered as an internationally recognised centre of pilgrimage, prematurely cut short by the religious changes of the Reformation. The reorientation of the borough’s economy in this period forms the template for its present-day existence. Although of much interest to local historians, this volume retains value for a much wider readership: students of the Tudor period curious about the outworking of national policy in a local context, ecclesiastical historians, London historians, tourists interested the town’s past and students of ‘Tudor’ society, more generally. The numerous references to local people, places and street-names adds colour and interest unavailable from any other local publication, and provides a unique and extensive source for family historians.

Book Reviews

The Hidden History of Wargrave Hall

At the BLHA AGM in March of 2023 Margaret Simons was asked by Peter Halman of the Wargrave Local History Society if she would review a recent publication from the Wargrave Local History Society.

Margaret writes, “I have over the years enjoyed many walks along the river Thames and have also taken the odd river cruise too. One of the things that always fascinates me and in which I take a great amount of interest are the riverside residences.”

Contact Us

Chairman: David Cliffe


Secretary: Jo Alexander-Jones


Treasurer: Dr. David Lewis


Membership Secretary: Ann Smith


Newsletter Editor: Jo Alexander-Jones


Journal Editor: Dr. Jonathan Brown


Website Manager: Dave Osborne

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