From 27 February 2025 to 1 March 2025, Orford Museum is planning to repeat their very successful History Festival with talks throughout the three days.
On Thursday 27 February at 4pm, Ralph Houlbrooke will speak on:
An Elizabethan Tragedy at Butley: The ill-fated marriage of Charles Forth and Elizabeth Jerningham
The story told in this talk involves two families: the long-established Jerninghams of Somerleyton, conservative in their religious allegiance, and the newly emergent Forths of Butley Priory, whose head, Robert, was strongly Protestant. When his eldest son Charles was allegedly allured into marrying Elizabeth Jerningham, Robert was scandalized. He reluctantly accepted the marriage, but it failed nonetheless. This talk will recount its sad ending and explore the interactions between social expectations and religious loyalties during the later years of Elizabeth I’s reign.
Ralph Houlbrooke is Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Reading with a particular interest in social history and the Reformation. He has written several books, including The Family in England, 1450-1700 (1984), Death, Religion and the Family in England, 1480-1760 (1998), and Love and Dishonour in Elizabethan England (2018). He is also Chairman of the Berkshire Records Society.
Following this at 6pm, John Ogden will give a talk entitled:
Orford’s Atlantic Wall Breakers
In 1942, over 400 inhabitants of the countryside between Orford, Snape and Slaughden were compulsorily evicted from their homes by the War Office and not allowed to return until 1947/8. In the interim, this 12 square miles of the Suffolk Sandlings was used as a testing ground for armoured equipment and assault techniques that would be used to great effect on D Day and beyond. John Ogden tells the story of this remarkable and little understood intervention in the recent history of the local area, which had ramifications far beyond its more normally tranquil heaths, marshes, woods and shores.
After reading history at Durham and a brief flirtation with the wine trade, John Ogden joined the Army on a short service commission and, unlike most of his contemporaries, he then forgot to leave for the subsequent 34 years. He now pursues a broad portfolio of roles and interests, which include business consultancy, professional and recreational skippering, and military history. He lives in Waldringfield and is currently rear commodore of its sailing club, a member of the nascent Southwold Harbour Board, and a trustee of Landguard Fort. He was until recently the Armed Forces Commissioner for Suffolk.
On Friday 28 February at 4pm, Alex Preston will talk on:
W G Sebald: East Anglian Wanderer
Author and journalist Alex Preston took to writing and teaching after a career in the city. He wrote his PhD on the great W.G. Sebald, author of Austerlitz and The Rings of Saturn, first published in Germany in 1995, about his solitary and melancholy walks around East Anglia and the Suffolk coast. Alex plays cricket for the Authors Cricket Club founded in 1892. Authors who have played for the team included PG Wodehouse, AA Milne, JM Barrie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
This will be followed at 6pm by Adam Rutherford who will speak on:
Who do you REALLY think you are?
The tree of life is the most wondrous demonstration of evolution in all its magnificent splendour. Except it’s not a tree at all. Genealogy and family trees are the ties that bind us to our ancestors, descendants and local history. They’re not trees either. And the story of human evolution is our species’ family tree: guess what? Also not a tree. In this talk, Adam will take his genetics shears and history axe, and pollard, prune and chop down some of these trees, and plant much better ones. The whole of life on Earth is a tangled bank, and he guarantees that in this talk, you will discover your Royal heritage. Warning: contains a small bit of maths.
Adam Rutherford is a scientist, writer, broadcaster and, most importantly, a Suffolk boy. He is the host of BBC Radio 4’s flagship culture programme Start the Week as well as many other radio shows. He has written several books including the Sunday Times bestsellers How to Argue With a Racist, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived and, most recently, his first children’s book Where Are You Really From? Adam is also a lecturer in Genetics and Society at UCL where he teaches about eugenics , race science, genetics and science communication. He won the Royal Society’s David Attenborough award in 2022 and is a season ticket holder at Portman Road.
On Saturday 1 March at 4pm, Paul Lay will give a talk entitled:
‘What Revolution? What Republic?’: Oliver Cromwell and his Times
Paul Lay is the author of Providence Lost: the Rise and Fall of the Cromwellian Protectorate, which was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. He is Senior Editor of engelsbergideas.com and a former Editor of History Today. He is a Research Fellow in History at the University of St Andrews, Senior Research Fellow in Early Modern History at the University of Buckingham, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Following this at 6pm, Henry Chancellor will talk about:
Colditz: The Definitive History
During the Second World War, this medieval fortress served as the only high security camp in Germany. Its massive walls contained every persistent escaper, troublemaker and valuable hostage captured by the Germans. There were as many guards as there were prisoners. Colditz was considered escape proof; it proved to be the very opposite. The prisoners pooled their collected talents to create the greatest escape academy of the war. Over three hundred attempted to escape and thirty achieved a ‘home run’, returning to their mother country.
Henry Chancellor is an author, and film maker. His first book, the best-selling Colditz: The Definitive History came out of his award-winning series for Channel Four. Described by Ben Macintyre as ‘by far the best general account of the camp… a remarkable repository of human memory that I have used extensively…’, Colditz remains a peculiarly British fascination to this day. Henry will explore the facts and fiction as told to him by seventy-six inmates, all now dead. He has also written the official companion to Ian Fleming’s 007 and several children’s fiction series published in fifteen languages. He grew up in East Anglia and lives in Suffolk with his family.
Tickets for all these talks cost £15 for Friends of Orford Museum and £20 for guests and include refreshments. Please book through our website at www.orfordmuseum.org.uk.
Advance Warning!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Butley Priory
Following our immensely successful Son et Lumière at Butley Priory in August 2024, we are presenting a musical performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the travelling theatre Group, Three Inch Fools (www.threeinchfools.com) on Tuesday 26 August 2025. Watch our website for booking details.