Big Ideas Festival presents historical Scarborough lectures event
Further extending the programme beyond the annual May festival, an afternoon of historical talks headlined by Dr Allan Brodie of Bournemouth University is staged this month at St Mary’s Church on Saturday September 19.
Complementing the Seaside Heritage Network Conference the day before on Friday September 18, and as part of Scarborough 400, the latest Big Ideas By The Sea event features lectures on Georgian Scarborough, Victorian photographers and an update on the festival’s own Big Dig archaeology initiative.
Historian Dr Allan Brodie, a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University will present a lecture at 3pm, titled Scarborough in the 1730’s – Sea, Spa and Sex.
A century on from the spa discovery Scarborough 400 marks, and a period when the town's fashionable spa culture began to give ground to sea bathing, visitors bringing with them what Brodie's own research describes as “a noticeable strand of licentiousness”.
Dr.Brodie stated: “By the early 18th Century, a distinctive leisure culture was emerging in Britain and an appetite for visits to spas and one aspect of this new phenomenon.
"Scarborough was ‘a place of health and mirth’ where the health-giving properties of its spa waters could be undermined by its busy social life; it had been extending its medical treatments, with sea bathing beginning to become popular”.
Having worked for Historic England (and its predecessors) since 1986, he has specialised in the history of tourism writing several books on the subject.
With an accompanying interest in military history, he has also published papers and reports on military fortifications.
At 4pm, Jonathan Wallis and Martha Cattell of PhotoScarborough examine the boom-and-bust economics of Scarborough's Victorian photography studios, with the opportunity to view a selection of 19th Century studio portraits from their archive.
Concluding the afternoon at 5pm, John Oxley MBE presents the latest findings from The Big Dig, the community archaeological excavation at Paradise in Scarborough’s Old Town, itself part of the Scarborough 400 programme.
In 2026, the Big Dig completed its fifth season since 2022 and in that time, more than 1,300 primary school children and more than 200 adults have taken part in the project.
Archaeologist Marie Woods will present the finds and there will be an opportunity to both see and handle finds from five years of excavations.
An additional new Big Ideas event prior to the talks, sees Father James Kenny, Vicar of St. Martin's Church conducting a one-hour architectural walking tour of the South Cliff area.
The Vicar’s Architectural Tour of South Cliff commences at 10am from on Saturday 19th September from St. Martin’s Church.
Places are free with booking in advance recommended at ticketsource.co.uk/bibts
Georgian Scarborough - Sea, Spa and Sex, Victorian Photography and the Big Dig Archaeology Review is at St Mary’s Church Scarborough on Saturday September 19 from 3pm to 6pm.
Tickets £5 (which covers all three events) are available at ticketsource.co.uk/bibts or on the door.
Refreshments will be served from 2.30pm.
Big Ideas By The Sea Festival 7 takes place between May 14 and 28 next year.