Glossop Guild for enquiring minds
Autumn Venue Based Courses
September 2025 ~ December 2025
Britain's Withdrawal from the Middle East in the Post Second World War / Cold War Era
4 Tuesday Evenings
Tutor: Alan Sennett
Tuesday 30th September, 7th, 14th & 21st October 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 am ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £26.00 Members, £30 Non-members
Alan will explain the complexities of the Middle East and its relevance to today by looking at events in the 1950’s. This course will focus on the role of the UK as it comes to terms with losing its Empire and status. There will be a session on the power struggle in Iran between Mossaddegh (the nationalist elected Prime Minister) and the Shah which eventually culminated in a US and UK backed coup that ousted Mossaddegh and restored the Shah’s power.
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The second session will look at the ill fated attempt to retake the Suez Canal after nationalisation in 1956 and the consequences for Britain’s role in the area.
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The third session will discuss the British withdrawal from the colony of Aden in 1967 after 128 years.
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The final session will discuss decolonisation and how this fits into the complexities of the Cold War.
This course has been completed
Suez Blockade
US Department of State, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Operation Manna - The First Humanitarian Operation in WW2
Wednesday Evening
Tutor: Frank Pleszak
Wednesday 22nd October 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7.00 Members, £10.00 Non-members
The iconic Avro Lancaster is regarded as the most successful and arguably the most famous heavy bomber of WW2. However, just before the end of the war Lancasters were used, not to drop bombs, but to drop food and supplies desperately needed by the citizen of the western part of the Netherlands who were still under German occupation. Operation Manna involved Avro Lancasters flying for ten days to deliver over 7,000 tonnes of food in what is considered to be the very first airborne humanitarian aid operation. Though a little-known operation it is still to this day highly regarded by the Dutch people and commemorated every year.
This course has been completed
Avro Lancaster Bomber
Kogo, GFDL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons
Answering the Call: Recruiting for the Territorials and New Armies in Glossop 1914-1915
Wednesday Evening
Tutor: Bill Mitchinson
Wednesday 12th November 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7.00 Members, £10.00 Non-members
A perception that the British Army during the Great War was commanded by inept butchers and bunglers has persisted since the 1950s. In his two lectures, Bill Mitchinson will explain how and why this traditional view has in the last 40 years been critically challenged. With some reference to Glossop’s Territorial Force battalion he will examine the case submitted by academics in their attempt to disprove the accepted assumption of systemic incompetence and abject operational failure. He will argue that rather than being led by unimaginative and conservatively-minded ‘chateaux generals’ the British Expeditionary Force evolved into an efficient war-fighting organisation commanded by a meritocracy of senior officers who were unafraid to innovate or to take operational risk.
This course has been completed
Film Day School - Dr Strangelove
Saturday Day School
Tutors: Alan Sennett & Creina Mansfield
Saturday 15th November 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
10.30 am ~ 3.30 pm Fee: £25.00 Members, £32.50 Non-members
"Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is a 1964 satirical black comedy film directed by Stanley Kubrick, known for its darkly humorous take on the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation. The movie stars Peter Sellers in three roles: Captain Mandrake, President Muffley, and the titular Dr. Strangelove, a wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi scientist. The plot revolves around a deranged US Air Force general who initiates a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, and the President's desperate attempts to recall the bombers while dealing with the fallout.
This course has been completed
Popular Music in America in the 1950's
2 Monday Evenings
Tutor: Les Berry
​Monday 17th & 24th November 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £13.00 Members, £16.00 Non-members
The post-war economic boom in the USA saw a rapid rise in sales of radios and, later, televisions. Radio, in particular, remained for many years a hugely important disseminator of music. Pop radio stations played a wide range of styles, from crooners to jazz to the emerging sounds of R&B and Rock’Roll.
The 1950s also saw the rise of the record player and the jukebox, which became symbols of a new kind of pop culture. Record players allowed portability of the music and the freedom to choose songs in public places, putting a greater emphasis on singles rather than albums. The introduction of the 45 RPM vinyl record also produced better sound quality and easier handling than the 78 RPM records.
The key genres were R and B, Country and Rock and important performers were Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee and many others. It was an age of teen idols, racial tensions and moral panic.
Join me for a roller-coaster ride through this exciting era which fewer and fewer people can actually remember but one which has left an astonishing mark upon popular cultural history.
This course has been completed
Elvis Presley promoting Jailhouse Rock
"Isms" in Art
3 Thursday Afternoons
Tutor: Frank Vigon
Thursday 20th, 27th November & 4th December 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £19 Members, £23 Non-members
​​My mother said I should have an “Ology” but I disagreed and instead chose History. But I should have chosen Art instead of Lenin, Hitler, Roosevelt and Stalin.
This set of three lectures will take us on an Alice in Wonderland journey to discover and try to unravel the meaning of Art Styles that glory in the name of “isms”.
The late nineteenth century saw the development of Impressionism, a precursor of 20th Century modernism and within this term a whole range of ways of seeing and creating which lay claim to their own idiosyncratic forms.
My father said he could do better with a pot of Dulux and a brush….perhaps I should have had an “ology”……We shall see.
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Henri Rousseau - A Centennial of Independence
Getty Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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WEEK 1
Impressionism
Cubism
WEEK 2
Futurism
Expressionism
WEEK 3
Constructivism
Abstract expressionism
The History and Importance of Vanilla
Monday Evening Lecture
Tutor: Olivier Missa
Monday 1st December 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7 Members, £10 Non-members
Have you ever wondered when eating a delicious ice cream about its prime ingredient ie vanilla? Probably not.
Vanilla, with its unmistakable aroma and unique flavour, is today one of the most appreciated spices worldwide. Its history, deeply rooted in the cultures of Mexico, takes us on a fascinating journey from ancient pre-Hispanic rituals to the global expansion we know today.
In this session Oliver will enlighten us on the delicate process that is involved in producing such an exquisite flavour and fragrance that is used in so many products throughout the world. He will also discuss the origins of vanilla leading us to learn about its place in history and role in world trade. In addition he will discuss the economic impact that vanilla has on the countries from where it is imported and how this affects the balance of North-South economics. i.e. the unbalanced relationship between the industrial developed countries of the Northern hemisphere and less developed of the Southern hemisphere. Where does the humble vanilla pod fit into this economic model?
Vanilla Planifolia
Cold War Warrior: Henry Kissinger (1923-2023)
Monday Evening Lecture
Tutor: Kevin Harrison
Monday 8th December 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7 Members, £10 Non-members
There is much talk of a new cold war - or even hot war - at the present time: between the West and Russia, and between the West and China ... with China and Russia as tacit - and, who knows, real - partners against a world system dominated by the USA and its allies. But what of the old Cold War and the ideas that shaped Western approaches to adversaries in the form of the Soviet Union and Communist China? Henry Kissinger (1923-2023) offered a way out of the Cold War. A believer and practitioner of the 'realist' view of international politics, he was the creator of 'détente' as a new way of managing the US-Soviet relationship. One may argue Kissinger's approach, involving a combination of diplomatic & military strategies, did help avoid war and eventually created the basis for the end of the Cold War in the 1980s and 1990s. Perhaps his example offers a route out of our present diplomatic dilemmas and crises between the world's superpowers.
Meeting at Camp David to Discuss the Vietnam Situation
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