Local History Seminar 8 Dec 18

Technological innovations in Victorian and early Edwardian country houses.

Speaker: Marilyn Palmer

In the second half of the 19th century, technology played an important role in enabling owners of country houses to achieve a comfortable home which functioned efficiently and largely invisibly. Dwindling personal finances from the late 19th century has meant that the physical evidence of these earliest examples of domestic innovations has often survived rather than being swept away by later modernisation, as was often the case in town houses and middle class dwellings. The owners of many houses, recognising the changing composition of their visiting public, have begun to open up the below stairs area as well as the state rooms and to conserve the remains of earlier technologies. 

Marilyn is now an Emeritus Professor of Industrial Archaeology at Leicester University having served as Head of the School of Archaeology and Ancient History from 2000 to 2006.

Booking is not necessary and the entry fee of £5 includes refreshments.

For more information contact: Professor John Beckett.