Historic Houses and links to slavery

Our last meeting on 18th January involved research into a historic house, who built it, why it is special, what happened there and were there any links to slavery. A wide variety of houses were chosen from around the country, some with memories of holiday visits, eg Castle Howard, others from areas close to members previous homes, such as Speake House, a local house in Dorking, Pippbrook where one member had worked and several others. Some were built by people who gained their wealth with direct links to slavery such as Clandon House whereas others had wealth through industry such as iron works and had no links slavery that we knew of..

It was a very interesting evening and has set us the challenge of visiting houses which we haven’t been to before.