Local History Speakers
David J Eveleigh
David J Eveleigh was born in Prenton, Wirral and grew up in Higher Bebington. He has worked in the field of heritage conservation and museums for over forty years, His interests range from open-air museums, social and industrial history, to architecture and the history of domestic interiors. He has published and lectured widely in these fields. His latest book, published by The History Press, is ‘Escaping Suburbia’, a personal account of growing up on Merseyside in the 1960s. He is a Fellow of the Museums Association, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and currently an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History & Cultures at the University of Birmingham.
dj.eveleigh@btinternet.com Tel: 07399 581081
The ‘Marlborough’. A wash down water closet basin with transfer printed decoration by Thomas Crapper & Co., Chelsea, c.1890
Bogs, Baths & Basins – A History of Domestic Sanitation
Did Thomas Crapper really invent the modern toilet? And why do we talk of lavatories? These and other questions are answered in this lecture which charts the development of domestic sanitary arrangements from the primitive privy to the introduction of the modern bathroom. Not for the faint hearted or squeamish.
Larchwoood Drive, Bebington, c. 1935
Red Roofs and Green Gables - The 1930s Home
1930s housing forms one of the most instantly recognisable elements of the English urban landscape. Illustrated with examples from Metroland to Merseyside, this lecture takes a close look at the external architecture, internal plan and furnishings.
Cottage kitchen in Davenham, Cheshire, 1839
The Victorian Kitchen
A description of life and work in the Victorian kitchen. Using a wide range of contemporary sources and recent fieldwork, the lecture describes the layout and furnishings of kitchens from the large country house to the homes of the working class labourer. The lecture describes the utensils used for roasting, boiling and baking and other operations carried out over a ‘clear, bright fire’.
Cast-iron arch plate register grate from the Art Journal, 1851
Inglenooks and Hobs
A history of the domestic fireplace from the medieval open central hearth to the fireplaces of the twentieth century suburban home. It looks at how architectural fashions, new materials and the choice of fuel – wood, coal and gas – has shaped fireplace design.
A Victorian open flame fish tail gas burner
Oil, Candle & Gas – A Social History of Domestic Lighting
The lecture describes the various solutions to making and finding light in the home after dark from the primitive rush light which survived in some remote parts of North Wales into the twentieth century to the electric light bulb. The lecture covers the introduction of gas lighting, the invention of the friction match, Victorian improvements to candle manufacture and innovations in oil lighting, concluding with the introduction of lighting by incandescence from 1880.
Higher Bebington windmill photographed a few years before its demolition in 1969
Escaping Suburbia – A 1960s Merseyside childhood
Based on David Eveleigh’s book published by The History Press, this is a light-hearted portrait of everyday suburban life in the 1960s through the eyes of a schoolboy living in Higher Bebington. It includes a description of home life, going to school and an exploration of the immediate locality including the Quarry and the remains of the Storeton Tramway.