Writer and historian Tony Hadland is a frequent public speaker, based in Oxfordshire. He will be pleased to come and talk to your group, company or conference. He brings his own computer and projector (including spare projector bulb!) and can supply a screen. All the talks are illustrated with pictures and, in some cases, with video or audio clips. Talks can, to some extent, be customised to your requirements, in respect of duration, focus and audience.
Born 1949 in Reading, Berkshire. Tony has lived in Reading, Oxford, South Oxfordshire and now in the Vale of White Horse. He spent 13 years in the West Midlands, literally having been sent to Coventry by his employer. He studied Architecture at the Oxford School of Architecture and surveying at Reading College of Technology. He has a website www.hadland.net and blog hadland.wordpress.com
Affiliations and involvement: Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; former member of the Institution of Information Scientists; historian specialising in local, family, recusant and cycle history; author, editor and occasional broadcaster; current editor of The Oxfordshire Family Historian; vice-chairman of the Oxfordshire Family History Society; committee member of the Oxfordshire Local History Association; Project Board member for the redevelopment of Abingdon County Hall Museum; Chairman of the Advisory Group to the Alex Moulton Museum, Bradford-on-Avon; former Administrator of the Vale & Downland Museum, Wantage.
Here is a selection of topics on which Tony can talk:
You donÕt realise how little you know about the Falklands
until you go there! Rosemary and Tony Hadland visited the islands in late 2008,
where their son Jeremy was based with the RAF. Tony already knew something of
the Falklands, as a friend of his mother was married to a Falkland islander
– one of the councillors who negotiated unsuccessfully with the
Argentines before the 1982 conflict. However, nothing prepares you for the rugged
beauty of the place and the fascinating wildlife. On their return, Rosemary
produced an exhibition of photos and memorabilia for the Vale & Downland
Museum, subsequently shown at the Oxfordshire County Museum. This popular talk
was created to augment the exhibition and is available in four lengths, to suit
different venues and audiences. Wildlife, landscape and lifestyle are the key
features. Presented with photographer Rosemary Hadland.
Islay is the most cosmopolitan of the Hebridean islands and arguably the most varied geographically. Lying between Northern Ireland and the Scottish mainland, it was once the seat of the Lords of the Isles. A two-hour ferry ride from the mainland, Islay is famous for its wildlife and whisky. This talk introduces you to the place, its people and landscape, and includes a wide range of photographs, demonstrating the striking scenery of the island. Presented with photographer Rosemary Hadland.
William Gill was an officer in the Royal Engineers who unexpectedly inherited a huge fortune. Rather than leave the army and spend the money on wine, women and song, he remained in the REs and became a self-financed explorer and intelligence officer. For his travels in China and Tibet he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. After the Crimean War, he was involved in negotiating the border between Turkey and Russia, and worked undercover in North Africa. During the nationalist revolt in Egypt, William Gill went undercover again. He was sent, disguised as an Arab, to cut the telegraph lines from Constantinople to Alexandria. His cover was blown and he and his companions were murdered in the desert. They were buried in St PaulÕs Cathedral, London. Tony Hadland is William GillÕs great-great-nephew and tells the fascinating story of this courageous and very Victorian character.
Tony is vice-chairman of the Oxfordshire Family History Society and has been tracing his family history for nearly 30 years. His fatherÕs Hadland ancestors were in Oxfordshire for centuries but his motherÕs ancestry was quite a different matter. This talk spotlights TonyÕs ancestors in India and Ireland. They include an English painter and pioneering photographer, a mysterious Indian lady and a handsome Irish soldier with divided loyalties. In getting to the truth, family myths have been deconstructed to reveal a fascinating story that earlier generations would have found shocking.
After years of wondering whether it was worthwhile, Tony Hadland took a comprehensive DNA test. His aim was to prove (or disprove) a family tradition that his great-grandmother, Mildred Gill, was of Spanish descent. The test confirmed a cover-up going back several generations that but also threw up fascinating information about his Oxfordshire agricultural labourer ancestors, possibly linking them to the spread of agriculture from the Fertile Crescent.
Family tradition said that Tony Hadland's great-grandfather, Thomas Young, was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Raglan. Thomas's mother was the teenage daughter of a miner in the Forest of Dean. Using techniques anybody can employ, Tony discovered that the truth was even more interesting than the legend.
Tony HadlandÕs father-in-law, Herbert Jeffree, was head of physics at the British Aircraft Corporation. His family has had a continuous involvement with engineering for well over 200 years. Tony Hadland traces the Jeffree familyÕs involvement with steam engineering, from Camborne to Brooklands, via the sewers of London.
With origins in a small forge established in the early 19th century, the Wantage Engineering Company grew during Victorian times to become a maker of traction engines and stationary steam engines. Revived and expanded by Lord Wantage in the early 20th century, the company was a major employer in the Vale of White Horse. It added mining machinery to its output and even made casings for the famous bouncing bombs. This talk gives an introduction to the company and makes extensive use of archive photographs.
This two-part illustrated talk traces the development of Wantage Engineering Ltd and Nalder & Nalder, both of which exported agricultural machinery worldwide. We also explore the history of the Wantage Tramway and look at what remains of these three manifestations of the industrial revolution in rural Berkshire.
Few counties have as many museums, or as varied a selection, as Oxfordshire. They range from lovingly preserved examples of Victorian engineering open only a few days a year, to BritainÕs senior museum, the mighty Ashmolean. This talk gives an overview of the museums of the county, highlighting interesting examples and explaining how they are managed and financed.
Recusants were people who, after the Reformation, refused to conform to the Church of England. This talk reveals the secretive survival of Catholicism in Oxfordshire (including former North Berkshire). A surprising number of key events in English post-Reformation Catholic history happened in the area. Examples are given of surviving records and sources of further information.
This presentation tells the story of post-Reformation Catholic survival in Berkshire and Southern Oxfordshire, including Reading and Oxford.
This popular talk tells the story of post-Reformation Catholic survival in former North Berkshire.
Sir Francis Englefield, Edmund Plowden and William Woollascott were all Thames Valley gentry who resisted Queen ElizabethÕs orders to become Anglicans. They adopted very different strategies, ranging from armed resistance to feigned conformity. But which worked best?
Thomas Vachell was the heir of an old Reading gentry family; his wife was a Reade from Abingdon. ThomasÕs father suppressed the hugely wealthy Reading Abbey, yet Thomas doggedly stuck to Ôthe old faithÕ. His story spans five monarchs and four changes of religion. He became the most fined man in Oxfordshire, his wealth was seized in a government raid and, as a result of Ôswimming against the tideÕ, he fell out with his wife. Thomas VachellÕs story illustrates some of the huge changes England went through in the Tudor and early Stuart era – and it has a fairly happy ending!
The Moulton was an icon of the Swinging Sixties – a minibike to go with mini cars and miniskirts. In 1962, John Woodburn, riding a Moulton, broke the Cardiff-London record. The Moulton was also used successfully as a long distance and trans-continental tourer. But it was as a stylish unisex utility machine for all the family that it made its greatest impact. In the 1960s, it helped save the British cycle industry, which was in steep decline. Today, Moulton is one of the few British cycle companies still making bikes in the UK. This talk tells the story of this unusual and enduring machine – one of the few successful attempts to redesign the bicycle.
The Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub gear took the cycling world by storm in the Edwardian era. For a lifetime or more, hub gears became standard fittings for quality bicycles. This talk explains in simple terms how hub gears work and whatÕs good about them. It reveals the cover-up behind invention of the first Sturmey-Archer gear and tells how this great British firm was allowed to decline before being sold to Taiwanese owners. We celebrate the heyday of hub gears and look at the future for hub gears in general and Sturmey-Archer in particular.
Founded in a Nottingham back-street, and turned into a huge enterprise by a ropemakerÕs son who became a baronet, Raleigh was once the biggest bicycle company in the world. At various times, the firm also made motorcycles, cars, munitions and gears for bicycles and motorcycles. This talk introduces some of RaleighÕs key personalities and products and gives an insight into the massive industrial enterprise that meant so much to the city of Nottingham. We look at Raleigh's triumphs and failures and get a glimpse of what the company is doing today.
ÔPortableÕ is the generic term for bikes that fold or take apart for easy storage or carriage on trains, buses, planes or in car boots. Portable bicycles have been around since the so-called ÔPenny FarthingÕ, in many ingenious forms. They range from the elegantly functional to the truly awful. Tony Hadland is co-author of a history of portable cycles and has travelled with them on planes, boats, trains, trams and buses. This talk traces the story of portable bikes and will help you decide whether there is one that suits your needs.
In this talk, Tony traces the story of the offshore pirate radio stations of the 1960s, including ÔBig LÕ and Radio Caroline. He explains how restrictions on broadcasting light entertainment existed in the UK from the earliest days of public broadcasting and shows how, between the two world wars, the first generation of offshore stations were land-based, in Normandy, Luxembourg and elsewhere. Offshore ship-based broadcasting developed first in Scandinavia in the 1950s, then in Belgium and the Netherlands, before the first British stations went live in the 1960s. The talk is brought to life with numerous audio clips.
The history of the Mac, how it differs from a PC and
dispelling myths about Macs. Are there advantages to using a Mac? Is it more
expensive? Can you run Windows on a Mac? This talk is a good way to find out
whether your next computer should be an Apple.
Speaking fee:
£30 for charities and not-for-profit groups.
£50 for commercial companies/events.
Travelling expenses:
For charities and not-for-profit groups, approximately 25p per mile travelled.
For commercial companies/events, approximately 40p per mile travelled.
Examples of travel charges for charities and not-for-profit
groups:
Wantage = £5
Witney = £5
Oxford = £8
Swindon = £8
Banbury = £21
Reading = £22
Basingstoke = £24
Southampton = £36
Email Tony at mail@hadland.net
Telephone +44 (0)7776 211634
Write to 4 Barcote Cottages, Buckland, FARINGDON, Oxfordshire, SN7 8PP
Rev. 9 March 2011
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