Major finding of a large Roman fort in wales
Dr Mark Merrony,
Supernumerary Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Date: 20th of January 2027
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Dr Merrony is an accomplished field archaeologist. His recent discovery of a Roman fort in west Wales was followed by a successful survey and a trial excavation was planned for this past July. This previously unknown fort overturns past assumptions that the local population was on peaceful terms with the invading Romans. His talk will focus on his findings.
About the speaker:
Dr Mark Merrony is Supernumerary Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, with research interests in the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire, especially the Middle East, and the Romano-British context, notably the Cherwell valley, Oxfordshire, and west Wales.
Dr Merrony studied Archaeology at Saint Davids University College, Lampeter as well as Classical Archaeology at Wolfson College and Somerville College, University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow at Wolfson.
He has worked in magazine publishing in the fields of archaeology, art history, and history since 2002. He specialises in the Roman period and has authored several books and articles in this area.
Image attribution - An artist’s reconstruction depicts the Roman fort in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Credit: Roman Fort Project
OTHER EVENTS
The African Emperor: The Life and Times of Septimius Severus
Date: 19th of November 2025
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Dr Simon Elliott, Managing Director, Sentinel Communications
Septimius Severus was Rome’s black emperor. Born in the blistering heat of a North African spring in Leptis Magna, AD 145, he died in the freezing cold of a northern British winter in York in AD 211. A giant of an emperor, whose career can be counted in superlatives, Severus was in power at the height of Rome’s might. He led the largest army to ever campaign in Britain, comprising 50,000 men, part of a Roman military establishment which peaked at 33 legions under his rule.
The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis
Date: 17th of December 2025
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Prof Richard Whatmore, School of History, University of St Andrews
The Enlightenment is popularly seen as the Age of Reason, a key moment in human history when ideals such as freedom, progress, natural rights and constitutional government prevailed. In this radical re-evaluation, historian Richard Whatmore shows why, for many at its centre, the Enlightenment was a profound failure.
Mrs Holmes Taught Sherlock all he Knew: Uncovering the Truth about Victorian Women Detectives
Date: 21st of January 2025
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Dr Sara Lodge, School of English, University of St Andrews
A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation.