| Speaker's Name | Bob Ricketts | |
|---|---|---|
| Are you an Individual or represent an Organisation / Company? | Individual | |
| Telephone / Mobile Number | 07926 706223 | |
| Would you be able to present In Person, via Zoom or either? | In person only | |
| What equipment do you need to be provided by hosts? eg Screen, laptop, projector | Screen required. I will bring laptop & projector | |
| Any travel restrictions? Such as Time or Distance | No travel restrictions | |
| What are the charges? Such as Travel Expenses, Charge for talk. | No charge, but would appreciate the opportunity to publicise BAALHS | |
| Speaker's Biography | Chair of Bedford Architectural, Archaeological & Local History Society, the Friends of Foster Hill Road Cemetery, & Bedfordshire Historical Record Society. Editor Bedford Local History Magazine (BLHM). Researched and published numerous articles on Bedford-related topics in BLHM. Presented talks on a wide variety of subjects to local groups. Co-authored: Bedford History Timeline: Over a thousand years of the town’s history (with Alan Crawley, published by BAALHS, 2019); Bedford’s Victorian Cemetery (with Linda Ayres, Adrian Bean et al, published by the Friends of Bedford Cemetery, second edition 2022); The Turner Letters: Letters from Home: Milton Ernest, Bedfordshire to St. Andrews, New Brunswick 1830-1845 (with David Newman & James Collett-White, published by Bedfordshire Historical Record Society – volume 97 – and Boydell & Brewer). Currently researching & writing Bedford 1939-1999: A Town Transformed (to be published by HMCA). Career: Manager, then Director and District General Manager of a range of NHS bodies; Director of Performance of East Anglia and Oxford & Anglia Regional Health Authorities; senior civil servant at the Department of Health; awarded the CBE for ground-breaking initiatives to cut surgical waiting times and introduce patient choice of hospitals. |
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| Talk | Duration | Summary |
| Bedford and its River – from workplace to pleasure ground | 1 hour | The Ouse has been integral to Bedford’s development. The story of the Ouse navigation and riverside industries (mills, sea coal, breweries). As river traffic ceased, the banks became a Victorian pleasure ground. |
| Jolly Good Boating Weather – pleasure boats, boat builders, regattas & rowing | 1 hour | Pleasure boats and river launches were a common summer pastime. Local boatbuilders provided and hired the craft, including a floating bandstand! The history of competitive rowing, clubs and Bedford Regatta |
| Votes for Women! The suffrage movement in Bedford & north Bedfordshire | 1 hour | Bedford had an active and campaigning women’s suffrage movement. This talk tells their story and that of the brave women who led them. |
| Bedford Between the Wars: 1914 to 1939 | 1 hour | Bedford during the First World War. Post-war challenges & recovery. Arc deco Bedford. |
| A town transformed: Bedford in the 1950s-1970s. | 1 hour | How Bedford planned for the future and transformed itself. Waves of migration, new industries (Texas Instruments), housing estates & ‘local neighbourhoods’. |
| Bedford in the 1950s | 1 hour | An illustrated tour of Bedford in 1950-51; the Festival of Britain; the Coronation; the Italians – ‘Little Italy’. |
| A Bookless Town – the fight for Bedford’s Library | 1 hour | Bedford was one of the last major towns to have a public library. This talk tells the story of its private predecessors, and the battle from the 1930s against vested interests to provide citizens with a free library. |
| Unhealthy Bedford – Plague, Pestilence & Fever | 1 hour | Even by Victorian standards, Bedford was a particularly unhealthy town. Polluted water, no sewerage, overcrowded dwellings & over-flowing churchyards. Bedford’s residents suffered badly from successive outbreaks of the plague, smallpox, typhus, cholera and typhoid. How Bedford Corporation cleaned up the town. |