The Purley Lit enters its 113th season this month with a talk about medical detection dogs.
The Purley Literary Society was set up in 1901 by the Congregational Church as a mechanism to “improve” agricultural workers #, and give them an alternative to visiting the pubs and fleshpots of Purley during the winter months. The Purley Lit has continued ever autumn and winter ever since, just losing a few years due to world wars, and more recently, covid.
In the beginning, the society was wholly run by the church, and the minister presided over meetings, both committee and public meetings.
The Lit has moved its meetings to Christ Church, just a few hundred yards nearer Croydon. There are five meetings in the autumn, and six in the spring. A full season’s membership costs £25 and a spring-only membership costs £14.
Visitors are charged £6 to attend a meeting, but that fee is credited, and if they subsequently take out a membership in the same season any such credit goes towards the membership cost. Membership tickets are transferable, too, so that if a member cannot attend, someone else can use the member’s ticket.
All meetings begin at 8pm (except the AGM: 7.30pm) at The Hebron Hall, Christ Church, Brighton Road, Purley, CR8 2BN (adjacent to 861 Brighton Road, with on-site parking).
For further information, and to check for any changes to the programme, check out their website purleylit.org.uk
Starting on Thursday, October 15, Purley Lit’s 2026-2027 programme looks like this:
Medical marvel: Bumper, the dog with special skills
Oct 15: Medical detection dogs, James Baird. Medical Detection Dogs was founded in 2007, and uses the extraordinary ability of dogs to sniff out diseases. Dogs also serve as alert assistance dogs for people who experience sudden and unexpected episodes, such as fits.
James Baird will be accompanied by Drimmie, mother to Bumper – the first dog to detect Parkinson’s.
Oct 29: Wild Herzegovina, Denis Bohm. Denis Bohm grew up in Mostar, and he has led both birding and cultural trips to Herzegovina for over 10 years. He will take us on a journey to this region that lies on the Adriatic migratory route where several endangered European bird species still thrive.
Nov 12: Peru, Alan Speed. Alan Speed’s career as an engineering geologist took him to the north of Peru in 1972, close to where Pizarro and his conquistadores landed 500 years earlier. Starting with Pizarro and the Incas, Alan discusses conquest and independence, to the 20th century.
Nov 26: Monet’s Giverny and Van Gogh’s Provence,, Colin Jones. Colin Jones, a gifted horticulturist and speaker, talks about what an impressionist is, and about two of impressionism’s greatest practitioners.
How Monet created his garden and its water lilies (pictured, right); its decline after his death; and the rebuilding by rich Americans. How van Gogh’s life was poor: both monetarily and in mental state.
Dec 10: Beckenham Cemetery, John Hickman, followed by Christmas Fayre. The former Crystal Palace District Cemetery is much underrated. Noted historian John Hickman will talk about the controversial origin of the cemetery, the symbolism of some headstones, as well as some of the well-known residents.
2027
Jan 7: The Life of a Master Carver at St Paul’s Cathedral, Tony Webb. Tony Webb spent much of his career at St Paul’s. He will talk about his apprenticeship, through to becoming the Master Carver in residence at St Paul’s.
Jan 21: The Columbian Exposition of 1893, Bernard Winchester. This Chicago World’s Fair, staged to mark the anniversary of Columbus’s “discovery” of America, dazzled its 27million visitors with the wonders of the new age of electricity. Tesla and Edison played key parts in its story, alongside the world’s first Ferris wheel.
Feb 4: Gillett and Johnston, Lindsay Ould. This Croydon company made clocks and cast bells for buildings great and small, on a world-wide basis. Ranging from modest St Mary’s church, Balcombe to the Canadian Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Lindsay Ould will tell us the story of this giant in its field.
Feb 18: My Grandmother was a Suffragette, Eleanor Redshaw. Eleanor Beatrice Higginson was a member of the Suffragette movement in Preston, and by 1914, she ran the local branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union. Her granddaughter will tell us about her grandmother’s life, her arrests, her hunger and thirst strikes and the Cat and Mouse Act.
Mar 4: Fingerprints and other branches of forensic science, Rosie Bantick. There will be demonstrations of some of the techniques involved, and there may be the chance for audience participation!
Mar 18: AGM (7.30pm) , followed by Hercule Poirot “in person”, Tony Harris. Agatha Christie was probably the most famous woman in the world when she mysteriously disappeared 100 years ago this year. She was found safe and well but nobody ever got to the bottom of her case. Now her best-loved sleuth, Hercule Poirot, takes on the case, – brought to life by popular performer at Purley Lit, Tony Harris. Followed by the end-of-season party.
Read more: Bricks, ghosts and the Northern line all in the Lit’s new season
Read more: Sanderstead Lit: Newhart and Trump, condors and postcards
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Please immediately commission David Morgan to write an article on the fleshpots of 1900s Purley.