Transport and Industrial Heritage

Transport and Industrial Heritage Group

Since September 2023 this returning group has been meeting at Jackmans Community Centre, Ivel Court, Jackmans Estate, SG6 2NL

See Group Events for details of future meetings.

If you know of a speaker or have experience – or a contact – in an interesting industry, please let us know. We would love to have your ideas for talks and visits.

A map showing the location of the venue can be downloaded - see below.

Downloads
Map of the venue (128.6 KB)

Group Events

Group Articles

Josh Tidy, Heritage Manager at the Letchworth Heritage Foundation, gave a fascinating talk on the town during World War II. We heard about home life, including the monotonous diet, and the role of various Letchworth industries in supporting the war effort including British Tab, Spirella, Kryn and Lahy, Meredew and more. A bumper crowd of 40 of us listened to the detail and anecdote with great enjoyment.

James Greer from Airbus gave us a fascinating and enlightening talk about the company and its commercial predecessors which have been building launchers / satellites from the Stevenage site since the 1960s. We learnt about early projects and commercial telecommunication satellites as well as science and space exploration missions including the current programmes in build like Biomass and the Mars Lander. A varied range of questions from our audience provided an interesting ending to this stimulating talk.

Letchworth author and historian, Bill Lindsay, gave a fascinating talk based upon his recently published book on the history of his ancestor William Schaw Lindsay. An orphan who ran away to sea at the age of 16, Schaw's entrepreneurial nature led him to develop a significant merchant shipping line and successfully handle the transition from sailing ships to those with auxiliary steam power. Schaw wrote the key text on the history of merchant shipping and became the Liberal Member of Parliament for Tynemouth and North Shields.

Jo Ward, Curator of Stevenage Museum, gave a fascinating talk on the relationship between the development of transport and the shaping of Stevenage. We explored the original roads layout and the coaching industry, moving onto turnpikes before the advent of the railway in 1850. The station moved from the Old Town to the New in 1973. As workers changed from bicycles to cars the role of buses expanded to relieve pressure on the roads and we learnt of the Superbus initiative.

Tuesday, 2 July 2019   Beep Beep! A talk on micro cars

Tuesday, June 4 2019       The Avro Vulcan and the Cold War ... and More

 

Tuesday, May 7 2019  History of the Great Northern Railway through Hertfordshire and Letchworth.