Church Stretton History Group - Events

2023 EVENTS

Please note that, because of speaker illness, we have had to change the advertised programme at very short notice several times this year. We have now prepared a list of reserve talks in case this happens again so, in an emergency, we may present a different topic from that advertised.

The cost for members attending the talks is £2 and for non-members, £4.

Monday April 17th, 2023

2.00pm at the URC Hall

Marcus Cash: Pilleth - the Welsh Battle of Hastings?

Our speaker, Marcus Cash, is a retired teacher with an interest in military history ranging from the current Ukraine War all the way back to the earliest known warfare. Now living in Little Stretton having taken early retirement, Marcus keeps busy volunteering in various guises such as Ring and Ride, Rotary, etc.

He will give a stimulating talk about the Battle of Pilleth - or Bryn Glas - (June 1402) which is little known as far as UK battles are concerned. This will outline the lead up to the battle, the day itself but, more importantly, also home in on the fighting soldiers, their actions, thoughts and tactics and making comparisons with other battles fought centuries earlier and later. Warfare, it can be argued, has changed little in some ways for the individual, with considerable similarities from Hastings to Ukraine and it is this that the talk intends to explore. Be prepared for gruesome detail, the occasional upset and a fascinating insight into the mind of the common soldier via the terror and horror of a battlefield - any battlefield.

Here is Shakespeare’s account of the battle in Henry IV Part 1:

Earl Of Westmoreland "...but yesteryear there came
A post from Wales loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
A thousand of his people butchered.”

Monday May 15th, 2023

2.00pm at the URC Hall

AGM