19th February 2026

Most of our speakers are members of the club itself, but, on occasion, a guest is invited to talk on a special topic. One such was this meeting, when the speaker was Robert Thornhill of Great Longstone, the current head of a long-established farming family in the village.

Robert described how his farming grandfather in 1912 had decided to concentrate on poultry production. Over the following few years, he had expanded his operations such that his flock reached ten thousand laying hens producing free-range eggs. In order to handle these quantities, he set up an egg-packing station, which was the first of its kind in Derbyshire. (An example of the sort of wooden boxes in which these eggs were sent to market is shown in the accompanying photograph). In time, the business turned to the production of poultry meat, which was a premium product, far more expensive than beef in the years before World War II. By the 1970s, Thornhill’s chicken processing factory in Great Longstone employed 450 people. In the meantime, Robert’s father (Peter) and uncle who, by then were running the business in partnership, decide to diversify, with Peter concentrating on cattle rearing from the 1950s.

After studying farming techniques in several countries, Robert joined his father in the family business. By crossbreeding Holstein Friesian with Jersey cattle, imported from New Zealand, they created a grass-fed herd of dairy cattle which produced milk of enhanced quality with a high fat content. Now in charge of the farm, Robert has a herd of 250 cows which he grazes on sections of his land in rotation, thus allowing the maximum growth of grass with the least damage to the ground. He described how he uses technology to monitor the growth of the farm’s pastures and the health of his animals. Along with his usual day-by-day farming activities, he is also clearly focussed on environmental matters, such as tree-planting and the restoration of the historic dewponds which are a feature of this limestone area.
It was clear to his audience that here was a farmer whose attitude and actions are worthy of far more appreciation by government and the public in general than is usually afforded them, and that they should be encouraged and supported.

Robert Thornhill and Paul Davies

5th February 2026

As though on cue – but, in fact, by a remarkable coincidence – news of the assassination of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was announced on the day before this meeting to hear a talk by member, Tony Byrne, on his experiences of working in Libya during the 1970s when that country was under the firm grip of Gaddafi (senior).

The speaker opened his talk with a description of the geography and history of this North African state. It is the fourth largest country in Africa but, most of it is desert which means that the majority of its 7½ million population lives in the relatively fertile Mediterranean coastal strip. For many centuries a province of other Mediterranean powers such as the Romans, followed by the Ottomans and then the Italians, Libya gained independence as a kingdom in 1951. Eighteen years later, a bloodless coup led by Muammar Gaddafi deposed the king and established a republic which, in time, became repressive and the sponsor of international terrorism.

It was during the early years of Gaddafi’s time in power that Tony, at times accompanied by his wife and two small children, lived and worked in Libya. His first major civil engineering project was as part of a team to design a pipeline scheme, 300 km long, from an underground water source in the desert to the coastal city of Agedabia. This involved learning to survive in the hostile desert conditions of heat and frequent sandstorms. Following a preliminary design, the actual construction phase of the planned pipeline was postponed for many years when it was superseded by a far more ambitious scheme of supplying ground water to the whole coastal area.

Having finished work on the pipeline scheme, Tony was placed in overall charge of his employer’s Libyan engineering operations. Now based in Tripoli, it was possible for him to be joined by his family, and they spent the next five years living in the city. However, Libya proved to be quite restrictive in many ways and, with the children’s continuing education to be considered, the family moved back to England. That was in 1980. Since that time, Tony has never returned to the country which, as we know, has torn itself apart with civil war.

Tony Byrne and Tony Fry

15th January 2026

Throughout most of human history the loudest noises to which we were subjected would have been those of the natural world, such as a thunderclap or a barking dog, but none of these would have been a continuous source of sound for a long period of time. However, with the development of sound amplification systems it has become a far noisier world of sustained high-volume sound, one in which it is very easy for damage to be caused to our delicate hearing organs, the ears. Problems with sound systems and their effectiveness were the subject of this talk by Club member, John Thurstan, who related his experience of trying to achieve an acceptable sound system in Holy Trinity Church in Chesterfield.

As John explained, setting up a public address system should be quite simple. A microphone receives a sound which it converts into an electric current. This is then amplified, sent to a loudspeaker where it drives a paper cone which moves the air and makes the sound we hear. Alas, this is where problems arise because the quality of this sound depends on where the listener is sited; out of doors, or in a room with sound absorbent soft furnishings, or in a concert hall, or – worst of all – in an echoey church. It follows that the more reflecting surfaces there are in an indoor space, the more the amplified sounds will ‘bounce’ around and interfere with each other, resulting in a blurring effect for the listener. These difficulties can be overcome by careful siting of loudspeakers and the correct use of the microphones, but often only after a considerable amount of trial-and-error experimentation.

In his professional career, John had spent many years working in hospital ENT clinics and had thereby acquired a wealth of knowledge and experience in the workings of the human ear. For the second part of his talk, he described the physiology of this remarkable piece of equipment, and he showed how easily it can be damaged. He also explained how our hearing naturally deteriorates over time, but he stressed that we should avoid exacerbating this process by our own actions in overloading them with loud sounds. As he pointed out, ‘Taking your ears to a pop concert is like weighing an elephant on the bathroom scales.’ Surely, a sufficient warning to take great care of your hearing?

John Thurstan and Paul Davies