The Branscombe Project

Go to next page of Past Winter Talks

9-Jan-2023

Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia

Patrick Dillon

For millennia, the temperate landscapes of south-west England have supported a form of pastoralism characterised by livestock farming.

But what might have emerged had the climate been less benign and the topography more challenging?

13-Feb-2023

Art & Archaeology

Digging Deep into Landscape

Rose Ferraby

10-Apr-2023

The Burnt House at Weston

Stuart Blaylock & Barbara Farquharson

27-Nov 2023

The Third Annual John Torrance Talk

Heritage Lost and Found:

Nature, Culture & the Story of a Stone

Caitlin DeSilvey (Exeter University)

A talk about recent work with the heritage sector exploring how the ‘loss’ of (architectural and horticultural) heritage due to accelerated climate change can also generate opportunities for creating new links to the past, and pathways to a resilient future.

12-Feb-2024

Dorstone Hill & Arthur’s Stone:

A Neolithic Landscape in Herefrodshire

Julian Thomas

13-Mar-2023

A New Natural History of Britain

Naomi Sykes

8-May-2023

Branscombe: Rewilding & Biodiversity

Nicola Westlake & Ian Crowe

8-Jan-2024

An Insight into My World as a Wildlife Photographer

Robin Morrison

11-Mar-2024

Making a Palaeolithic Flint Hand Axe

Mark Edmonds

22-Apr-2024

Down Weston Combe and into the Meadow

Reflections on Nature and Learning

David Selby

25 Nov 2024

The Annual John Torrance Talk

Red River Project

John Wedgewood Clarke

The Red River may be small and ugly in places, but it tells us a lot about what we value and our attitude to the natural world. It has been polluted for centuries and evolved its own unique ecological response to the impact of tin mining, including trout adapted to its toxic water. Tidying it up has, in the past, involved destroying both industrial ruins and unofficial playgrounds, as well as unique hot-spots of biodiversity. The most damaged and scrappy places along the river are, paradoxically, the most biodiverse and culturally important.