What do a hilltop, a tower, a ruined church and a quiet library really tell us about
Maldon’s past? St Peter’s is often seen as a local landmark – but its story reaches far beyond Maldon.

This illustrated talk shows how historians use landscape, buildings, books and material remains to reconstruct the past, using St Peter’s site as a case study. From early settlement and medieval religion to the Reformation, Renaissance learning and global connections, the site offers a rare opportunity to see how national and international change was experienced at a local level.

The talk also explores how different types of evidence survive, how historians interpret them, and why places like St Peter’s remain vital sources for understanding everyday life, belief and learning across more than a thousand years.
The talk also offers a behind-the-scenes look at how local history is used in a modern secondary school classroom – how students are taught to “read” landscapes, buildings and material evidence to construct the past, ask historical questions and think like historians.