The Lunar Society

Britain, as we know, was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and nowhere played a bigger part in this great leap forward than the West Midlands. And it was here, in the second half of the 18th century, that an extraordinarily talented group of men – some famous, others now forgotten – came together to pool their collective genius and produce many of the ideas and innovations on which this nation’s emerging intellectual and commercial pre-eminence was founded. Once a month, at the time of the full moon, they met in Birmingham to share their visions for the future. They called themselves ‘The Lunar Society’, and Barry Zussman of Torridge U3A told us their fascinating story.