Previous Talks

Below are links to summaries of talks that have been given since 2020, to illustrate the breadth of subjects covered.

These summaries are based on notes taken during the talks and presented in good faith as summaries of the factual elements of them. They are believed to be accurate. However, Stockton on Tees Probus Club does not have the resources to verify them and can make no assurances about their content. Any opinions expressed in the talk, or the summary, are not necessarily those of the club.

Talks from 2026

Land of Iron
Bring Back the Workhouse
Stained Glass from Bede to the Present Day
Tees Archaeology – its Role and Recent Local Work
Conflicted – Health Care in Cambodia
The Durham Lesotho Link
The Battle of Britain in NE England
Being a Mine Geologist
Kenya: a Gynaecological Safari
The Daughter of Time
Doing Business in Different Countries
“To Tax and to Please – is not Given to Men”

Talks from 2025

The Air Ambulance
Memories of Stockton
TV Quiz Shows
Ireland Revisited
Enigma
Elizabeth of Glamis
Age UK
The History of the Jazz Piano
Owl Sanctuary and Display
1066 – National Catastrophe, or Saving Grace
Keith Parks, the Man Who Saved the World
The Rise and Fall of the Pease Family in Darlington
Josephine Butler
The S&DR – The Railway that got the World on Track
Farming in Yorkshire and Newham
Wildlife and Conservation Projects at Saltholme and the Wider RSPB
Order of St John’s Eye Hospital in Jerusalem
Recycling Changes in Stockton

Talks from 2024

History of the Census
Gertrude Lothian Bell
The River Tees from South Gare to Yarm
British Hansa Merchants
From Pottery to Purpose
Search for the NW Passage
Opera Part Two
Lewis Carroll
Commonwealth War Graves
Why did Germany lose the war in 1918?
Diet, Disease and Death – and James Cook
The Golden Age of Radio
The Hollywood Rat Pack
Estate Planning
Fraud – Police Engagement
The best of the best
One man’s military career, in peace, war, and peace
Bridget Talbot – The Heart of Kiplin
The Poems of Rudyard Kipling

Talks from 2023

Three Stories in One
The North Yorkshire Moors Association
If You Can See It, You’ve Missed It!
80 Years of Desert Island Discs
Remaking Beamish
A History of Moving Pictures
Living Overseas
Ladies on Pedestals
My Falklands
Life and History of a French Village
Effects of the Railway on Teesside
Family Tree
Yorkshire’s Last Abbey
Nuclear Decommissioning
Hartlepool Canoe Man
Cleveland Mountain Rescue
The Upper Tees
Norman Cornish, Painter
HM Coastguard

Talks from 2022

A Virtual Tour of Head Wrightsons
Defiant the Forgotten Fighter and Myths of the Battle of Britain
Highpoints
Viewpoints in the Tees Valley
Inn and Out at the Top
Two Convoys
Stockton Y Station
Stockton’s Involvement in Cambodia
Ormesby Hall and the Perrymans
Searching for My Father
Bees and Pollination
From Operators to Zoom
The Fearless Flyers of Marske
Jacking For Dummies
Guide Dogs for the Blind
Fast and Loose – Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten
Bold as Brass

Talks from 2021

The Worst Journey in the World (2)
Give Us Daily Bread
Everest Challenge
Spies and Terrorists
Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Lower Swaledale
Clive of India
The Aurora and the Ross Sea Party
Ghosts and Grisly Death in Durham City
Stumbling Towards Artificial Intelligence
The Fighting Bradfords
Grand Opera 1 – Artistes
Grand Opera 2 – Composers
The Origin and Evolution of Heraldry
The Maid of Norway
The John Muir Walk
The National Grid
Edward the Seventh
RAN Courts Martial

Talks from 2020

Malcolm MacDonald: Britain’s Back Channel Diplomat
Skelton Hellfire Club
Our Changing Language
What Car Parking Tells Us About Environmental Law
John Betjeman
Vehicles Owned
A Piece Of Land In Hartburn
The History of Corn Milling
Alice in Wonderland
The Worst Journey in the World (1)
Drunken Midwives and Common Strumpets
The Day That Changed My Life
Magnolia House
Aconcagua
Here Comes Her Majesty Now
William Bligh: Victim or Hero
Upper Swaledale