The list of talks is available to download as a PDF
Book a Talk For Your Group
Peter Sotheran began giving illustrated talks many years ago to raise funds to renew the bells at his parish church. His professional life as a printer and publisher led to a life-long interest in local history and formed the basis of his series of talks.
The talks each last about 40-45 minutes and are illustrated with pictures from his personal collection. Timings and content can be adjusted to suit your meeting.
Peter is happy to travel up to 30-40 minutes drive from Redcar to present the talks in person. Alternatively they can be presented to your members via an online Zoom meeting. (Peter is an experienced Zoom host and can arrange and host the meeting for you.)
There is no fixed fee - a donation to a nominated charity, plus a contribution to travel expenses when relevant is acceptable.
Other speakers - as Speaker Finder for the Tuesday Talks series he can put you in touch with speakers on a wide range of topics.
Please use the Contact form below to book a talk by Peter Sotheran or one of the other speakers.
Jane Gardam, Redcar's most published author
Jane Gardam is the daughter of Wm Pearson, a legendary local teacher who taught mathematics at Coatham Grammar School for over 40 years. The talk explores the many local scenes around Redcar & Saltburn used as settings in Jane Gardam's stories and features quotations from the author, recorded during a recent exclusive interview.
Jane Gardam has over thirty published titles and is the only writer to win two Whitbread Awards for her writing.
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Canon Atkinson and his Forty Years in a Moorland Parish
Born in Essex, a student at Cambridge, ordained in Hereford, widowed twice and married three times, the Revd John C. Atkinson spent more than half his lifetime as Vicar of Danby. He recorded the customs, dialects, wildlife and archæology of Danby Dale and the surrounding moors. The talk describes Atkinson's life and lifestyle, his three marriages, the meeting with his taciturn predecessor, and the strange tales of 'Auld Nan', the witch of Danby.
The Writing is on the Wall – The stories behind some the the street and place names in Redcar.
How did a 19th century landowner come to have a series of streets named after him? Where is Dundas Place? What do Majuba and Poona have to do with Redcar? These and other local mysteries are explained along with the snippets of local history that illustrate the answers.
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Gertrude Lothian Bell - Queen of the Desert
Gertrude Bell – A woman in a man's world
Redcar's most famous daughter, remembered by many as the Queen of the Desert, spent her formative childhood years at Red Barns in Redcar. The first woman to gain a First Class Honours Degree in Modern History at Oxford, Gertrude Bell became an intrepid mountaineer, a published author, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, an accomplished linguist and an influential diplomat. At the international Cairo Conference in 1921, she sat as an adviser literally at the right hand of Winston Churchill, then Colonial Secretary.
The Fearless Flyers of Marske – tales of WW1 aviation and other adventures at Marske-by-the-sea
Robert Blackburn made test flights in his first monoplane on Marske beach in 1909 and went on to found the Blackburn Airplane Company in Leeds, famous in later years for the Buccaneer jet fighter and the Beverley Transport plane.
Edward Petre attempted to be the first to fly non-stop from London to Edinburgh but crashed en route at Marske in 1912.
The Royal Flying Corps established a school of aerial gunnery on the cliff tops at Marske during WW1 where one of the training officers was W.E. Johns, author of the Biggles books. Tales of adventure, success & failure and lots of prangs! "Bandits at 3 o'clock high, Tally-ho!"
Sir William Turner's Almshouses
Sir William Turner and his Almshouses – The boy from Kirkleatham who became Lord Mayor of London and whose legacy lives on today.
William Turner was born just ten years after the Gunpowder Plot, he and his business survived the Plague and the Great Fire of London. In later life he used his wealth to build the almshouses at Kirkleatham and in his will created an educational foundation - both of which survive to this day.
The story describes his life and times and how the almshouses have evolved over the last 350 years.
A Tale of Two Piers – The rise and fall of the piers at Redcar and Coatham
The neighbouring 19th century communities of Coatham and Redcar were constant rivals. When one planned to build a pier, the other followed hard on its heels. Each vied to out-do its neighbour; each was ultimately doomed to failure as a steady flow of shipwrecks and disasters sank their dreams.
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Fighting AIDS in Africa - The highlights, horror and humour of running a health camp in the slums of Nairobi
Rotary International, the worldwide charitable organisation invited Peter Sotheran to help as adminstrative assistant and later logistics manager to prepare and help manage an international health mission in Kenya. With a team of 70 medical professionals and 200 volunteers the mission provided medical, optical and dental care for 11,000 patients in 8 working days. The highlights and reality of an international health mission.
Printer's Pie – From Caxton to Computers
Retired Master Printer Peter Sotheran trained as a typesetter and press operator. During his forty years in the printing industry he saw the transition from the lead type brought to Britain by William Caxton 600 years ago through to the present age of digital technology.
He was the third generation to run the family printing, publishing and stationery business and relates the major changes to the industry, the family business and some of the classic 'printer's errors'.
Printer's Pie
From Caxton to Computers
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A Postcard from Saltburn – A pictorial walk through the town's history from Roman times to its Victorian and Edwardian splendour.
A Roman signal station and camp on Huntcliffe, a tale of smuggling, then a Director of the North Eastern Railway Company happened to visit the sleepy fishing village in the mid-nineteenth century and saw its potential as a holiday resort. The visitors to the new town would benefit his railway company and so began the Victorian town of Saltburn.
Memories of Marske – Step back in time to stroll through the 19th and 20th centuries at Marske-by-the-sea.
The talk is based on the book of the same title, published forty years ago in conjunction with a local history study by pupils at Errington School. With maps and old photos the talk is a nostalgic look at the town in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Call My Bluff – A version of the popular television panel game of the 1970s
Players give three different definitions of unusual words, which is the true one, who is bluffing? The game in which everyone is an expert!
With groups of less than twenty, the audience is divided into tables of four to six players who compete as 'table teams'. With larger audiences, six players are invited from the audience and play against each other as two teams of three.
The word game can be combined with a Christmas Quiz and makes excellent entertainment. All the definitions - true and false are provided.