Home
| | | |||||||
Home |
Membership | Journal | Publications | Talks | Newsletter | ||||
The Society was formed in 1964 to encourage and promote interest in the study of the history of County Durham. It is a registered charity (no. 235597). The work of the Society particularly focuses on recent centuries when County Durham was playing a major part in the economic and industrial growth of Britain, and also making its individual contribution to the industrial, social, religious and political development of our country. The Society arranges talks open free to non-members, attends events promoting local history, issues a range of publications and maintains this website.
The Journal, available free to members, includes original contributions on Durham's history, articles on sources and reviews of books. Other publications, covering original research on a wide range of local topics, are made available to members at reduced prices. The Society also produces a Newsletter to permit small items of general interest to be exchanged between members and information on local history classes and other events to be circulated.
| 2012 SUBSCRIPTION RATES due 1 April 2012 | |
| Ordinary Members | 10.00 GBP |
| Students | 5.00 GBP |
| Joint Members (at the same address) | 12.50 GBP |
| Institutions | 20.00 GBP |
| See our Membership page for details of how to join the Society. | |
| 2012 David Reid Memorial Lecture to be held at County Hall, Durham DH1 5UL | ||
1.15 pm Saturday 12 May 2012 |
Roz Southey | Entertaining and useful - North East music round 1800 |
| These are open free to non-members. See our Talks page for details of our full programme. | ||
The Society's AGM will be held at County Hall, Durham on Saturday 12 May 2012 followed by the David Reid Memorial Lecture. The AGM starts at 11.00am and will be followed by a buffet lunch with the lecture commencing at 1.15pm.
Our speaker will be Roz Southey, the novelist and music historian, who stresses to people that they will need no specialist musical knowledge for the talk. She will concentrate entirely on the history of music-making in the area and what Charles Avison, the foremost composer in the region during the eighteenth century, called its public utility. Music was not only entertaining and emotionally satisfying but also acted as a social facilitator, binding society together.
Music-lovers in the eighteenth century north-east could hear music in church, in taverns, on the streets, in the theatre and in the concert-room. The talk will look at the kind of entertainments available, the musicians who put them on, the people in the audiences and the meaning music had for the average man in the street. It also looks at the involvement of such men as George Bowes of Gibside, John Buddle, the coal viewer, who helped organise concerts in Newcastle, and Spencer Cowper, Dean of Durham Cathedral, a keen observer of musical foibles.
Journal 76 has recently been published. See our Journal page for details.
If you have any general questions about DCLHS you can e-mail the Secretary by clicking here.
Or write to him c/o 21 St. Marys Grove, Tudhoe Village, Spennymoor DL16 6LR