Proof that history need not be a story told through dry documents from the viewpoint of the elite will be evident from Monmouth Field and History Society’s lecture this Friday at the Priory at 7pm when Dr Martin Wright, senior lecturer in history at Cardiff University, will be explaining how working people used objects and images to shape the labour movement from the eighteenth century and into the twentieth.

Based on his forthcoming book, Dr Wright’s illustrated talk, “Made By Labour: the material and visual history of the British labour movement from the 1780s to the 1920s”, will consider the role of things and images in the lives of working people. With his co-author, Professor Nick Mansfield, of the University of Central Lancashire, who brings a deep knowledge of the primary source materials derived from 30 years spent working in museums, they have drawn together recent research on material culture to tell labour’s history “from below” through studies of more than 90 beautifully illustrated and contextualised objects.

Dr Martin Wright is also the author of “Wales and Socialism: Political Culture and National Identity Before the Great War”. He worked for over a decade in adult education in rural Wales, making him something of an expert in the ways Welsh universities have served their communities, responding to the ways in which social, economic and cultural change have created a constantly evolving array of educational needs and aspirations. He was asked to give the lecture on “One hundred years of adult education in rural Wales” to mark the centenary of Aberystwyth University’s Lifelong Learning Department in 2020.

This is the final talk in the Field and History Society’s programme of winter lectures, which has attracted large audiences and seen the society’s membership double. Still to come is the summer outings programme of Trellech’s archaeology, a Forest of Dean geology field trip, a guided visit to Bath, a Town Walk covering Monk Street and The Parade, and the summer party for members. The first lecture of the new season will follow the annual meeting on Friday 22 September.

Membership is £10; guests (£5) are welcome at the lectures. For more information see the website, MonmouthHistory.co.uk.