Glossop Guild for enquiring minds
Autumn Term Courses
October 2019 ~ December 2019
Weimar Germany on Film: 3 Lectures
Tutor: Alan Sennett
Monday 30th September, 7th & 14th October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
11.00 am ~ 3.00 pm Fee £32.50 Non-members £27.50 Members
These three sessions will explore German society, politics and culture during the Weimar Republic using extensive footage from contemporary feature and documentary films of the 1920s such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, The Threepenny Opera, M, The Blue Angel and others. We will be examining some historical debates surrounding the major political, social and cultural events of the period.
This course has been completed
An Introduction to Philosophy: 5 Tuesday Mornings
Tutor: Alison Loughlin
Tuesday 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
10.00 am ~ 12 noon. Fee: £32.50 Non-members £27.50 Members
This course is intended for those new to philosophy, providing an opportunity to engage with a range of controversial theories drawn from mainstream philosophy.
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Following an introduction about the nature, purpose and methods of philosophy, we will focus upon four substantive areas of enquiry:
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(a) the mind/body problem, including the nature of consciousness and the possibility of free will, (b) principle or consequence-based approaches to moral thinking, including a consideration of some classic moral dilemmas,
(c) God's existence and the problem posed for theism by the existence of evil, and
(d) the foundations of knowledge and the challenge of scepticism.
Participants in the course will be offered the chance to reason critically about these challenging issues for themselves.
This course has been completed
The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) Between the Wars: 3 Tuesday Evenings
Tutor: Owen Russell
Tuesday 1st, 8th, & 15th October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30pm Fee: £20 Non-members £17 Members
Following on from Owen’s very popular course last October, this 3 week course provides an opportunity to take a closer look at the working conditions which prevailed on the railways, with a specific reference to the LNER.
The sessions will cover: railway grades, i.e. classes of work and including working conditions, training, responsibilities, qualifying in mechanical engineering and recruitment. Railway traffic: passengers, coal, perishables, iron and steel, leisure activities and specials (e.g. theatrical, circuses), difficulties encountered such as routing destinations, weather and breakdowns. Railway safety: accidents, punishments, compensations and suicides. Research has been based, in the first instance, from conversations with employees, some retired, with memories going back to World War One.
This course has been completed
The Original Northern Powerhouse - Northumbria 400 AD-1000 AD
5 Wednesday Mornings
Tutor: Birigitta Hoffman
Wednesday 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
11.00 am ~ 1.00 pm
Fee: £32.50 Non-members £27.50 Members
The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria is one of the best documented and studied of the Anglo-Saxon world. Very different in its history and composition from Kent and Wessex, it combined multiple roots with strong sub-Roman traditions, and Irish and Pictish monastic Christianity, Jutish and Anglian immigrants combined to create a culture that combined all of these traits and used their links to its neighbours to such great political and economic effect, that even the invasions of the Vikings and the emerging Scottish kingdom could not completely suppress its roots and managed to absorb and integrate this new wave of incomers, creating a cultural identify that sets the inhabitants apart from its southern neighbours to this day. This course is going to look at the different elements of the kingdom, as well as the resulting composite culture.
This course has been completed
Lindisfarne Castle Northumberland
Renaissance Art - Revolution, Transition or Mythology
5 Wednesday Evenings
Tutor: Frank Vigon
Wednesday 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm
Fee: £32.50 Non-members £27.50 Members
Sando Botticelli - Birth of Venus
A new look at the Renaissance as a movement that both reflected and shaped the world. The course will seek to ask questions of the nature of the Renaissance. Was it just an Art form or was it a philosophy? Was it a political structure or a unique holistic event that bypassed everyday life? How do we approach the Renaissance in terms of definition and its historical context? What was the role of patronage and why did the wealthy and the powerful invest so heavily in an Art form? This will be an opportunity to examine the development of new techniques such as Proportion, Foreshortening, Sfumato and Chiaroscuro. We will also look at the geographical nature of the Renaissance, its spread and its uniqueness in Florence, France and England and the rest of Europe.
This course has been completed
An English Radical Tradition ?
Thursday Evening
Tutor: Ashley Hern
Thursday 3rd October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30pm Fee: £7 (or £9 on the door)
This course is a critical examination of a belief that there is a particular tradition which runs through English history of challenges to authority and the political status quo, which has largely been undocumented by official histories, but which is as distinctive to the creation of England and “English-ness” as actions of the political and social elite which have dominated the official narratives of our country. If Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, then could one not argue that Peterloo was shaped by the crowded streets of Manchester? The course will take a broad look at the historical perspective shaped by E.P. Thompson and the Communist Party History Group and evaluate their ideas in light of the ‘radical’ heyday from the late 18th to the mid-19th century and ask the crucial question: how close did England actually come to having a proper revolution?
This course has been completed
Saturday Film Day School ~ Rebecca (1940)
Tutors: Creina Mansfield & Alan Sennett
Saturday 5th October 2019
Partington Theatre, Henry Street, Glossop
10 a.m. ~ 4 p.m. Fee: £32.50 (Members £25)
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A naïve young woman marries the brooding aristocrat Maxim de Winter and returns to his grand house where she feels the constant influence of his first wife. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock in his first American project, Rebecca (1940) stars Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. It is based on the pre-war novel by Daphne Du Maurier who famously did not give her narrator a name, thus highlighting the superior charms of Rebecca.
But how did Rebecca die?
This course has been completed
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Glossop Guild In Conversation with Danny Brocklehurst - Screenwriter
Thursday Evening
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Thursday 17th October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7:30 p.m. ~ 9:30 p.m. Fee £7 (or £9 on the door)
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‘Glossop Guild in Conversation with’ is a new addition to our programme and the ‘conversations’ are going to be with people who have made a name for themselves across a wide range of professions. We hope that you will be interested in coming along to hear their stories and for you to ask them your own questions.
Danny is a BAFTA and International Emmy winning screenwriter whose credits include Come Home, Safe, Ordinary Lies, Exile, The Driver, and The Five. Danny wrote several episodes of the Channel 4 series Shameless as well as contributing to Jimmy McGovern’s The Street and Accused. He was previously a journalist for The Guardian, City Life and the Big Issue
To facilitate a varied and balanced conversation and interview with Danny, questions should be submitted in advance. You can do so by email to: glossopguild@gmail.com or send your question to: The Guild Secretary, 4 Cross Cliffe, Glossop, SK13 8PZ
This course has been completed
The Art of the Popular Singer
5 Monday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor: Les Berry
Monday 21st October, *, 4th, 11th, 18th, & 25th November 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm
Fee: £32.50 Non-members £27.50 Members
*Note: No class 28th October
This five week course examines the art and craft of the popular singer, listening to and discussing recorded performances from vocalists of the early twentieth century through to the present time covering the early days of vaudeville; big band balladeers, jazz singers, Broadway and Hollywood show performers; pop singers/songwriters and many more. We will compare recorded material ranging from Bessie Smith through to Amy Winehouse, taking in many more on the way. Some of your favourites must be here somewhere.
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This course has been completed.
Amy Winehouse
Nat King Cole
Mary Queen of Scots
Thursday Evening Lecture
Tutor: John Derry
Thursday 31st October 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7:30 p.m. ~ 9:30 p.m. Fee £7 (or £9 on the door)
Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87) remains a controversial figure, inspiring sympathy and fierce loyalty in some authors and trenchant criticism in others.
The problem is confounded by the fact that the evidence which would settle controversies perished in the sixteenth century. Why did Mary marry her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley? What was her relationship with Rizzio? Was she involved in the plot to kill Darnley? Did she have an affair with Bothwell? Why did she marry him? She lacked the political shrewdness of her cousin, Elizabeth, yet died as a martyr for the Catholic faith.
Sent at the age of 5 to France, where she was eventually married to the heir to the French throne, returning to Scotland after 13 years following the death of her husband to find that country transformed by the Scottish Reformation, and was plunged into a situation which would have tested the skills of an astute politician. Executed in February 1587, she still inspires devotion and criticism, with admirers and critics often going to extremes.
This course has been completed
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Dreams of Nation, Race & Enemies Everywhere - The Rise of Right-wing Politics in the USA & Europe
5 Tuesday Evenings
Tutor: Kevin Harrison
Tuesday 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th November & 3rd December 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm
Fee: £32.50 Non-members £27.50 Members
Far Right politics is rising: Terrorism in Norway, the USA and New Zealand; the BNP win elections; Muslim and Jewish schools are attacked; French Yellow Vests riot; German neo-Nazis demonstrate; Italian fascists march; ‘illiberal democracies’ exist in Poland and Hungary; Trump and Brexit attract extremists. What does this mean for democracy? Are anti-liberal, intolerant politics really growing, can it be halted?
​This course has been completed
Christmas and Its Customs
Tutor: Patrick Harding
Thursday 21st November 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
1:30 p.m. ~ 3:30 p.m. Fee £7 (or £9 on the door)
In what year and at what season was Jesus born and how many wise men were there? What were the shepherds doing? All is not what it seems! What links Christmas with holly, ivy, mistletoe, robins and crackers?
We will look too at the origin of cards, Christmas trees, carols and pantomime, plus turkeys and the Queen’s speech. Finally we will see if Father Christmas and Santa Claus are the same person. Signed copies of Patrick’s The Christmas Book will be available.
Note: This course has been re-scheduled to 21st November due to bad weather on 7th November.
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This course has now been completed.
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A Journey through the Universe
4 Thursday Evening Lectures
Tutor: Ian Morison
Thursday 7th, 14th, * ,28th November & 5th December 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street,
Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm
Fee: £26 Non-members £22 Members
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* Note: No class on 21st November
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A journey in time and space from the origin of the Universe in the ‘Big Bang’ some 14 billion years ago to the present day; when astronomers are discovering many of its secrets but some – such as dark matter and dark energy – seem beyond our comprehension. We will learn how spacecraft have given us amazing views of the planets or our solar system and how stars are born, evolve and die in spectacular explosions with some even producing Black Holes that become hidden from our view as they warp the space around them. We will look at the beauty of galaxies such as our own Milky Way galaxy and those that stretch far beyond and observe how they can merge together giving rise to massive outpouring of energy as super-massive Black Holes as their hearts spiral into each other. Finally we will see how radio astronomers, such as those as at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, can look back to a time just 400,000 years after the Big Bang and be able to predict the future of our Universe. Note: a book ‘A journey through the Universe’ by Professor Morison, which could act as a course book, can be obtained from Amazon.
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​This course has been completed
Baronies, Manor & Royal Hunting Forests
Wednesday Mornings Lecture
Tutor: Judith Wilshaw
Wednesday 13th November 2019
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
10:00 a.m. ~ 12 noon Fee £7 (or £9 on the door)
After Duke William of Normandy had defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14th October 1066, he declared that the Crown owned all the land in England. He then leased land holdings to people of whom he approved. These land holdings were called manors and were overseen by a Lord of the Manor. Manors were grouped into Baronies with a Baron in charge, and baronies were grouped into counties with an Earl in charge. Much of England was uncultivated woodland, the preserve of wild animals. Suitable areas were designated as royal hunting forests for the delectation of the King and his noblemen. Glossop was in the Royal Forest of the Peak and Marple was in Macclesfield Forest. This talk looks at the local manors and hunting forests.
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This course has been completed.
Gertrude Bell
Monday Day School
Tutors: Creina Mansfield & Alan Sennett
Monday 2nd December 2019
The Masonic Hall, 14 Henry Street, Glossop. SK13 8BW
10.00 am ~ 4.00 pm Fee £32.50 (Members £25)
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Archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet and nation-builder, Gertrude Bell lived an extraordinary life. She was, according to T.E. Lawrence, ‘born too gifted’. Bell was a significant player in the shaping of the modern Middle East, especially Iraq
This course has been completed
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