Beccy Speight is Chief Executive Officer of the RSPB, the largest nature conservation organisation in the UK, with 1.2 million members, more than 2,000 employees and around 12,000 volunteers.

The RSPB has more than 200 nature reserves across the UK; wild havens where everyone can get closer to ...

What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can - if you know where to look. A brilliant new cultural history of the long eighteenth century, Writing on the Wall is told through the marks its citizens left behind, bringing into focus lost voices from the highest to the lowest ...

Son of Edward III, brother to the Black Prince, father to Henry IV and sire of all the Tudors, John of Gaunt was always close to the English crown. But was he too rich and too powerful and did he have his eye on his nephew’s throne? Why was he such a focus of hate in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381?...

St Mary’s church in Thame houses a series of brass memorials to the Quatermain family, local gentry who came to prominence in the later medieval period. Four generations of the family are depicted, showcasing their steady lordship across the fifteenth century. Yet all is not as it seems. This tal...

We all know about gift-giving: it can nurture our friendships and help to mark the most important moments in our lives. But gifts can also be a source of anxiety, or a reminder of unequal relationships. Writing has always existed alongside the dynamics of giving and exchanging, and in this lectur...

Churches have been home to bats for hundreds of years, but having these fascinating species make a home in your church isn’t always a blessing…

For the past five years the Bats In Churches Project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, has been working with architects, ecologists, ch...

Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half-truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century and remain widespread today.

The true history of science and religion is a human one. It’s about the role of religion in inspiring, and strangling, science before t...

On 10/11 June 323 BC, King Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander ‘the Great’, died in Babylon aged 32. In his lifetime, he had forged one of the largest empires the world had yet seen, theoretically stretching from Greece to the Punjab, from Egypt to Samarkand. What followed his dea...

The Hollywood story version of the clash between Christians and pagans is simple: in this story, nasty, brutish Romans throw gentle, uncomplaining Christians to the lions. The truth was more complicated - and Christianity was much less meek. When Christians came to power in the Roman world, they ...

Extraordinary women have held positions of power throughout history. But, aside from the select few, why do we not hear about them? The middle ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, Saints and Kings: a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But by digging a little deeper...

Join us as we hear all about iconic church stories. Writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford, inveterate “church crawler” and author of ‘If These Stones Could Talk: A History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland’, published in paperback last year by Hodder, will share some favourite churches from ...

Although many new houses were constructed in a broadly classical style, others were inspired by the Scottish tradition of castellated architecture. In this talk, Emma Baillie will present her research into the history of three prominent Scottish country houses – Blair Castle, Inveraray (Inverer-r...

The name Crusoe is eternally linked with Daniel Defoe's castaway Robinson Crusoe. The Crusos were, however, a real-life family who took refuge in England during the Dutch Revolt. Dr. Christopher Joby has published a book on the life and work of one of the more illustrious members of this family, ...

DaeWha Kang will speak about his full regeneration of St Andrew Holborn, a Grade 1 listed church built by Wren and damaged in the war. In addition to a deep dive into architectural design and virtuoso craftsmanship, DaeWha will reflect on broader considerations of the design profession. In partic...

The church of All Saints, Little Somborne (CCT) is not busy or grand. It lacks gilt and marble as well as electricity and plumbing. However, it is wondrously rich in stories. Frederick’s family have been connected to this church since the 16th Century and over the course of this talk, he will cha...

This talk will provide evidence of the particular contributions of feminist interpretation of the Bible. However, no one has to a feminist to observe that many passages, motifs, themes, and the meta-narrative itself proclaim liberation—redemption—from oppression, subverting the patriarchy that it...

Brig Michael Aris CBE DL and Richard Bennett DL, both experienced guides at the Duke of Wellington’s country home at Stratfield Saye, in Hampshire. They will give a fully illustrated presentation about the Life of Service which the 1st Duke of Wellington, known to all as 'The Great Duke'. This, b...

Professor Howard has had a lifelong enthusiast for the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance particularly in Florence, and his talk today focusses on the churches of the two great pioneering architects of the early Renaissance, Brunelleschi and Alberti, who radically reshaped the desig...

In this lecture, Alice will talk through the history of three remarkable CCT churches which were featured, and also discuss more generally the challenges and thrills of bringing church and cathedral history to mainstream audiences.

Alice Loxton is a historian, presenter and writer. She presents...

Across England, rows of parallel vertical scars can be found on church stonework, clustered around porches, doors and windows; for upwards of a century, local antiquarians have been assuring us that these marks were made by the archers of medieval England sharpening their arrows. This well-loved ...

We welcome back Mark Hatton, an expert in the field of Memento Mori. These symbolic tropes act as a reminder of the inevitability of death and within this lecture are discussed in conjunction with the use of Adam and Eve imagery on eighteenth-century stones. As we venture further into this subjec...

On 24 May 1497 Girolamo Savonarola was led out to a scaffold in the middle of the Piazza della Signoria. Crowds gathered around and watched as he was publically humiliated before being hanged and burned. But what did this man do that warranted such a horrendous death? Born on 21 September 1458 in...

Join acclaimed art historian and one of the leading art critics in the world, Andrew Graham-Dixon for a fascinating lecture, Passion and Resurrection: The Purging of Art in the Reformation. At this exclusive Member lecture, Andrew will take attendees on a visual journey through art, showing some ...

Join our Conservation Manager for the West region, Meriel O'Dowd, as she explores the various successes and challenges CCT have faced saving historic churches, and get an insight into future churches coming our way.