The LLHG Committee hopes that all members and our followers are keeping well and that they and their families have avoided theban effects of the C19 plague.
We couldn't go on for ever postponing our meetings so we had the AGM by Zoom and it proved quite successful. We are therefore going ahead with the first speaker meeting (18 February) by Zoom to see if the membership likes it. If this is successful we will continue the 2021 programme via Zoom until at least the middle of the year. We hope that social distancing requirements will allow us to have an outdoor meeting in mid June, after which we will take our usual summer break and with luck re-commence normal indoor meetings in September. A provisional programme is posted in the "Meetings" section of this website.

After a good deal of thought the LLHG Committee has decided (w.e.f. 24 July) that the remaining 3 meetings in our 2020 programme are cancelled. We are not confident that the need for social distancing will evaporate in the near future thus making it unfeasible for Levens Institute to host our members and visitors.  We hope that we will be able to welcome everyone back in January 2021 when our AGM falls due.

Although there has been some relaxation of the stay safe rules and there might well be more to come soon there is neither the certainty that it will be enough to make our "Great Fire of Flookburgh" walk hosted by Helen Evans of Oxford Archaeology feasible, nor that our members would wish to be in a gathering. On behalf of LLHG Committee I have emailed Helen to cancel and to ask if it can be rescheduled to 2021..

​Allan Steward 

Having had to cancel the March and April meetings we regret to tell you that the one scheduled for MAY 21st is also CANCELLED.
We are still hoping that the outdoor meeting on June 18th when Helen Evans is due to tell us about The Great Fire of Flookburgh will be able to go ahead but the chances are diminishing.

Remember our WW1 centenary exhibition on Armistice Sunday 2018?

That was part of our WW1 project for which we received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant also funded the other part of the project, a commemorative book.

​This book, which was researched, written and produced by LLHG members, will be launched at an event in the Levens village Institute on Saturday 1 February from 14.00 to 17.00. There is no admission charge and refreshments (wine, soft drinks and nibbles) will be provided, and copies of the book will be available - all are welcome, see the poster below.

Please note that we are NOT selling the book but instead will ask for recipients to make a donation which will be split 50/50 between LLHG and SSAFA - the Armed Forces charity, formerly known as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, which provides lifelong support to serving men and women and veterans from the British Armed Forces and their families or dependents. We have chosen this particular charity because one of the people mentioned in the book was the local organiser for its predecessor “The Soldiers, Sailors and Families Association” at the outbreak of the war in 1914.

The Levens Local History Group talks are held at Levens Institute at 7:30pm on the 3rd Thursday of the month, unless otherwise stated. Admission is free to members and £2 to others. The programme for 2020 is as follows:

January 16:         AGM - Dave Joy  –   Liverpool Cowkeepers - A Family History
February 20:         Alasdair Simpson – Crossfields of Arnside
March 19:         Mike Winstanley – Crime & Punishment
April 16:         David Ratledge – Roman Roads in South Lakeland
May 21:         June Hall – Vernacular Buildings
June 18:         Walk - Helen Evans – The Great Fire of Flookburgh
September 17:         Richard Preston – WWI Medicine in Cumbria
October 15:         Ian Saunders – Maps
November 19:         ​Lydia Prosser – The  Portable Antiquities Scheme, a Local Update