The Nicola Verdon Memorial Conference – April 2026.

On Thursday 30 April and Friday 1 May the British Agricultural History Society is supporting a two-day memorial conference at Sheffield Hallam University to celebrate Nicola Verdon’s pioneering work.

Remembering Professor Nicola Verdon.

All Society members, friends of Nicola, researchers in areas in which Nicola was engaged and those who admired her work and regret her loss are invited to attend.

Programme.

Thursday 30 April 2026.

• 10.30 Registration, coffee.
• 11.00 Introduction.
• 11.15-12.45, Session One.
  • Jane Whittle, ‘Women’s wage labour in nineteenth-century agriculture: a long-term perspective’.
  • Joyce Burnette, ‘Agricultural Day Labourers: What Did They Do the Rest of the Year?’.
  • Paul Warde, ‘Tamlaght 1840: women’s work in an Irish community’.
• Lunch.
• 2.00-3.00, Session Two.
  • Henry French, ‘Pioneers: Women and Farming on Exmoor, 1820-1900’.
  • Nadine Vivier, ‘The role of women in running farms (France, 1840-1914)’.
• Break.
• 3.30-4.30, Session Three.
  • Claire Griffiths, ‘A Landscape for Women: citizenship, work and rural modernity in the novels of Winifred Holtby’.
  • Andrew Walker, ‘The changing roles and representation of women on the agricultural showground: the case of Lincolnshire, 1867-1939’.
• Break.
• 5.00-6.00, Session Four.
  • Alison Twells, ‘A Dog Named Sheffield? Hannah Law’s letters from Tasmania, 1835-1841’.

Friday 1 May 2026.

• 10.00-11.00, Session Five by Zoom.
  • Jennifer Jones, ‘“George has gone to Durham Ox to look for “Rodney”, the rascal”: Animal agency and the settler colonial project prior to fencing’.
  • Emma Robertson and Jennifer Jones, ‘From Squatter’s Daughters to “Pioneering” Rice Farmers: Lois and Margaret Grant and the Australian Rice Industry, 1922-28’.
• Break.
• 11.30-12.00, Session Six.
  • Flying the flag for Nicola. An open session of reminiscence and recollection.
• 12.00-1.00, Session Seven.
  • Karen Sayer, ‘Who did the work? Looking for labourers after the 194 Agriculture Act’.
  • Sian Edwards, ‘Constructing the Farmer’s Wife: Gender, Domesticity, and Representation in the British Farming Press, 1945-1960’ (by Zoom).
• Lunch.
• 2.00-3.00, Session Eight.
  • Samantha A. Shave, ‘Outside the Workhouse: Rural Women Claiming Independence under the New Poor Law’.
  • Richard Hoyle/Catherine Glover, ‘Proprietary girl’s schools in late nineteenth-century rural England’.
• 3.00-4.00, Session Nine.
  • Katy Taylor, ‘From rural Ireland to suffrage and animal rights: Francis Power Cobbe (1822-1904)’.
• 4.00-4.30, Closing remarks. Tea. Conference disperses.

Costs and booking.

In person attendance.

Both days including tea/coffee and buffet lunch on both days.	£75
Thursday including tea/coffee and buffet lunch.	£40
Friday including tea/coffee and buffet lunch.	£40

Virtual attendance.

Both Days	£15
Thursday	£10
Friday	£10

Please make your bookings through Eventbrite here.

You can also let us know when registering if you would attend a conference dinner on the evening of Thursday 31 April if one were arranged. (The price would be £20-£25 plus wine).

Please note that we are not arranging accommodation for either speakers or conference attendees.