A Chartist conference

National coordinator for Shared Learning Projects Jennifer Simpson describes a special U3A project on the Chartist Movement.

I was delighted to hear a talk from Peter Cox from North London U3A this month on the Chartist movement (1838-1858) at a one day conference hosted by University College London.

Peter Cox’s talk, "Transcribing the Land Company Share Register" described how a team of U3A members led by himself went through three large share registers in the National Archive at Kew, initially for the Citizen 800 project but latterly as a piece of research focussing on the back stories of the women who bought shares in a land lottery scheme.

Many of these women lived in Devon and two local U3A members are now looking into the woman’s lives.  Many more women who could afford the £2-10 shilling subscription are listed for other UK regions. In the feedback session after Peter’s talk, members of the audience congratulated the U3A and described the findings as a "Fantastic Project".

U3A members are enthusiastic about doing research and appreciate opportunities to work with universities.

During the talk, Peter said that If other U3As would like to get involved in the Chartist women’s project there are opportunities to do more and Peter is happy to help and advise”.