TOWN HISTORY TALKS
Warminster historian Danny Howell is bringing his expertise back to his home town, following his recent ventures on local television and national radio.
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His latest project sees him taking centre stage at The Athenaeum for a series of five evening lectures on various aspects of the town's history.
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The lectures have been organised after 33-year-old Danny gave a very successful talk there as part of Warminster Festival '89, and are a feature of the arts centre's new autumn programme.
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"It's the first time we have tried to do a lecture series such as this one at The Ath," said director Shona Powell. "Should it be a success - and there's every reason to suppose it will be, judging by the early enquiries we have received from members of the public - then Danny may well undertake a second series on a different theme in the spring."
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Danny's lectures, which start on Wednesday, will cover the history and development of Warminster through the ages, beginning with a look at history in the local landscape.
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Unusual place names, a look at Victorian and Edwardian Warminster, and a commentary on the changing face of the town will follow.
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The lectures will include slides, photographs and some of the research that Danny has done over the years into the make-up of the town.
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After starting his literary career as a poet, he turned to local history with the publication in 1984 of the Wylye Valley Life magazine. Books of photographs and postcards of Warminster and the surrounding area have followed, and recently he broke into television, writing the script for much of Clive Gunnell's summer series Along A Wiltshire River, which traced the course of the Wylye from Wilton to Warminster.
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His other current project is a bi-monthly magazine, the first issue of which is due out shortly, called Yesterday's Wessex, featuring transcripts of interviews he has recorded with pensioners throughout the West Country.
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Tickets for each of the lectures, which will be held weekly at 7.30 pm, are available now from The Athenaeum.
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Wiltshire Times And News, Friday 8 September 1989.
