OUR FUTURE MEETINGS
HOOE HISTORY SOCIETY MEETINGS 2024 -2025
20th February 2025. Melinda Stone. Women’s Lives in the 17th Century
Did you have any, many times great-grandmothers, who lived in England in the 17th century? What was life like for her? This talk should help you to picture some of the details. How was she educated? What did she wear? What did she cook and eat? Did she choose her own husband? Did she survive giving birth? What sort of medicines were available to her? Did she earn a living? Was she widowed? Was she accused of witchcraft? History is often told in terms of battles, political & religious machinations and industrial developments. Less attention is paid to the realities of daily life for people living in any particular period, and even when this topic is addressed, it tends to focus more on the lives of men than of women. From the death of Queen Elizabeth 1, via the Civil War and Restoration to the accession of Queen Anne, English women’s lives went through several changes which will be explored in this talk.
After 40 years working in the NHS, Melinda Stone became a tour guide at Herstmonceux Castle, then started to give illustrated talks about it. As she learned more of the Castle’s history, she began to explore the day to day lives of the women who lived there. This widened into an exploration of key aspects of women’s lives in 17th century England. Melinda still works at Herstmonceux Castle.
20th March 2025. Gary Newport. Unsolved Mysteries.
From deciphered scientific riddles to perplexing cosmic conundrums, venture into the enigmatic unknowns of the universe. Embark on an exploration culminating in the realms of Dark Matter and Dark Energy where secrets await to be unveiled.
17th April 2025. Peter Hayward. The Hooe Common Smugglers.
This is a look at the Hooe smuggling gang through the newspapers, books, anecdotes and one particular trial transcription. Peter will try to shed light on how they operated and how long they existed by piecing together what is written down and join it all together to form an overall picture, including the events that eventually brought about the end of smuggling activities. He will explain why he believes the Hooe gang was a significant local operator in this clandestine activity.
15th May 2025. Jan Meek. Journey to the North Pole.
Jan told of her exploits rowing across the Atlantic with her son last year, and now she tells of of crossing another ocean. Jan writes “Ten years after racing across the Atlantic Ocean with my son Daniel, I set off on my second adventure with him: crossing another ocean on foot, this time a frozen ocean. Mother and son accepted the challenge to race 400 miles across the Arctic Ocean, from Resolute Bay to the Magnetic North Pole. We went back to the gym needing more training and new skills for this trek. We set off on an appropriate date: the first day of April 2007. I relate the trials and tribulations of experiencing the worst weather conditions for 40 years, with the lowest temperature -67. As ever we were a great team. We had many adventures and were subsequently awarded two more Guinness World Records”.
19th June 2025. Ken Brooks. First Life Forms.
The Burgess Shales contain the fossils of animals that lived around 500 million year ago, and were discovered in Canada by Charles Walcott in 1886. These amazing creatures are spectacular and very different from later species. Also, many of them preserve exoskeletons, limbs, and internal organs. They appeared rapidly in the early history of life on Earth in what is often called the ‘Cambrian explosion’.
Thursday, 21st August 2025. Rev Peter Doodes. 'Hooe, certainly NOT the everyday story of a country village.'
Hooe was once described as the, ‘Rip van Winkle’ village, when Hooe was actually a thrive of industry and innovation. From being a close spectator of the 1066 invasion, Hooe was an arm of the Cinque Ports, a place where there were salt pans, a place hit by a Tsunami, the location of a WW1 airfield, the haunt of smugglers, and an area dominated in WW2 by Radar masts. A place where a German Bomber crash landed (the imprisoned pilot later marrying a local girl) where a German Fighter pilot was killed when his parachute failed to open after his aircraft was shot down by Peter Townsend, where there was a leather tannery, where a sports car was manufactured and where market gardens were the major employer. In addition, Hooe was reputed to have been visited by Royalty. Certainly not an ‘everyday country village’!
18th September 2025. Matthew Chapman. The Snail and the Ginger Beer: the singular case of Donoghue v Stevenson.
Matthew Chapman is a local (Halls Cross) Barrister in full-time practice in London Chambers. He now specialises in civil work (predominantly, cross-border and jurisdictional matters). He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1994 and took silk in 2017. He has a longstanding interest in legal history (dating back to his undergraduate degree and, as a postgraduate, he was a student of Professor (Emeritus) Albert Kiralfy). The Snail and the Ginger Beer was first published in 2010 and tells the intriguing story of the most famous case to date in the field of civil wrongs (torts). The book and, indeed, the accompanying talk is intended to be of interest to a
16th October 2025. David Clarke. The Ogre of Brede.
In the 16th century, it was said that a giant prowled the streets of Brede looking for children to eat for supper.
It may have been a cautionary tale but that is to discount the legends borne out of religious strife that surround the village, of smugglers, a matchless Madonna, a biblical misprint, body snatchers and that rather macabre tale of the Sussex Cannibal.
20th November 2025. Dr David Alderton. Gypsum Mining in Sussex.
David is a retired university lecturer in geology. “Since moving to East Sussex I have also become interested in local history, so research into the history of the local gypsum mines was a natural project for me.
Gypsum is a mineral that has a widespread occurrence and a fascinating array of important and everyday uses. The discovery of large deposits of gypsum in the Mountfield area more than 150 years ago (a result of scientific serendipity) led to a long and continuous period of mining and processing; yet the secluded location means that few people will be familiar with the operations. This talk will illustrate the background to the deposit’s discovery and outline the history of the mining through its various phases, from the late 1800s up to the present time”.
17th July 2025 – Social evening (to be confirmed)
18th December 2025 Christmas Social