2025 Speaker Programme

Speaker Programme
2025

January 9th	Derbyshire Wildlife Trust - Mark Heaven Mark is Head of Fundraising at the Trust and has worked there for 3 years. Prior to this he spent 30 years in the corporate world, where he ran global divisions of large PLCs and private companies	July 10h	Hearing Dogs for Deaf People - Dawn Swepstone Dawn lost her hearing 21 years ago, as a result of Meniere’s Disease. She has worked for the Charity since 2015 and in 2018, when she realised she needed more help, she applied for a Hearing Dog to assist her. Digby is a cocker/working cocker spaniel cross and has been with her for over 4 years.
February 13th	Energy Transition - Stephen Snow Stehen is an ex-physicist and writer, promoting sustainable energy from a pragmatic, self-interest point of view. In a former life he worked on experiments at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics near Geneva, where his proudest claim was to be one of the 3,172 authors of the paper that announced the discovery of the Higgs-Boson.	August 14th	The Far Side of the Moon – Is it Full of Aliens? - Julian Onions Julian is a post-doctorate researcher and lecturer at Nottingham University, in the Astronomy department.
March 13th	The Origins of Local Place Names - Anthony Poulton-Smith Anthony is freelance journalist and author, with 89 books and many articles to his name, mostly about the origins of place names. He has compiled many crosswords and other puzzles, has been the subject of several radio interviews and is a Trustee of Tamworth History Group, Tamworth Literary festival and other Tamworth groups	September 11th	Giants of the Sky – Zeppelin, Ship of Dreams -David Skillen David is retired and lives in Belper, where he was a guide at the famous Belper North Mill for three years. During his studies of the American Civil War, he and his wife Lynn travelled widely across the United States visiting the war’s battlefields as well as the Alamo. David and Lynn also have a strong interest in the Wars of the Roses and David was a battlefield guide for the Society for 7 years.
April 10th	Confessions of a Coach Driver - Nick Blurton A retired HR professional, with an extensive background, Nick started his career with Rolls-Royce before spending most of his life in the building products and quarrying industry. He has worked as a coach driver on a part-time basis throughout his career and since retiring has taken it up more or less full-time.	October 9th	Mary, Queen of Scots – Her Final Journey David Templeman David gave us a very interesting and spell-binding presentation about the early days of Mary Queen of Scots in January 2019 and returns to continue the story. David is an Elizabethan historian, a nationally known speaker and Chair of the Friends of Sheffield Manor Lodge, where he became a guide in 2004
May 8th	Smile Please – Say Yes to CHEESE - Ian Rogerson Ian grew up in a butcher’s shop and followed in his father’s footsteps, taking over the family shop, supplying the local community and hotels. Through doing this he developed a taste and a business opportunity for supplying cheese to the hotels and through his shop. His interest became a passion and his talk takes us through the development of Stilton cheese, with a wide selection of cheeses to taste at the end.	November 13th	Fraud Tammy Barnes Tammy is a Fraud Protect Officer with Derby Police
June 12th	Apples and Bees - James Ellson James was a Police Officer for 15 years, starting in London and finishing as a DI in Manchester. He has been a writer since then, his first novel, The Trail, being published in 2020 and the sequel, Cold Dawn, in August 2022. He lives with his wife on a smallholding in the Peak District, which includes Bees and an Orchard.