Our Lunch will be held in the 1780 hall of the The Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames in St Mary at Hill.

The Company was founded in 1514, when the earliest Act of Parliament for regulating watermen, wherrymen and bargemen received Royal Assent from King Henry VIII.

Under a further Act of 1555  the Company introduced apprenticeships for those wishing to learn the skills of the Watermen. In 1700 the Lightermen (carriers of goods/cargo) joined  the Watermen’s Company. 

At our Lunch we will be presenting prizes for the best dissertation at each of the water and environmental postgraduate courses at the 15 universities supported by the Company’s Charritable Trust, The Water Conservation Trust.