Members' Exclusive Lectures

For new content, join us live on the second Monday of the month from 17:50pm. Instructions on how to join us will be sent in the Members' E-newsletter. All of our past Member's Exclusive Lectures are also available to watch on CCTdigital.com - you can access them by logging in with your membership details here. 

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February 2026

On Monday, 9 February 2026 from 17:50 we will welcome Helen Carr to talk about: Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century.

Beginning with the death of Edward I in 1307 and ending with the deposition of Richard II in 1399, Sceptred Isle is the story of a century told through the lives of the last Plantagenets, uncovering lesser-known voices and untold stories along the way. 

Through the epic drama of regicide, war, the prolonged spectre of the Black Death, religious antagonism, revolt and the end of a royal dynasty, we encounter the human stories behind a fractured monarchy, the birth of the struggle between Europeanism and nationalism, social rebellion and a global pandemic. 

Sceptred Isle is a thrilling narrative account of a century of revolution, shifting power and great change – social, political and cultural – shedding new light on a pivotal period of English history and the people who lived it. 

Helen Carr is an award nominated writer, historian specialising in medieval history and public history. 

She is the author of two Times top ten best-selling books, The Red Prince: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and recently, the instant bestselling, Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century. 

She is also the co-author and editor of What is History, Now?: A follow up to What is History? (1961) by her great-grandfather, the historian, E.H Carr.  

Helen writes and reviews non-fiction for the TLS, The Spectator, The Telegraph amongst others and she hosts podcasts for Intelligence Squared.  

Helen is a royal historian for Global News Canada and has broadcast for CNN, NBC, Sky and CityTV covering the British Royal Family.  

Helen is an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society and currently with Queen Mary University London. 

March 2026

On Monday, 9 March 2026 from 17:50 we will welcome Dan Snow to talk about: Faith in the Ice: Shackleton, Survival, and the Spirit of Antarctica 

Dan Snow’s talk explores Ernest Shackleton’s moral and spiritual leadership - how faith, ritual, and endurance shaped his expeditions - and link that to the later emergence of churches in Antarctica, such as the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Chapel of the Snows. It could open with his commemoration at Westminster Abbey, reflecting on how Britain has effectively sacralised the explorer’s story, before turning to how spiritual spaces and symbolism evolved at the ends of the earth. 

Dan Snow MBE is a BAFTA-winning historian, broadcaster and television presenter known for bringing global history vividly to life. His work ranges from Viking churches in Greenland to war-damaged heritage sites in Timbuktu, combining charismatic storytelling with serious historical depth. He has fronted major television series including Empire of the Seas, Britain’s Lost World, and Filthy Cities, as well as presenting national commemorative events for the BBC, from Trafalgar to D-Day. 

Dan is the host of Dan Snow’s History Hit, one of the world’s most-downloaded history podcasts, and the founder and Creative Director of History Hit, often described as “the Netflix of History.” In 2022, he joined the expedition that discovered Shackleton’s ship Endurance beneath the ice of Antarctica. 

April 2026

On Monday 13 April from 17:50 we will welcome Win Scutt to talk about: From Stone Circles to Steeples: Britain’s Sacred Landscape from Prehistory to the Parish Church.

Win Scutt is an archaeologist at English Heritage, whose research focuses on the later prehistory of Britain. He is particularly interested in how the study of place names can throw light on the language varieties spoken in all parts of Britain in all periods from the Stone Age until the Roman period. 

Further details to announced soon. 

May 2026

On Monday 11 May from 17:50 we will welcome Janet Gough to talk about: Divine Light, the Stained Glass of England's Cathedrals

Join author and historian Janet Gough for a colourful journey through 900 years of exceptional stained glass in England’s cathedrals. 

Drawing on superb images, this illustrated online talk explores what is arguably one of England’s least-known great art collections: stained glass still in situ across almost 50 cathedrals, and the Royal Peculiars, Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. 

Beginning with the dramatic windows created at Canterbury Cathedral in the aftermath of Thomas Becket’s murder in 1170, Janet traces the story of cathedral glass from the Middle Ages to the present day. Along the way she examines survival and loss at the Reformation, the explosion of creativity in the nineteenth century, the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the innovative, thought-provoking stained glass still being commissioned today. 

The talk, which accompanies Janet’s latest book Divine Light: The Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals, explores stained glass as art, as storytelling, and as a technical achievement, revealing how the refraction of light through coloured glass became an early form of mass communication - and why its power to inspire endures. 

June 2026

On Monday 15 June from 17:50 we will welcome Eleanor Doughty to talk about: Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy.

In this fascinating talk, Eleanor will share the fascinating new history of the British Aristocracy since the Second World War. 

There are fewer than 5000 people who can genuinely claim to be members of the British aristocracy, and yet they loom large in the popular consciousness. We're fascinated by their houses and estates, their lives and loves, their foibles and eccentricities. And we entertain the strong suspicion that, while they may be fellow citizens, they are very far from being People Like Us. 

In Heirs and Graces Eleanor Doughty draws on her unparalleled access to a bewildering range of dukes, duchesses, earls and others to create a vivid picture of who they are and how they tick. En route she traces their progress from a post-war era when they and their like were described by one future Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer as 'selfish, depraved, dissolute and decadent' to their diverse current roles as guardians of vast ancestral mansions, farmers, financiers and much else beside. She looks at key rites of passage, from cradle, via boarding school to grave. And she tells stories of their ups and downs, and of the doings of the heroes and villains who fill their ranks. 

The result is a wonderfully rich, often amusing, always revealing account of the fortunes of the aristocracy over the past century and a series of fascinating glimpses into what it is like to be an aristocrat in Britain today. 

Eleanor Doughty began her career in journalism at the Daily Telegraph, before going freelance to focus on writing and working at the i newspaper as deputy comment editor. She has written the 'Great Estates' column in the Telegraph since 2017, and specialises in writing about the moneyed and titled classes, in particular country houses and their owners, as well as related pursuits. Her writing appears in the Financial Times, the Spectator, Country Life, The Times and Sunday Times, The Field, and many other publications. When she is not writing, she can be found either on or near a horse, or out with her cocker spaniel. 

July 2026

Monday 13 July from 17:50 we will welcome Breeze Barrington to talk about: Praying in a Protestant Kingdom: Maria of Modena, Catholic Worship, and Sacred Space in Restoration England.

Drawing on her book Graces, Breeze explores the deeply fraught relationship between Catholic worship and sacred space in late seventeenth-century England through the life of Maria of Modena. As a Catholic duchess, and later queen, living in a resolutely Protestant country, Maria’s religious life was shaped by compromise, concealment, and quiet resistance. 

From praying in makeshift private spaces as Duchess of York to commissioning artworks that subtly ‘Catholicised’ royal chapels once she became queen, this lecture traces how faith was practised, negotiated, and made visible at court. Breeze also considers public access to royal chapels during Catholic mass, pilgrimages to holy wells, and the ways local churches became sites of tension and dissent in the years leading up to 1688. Together, these stories reveal how places of worship could become contested spaces, where religion, politics, and everyday life collided. 

Breeze Barrington is a historian specialising in the artistic cultures of the seventeenth century, with particular focus on women’s history and female artists. She holds a PhD on the literary and artistic cultures of the early Stuart court and has written for outlets including the Financial Times and the TLS. She has also worked as a consultant for Working Title and Monumental Pictures. Breeze has taught at many universities, including the University of Cambridge and is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. 

August 2026

Monday 10 August from 17:50 we will welcome Dr Rachel Delman to talk about: The Medieval Women Who Shaped Britain's Churches.

In this talk, Rachel will explore the women who shaped the built and material fabric of Britain's churches. From queens and noblewoman to gentry and townswomen, women are a ubiquitous yet often overlooked presence in archival and material sources as patrons and donors of churches and other religious buildings and establishments. As such, they influenced the physical and social fabric of these buildings and left behind significant artistic and cultural legacies. Drawing on wide-reaching examples encompassing cathedrals, collegiate foundations and parish churches from across the British Isles, this talk will show how and why women left their mark on churches, and why they are such a valuable resource for understanding medieval women’s lives today. 

Rachel is a historian and research partnerships professional working at the intersection of academia and heritage. She has published and taught widely on the late medieval and early Tudor periods, specialising in the areas of women’s and gender history, and material, place-based and spatial approaches. More specifically, her research examines women’s contributions to the built environment: from castles and great residences to townhouses, almshouses and schools, as expressions of gendered authority, power and agency.

Rachel’s recent publications have explored the afterlives of pre-modern buildings with dominant female narratives in modern-day settings and contexts. Alongside her academic research, Rachel is active as a public and community historian and a heritage consultant. Her research has featured in Le Monde and the New York Times, and she enjoys writing for Tudor Places magazine and the Conversation UK. 

Rachel returned to Oxford, where she completed her doctorate in History in 2017; to take up her role as Heritage Partnerships Coordinator in the Humanities Division in 2022, following research fellowships at the universities of Edinburgh (Susan Manning Fellow, IASH) and York (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow). In her current role, she facilitates and nurtures mutually beneficial partnerships between Oxford’s academic community and external heritage organisations including the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic Royal Palaces and the Charterhouse, among others. She also co-leads an award-winning programme of student and Early Career Researcher activities, including as co-convenor of Heritage Pathway, the Humanities Division’s flagship sector training programme.  More widely, Rachel is a Trustee of the Historic Towns and Villages Forum, an Advisory Board Member for the IHR’s Centre for the History of People, Place and Community, and a Fellow of Advance HE, the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 

September 2026

Monday 14 September from 17:50 we will welcome Emily Brand to talk about: The Fall of the House of Byron.

Based on her book The Fall of the House of Byron, Emily Brand explores the long and troubled relationship between the Byron family, religion, and the church in Georgian England. From their centuries-old association with Newstead Abbey’s priory church to Lord Byron’s contested burial and memorialisation at Hucknall Torkard, ecclesiastical spaces shaped how the Byrons were remembered, judged, and mythologised. 

This lecture examines how churches, abbeys, and parish life became stages for debates about morality, reputation, and decline in Georgian society. It also considers the powerful influence of Romanticism on attitudes to medieval ruins - how decay, abandonment, and sacred remnants were reimagined as symbols of loss, excess, and poetic legacy. Through the Byrons’ story, Emily reveals how religious spaces were never neutral backdrops, but active participants in the making, and unmaking, of aristocratic identity. 

Emily Brand is an author, historian, and genealogist specialising in the history of love and family life in Britain from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century. Her book The Fall of the House of Byron was widely acclaimed, selected as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week and named a Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, and BBC History Magazine Book of the Year. 

Formerly a senior editor at the University of Oxford, Emily has written for outlets including BBC History Magazine, The Times, The Telegraph, and The Washington Post, and has lectured at institutions such as the British Library, the V&A, and the National Maritime Museum. She is also a contributor to What is History, Now?, exploring why family history matters today.