Details of talks given by Peter Lewis
Since retiring as a specialist in career change (job change and pre-retirement), Peter has volunteered as a guide at Fountains Abbey. He has also presented a radio programme - a History of the World Special - based on his Uncle Bryn's 5 years in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland, including 6 months in Auschwitz where, from a Red Cross postcard, one of the inmates painted a portrait in oils of Bryn's wife Peggy
Peter's talks reflect his interest in the history of Yorkshire, especially the devastation wreaked in the 12th Century by the Harrying of the North and the subsequent rebuilding, much of which was undertaken by the newly arrived monastic orders, especially the Cistercians whose abbeys (Riveaulx, Byland, Fountains, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, Sawley, Meaux and Roche), though magnificent ruins, are a reminder of their lasting influence on the Yorkshire landscape.