Norwegian and Scandinavian Heritage in the British Isles

This October, discover the rich history and heritage of Norway and Scandinavia in the British Isles at a special end-of-project conference for the Norwegian Church Heritage Research and Outreach Project. Bringing together fascinating insights, stories, and research, this event celebrates the project’s journey and its exploration of shared cultural connections—made possible through the generous support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Schedule for the conference: Tuesday 06.10.2026 09:15 Opening - Dr Martin Price (Chair of Trustees of the Norwegian Church Arts Centre) Welcome speech Panel 1: Chair: Dr Thomas Alexander Husøy 09:30 Lisbeth Iversen (A Helping Hand to Our Oldest Norwegian Seamen's Church and Oslo School of Architecture & Design) (Digital Talk) From Leith to the World: A Digital Museum of Norwegian Seafarers and Transnational Heritage 10:00 Dr. David Redvaldsen (University of Agder) The Norwegian Seamen’s Church in London 1905-1945 10:30 Charlie Olsen (University of Reading Norwegian Sailors in Late Victorian Cardiff 11:00 Pause Panel 2: Chair: Dr David Redvaldsen 11:15 Dr. Christian Cooijmans (University of Oslo) Imagined Pasts? The Viking Age between Memory and Identity. 11:45 Dr. Maiken Mosleth King (University of Bristol) (Digital Talk) The Sons of Ragnar: The Representation of Vikings in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 12:15 Dr. Thomas Alexander Husøy (Norwegian Church Arts Centre and Swansea University) From Seamen's Churches to the Welsh Norwegian Society: Norwegian Institutions and Organisations in South Wales 1866 - 2000 (An Overview) 12:45 Pause Panel 4: Chair: Thomas Alexander Husøy 13:30 Risteárd ‘Rish’ McDonald CF FCIPD MSt. (Cantab) (2026-2027 Churchill Fellow) This Land is Our Land (?): An Analysis of Ritual Heathen Praxis at the Great Heathen Gathering 2025 14:00 Divya Sharma (Independent Scholar) (Digital talk) From Vikings to Netflix: Britain’s Reinvention of Scandinavia in Modern Popular Culture 14:30 Pause Panel 3: Chair: Michael Freeman 14:45 Prof. Per Norseng (University of South Eastern Norway) Ice, steam and fish and chips: Norway, the British Isles and the trade in natural ice 15:15 Dr. Eyvind Bagle (Norwegian Folk Museum and Norwegian Maritime Museum) (Digital talk) Natural ice from Norway: A hidden industry 15:45 Dr. Knut Nygaard (Oslo Metropolitan University) Ice exporter Thomas Johannes Wiborg and his trade networks in the British Isles Wednesday 07.10.2026 Panel 5: Chair: 09:00: Leonie Tancell Protecting Traditional Craft: What Wales Could Learn from Norway (10 min. 5 min questions Lightning talk) 09:15 Dr. Thomas Alexander Husøy (Norwegian Church Arts Centre and Swansea University) Heritage Projects at the Norwegian Church Arts Centre: Public History and Didactic Uses of Norwegian Heritage in England and Wales (10 min. 5 min questions Lightning talk) 09:30: Professor Knut Øystein Høvik (University of Innland Norway and the Norwegian Study Centre, University of York) Hvilket lag holder du egentlig med? Norwegians’ obsession with English football 10:00: Synnøve Marie Strømsvåg (University of Oxford) The Shipwrecks that Shaped WWII - and the Relationship Between Norway and Britain 10:30: Pause Panel 6: Chair: 10:45: Dr. Bjørn Tore Rosendahl (ARKIVET) From Convoys to Communities: Norwegian Wartime Seafarers in Liverpool through War and Peace" 11:15: Ragnhild Bie (Vest Agder Museum) Children in Exile: The Norwegian Boarding School at Drumtochty Castle 11:45: Oddbjørn Hofseth (Indpendent Historian) Illegal deer hunting in the Norwegian SOE training camps in Scotland during WW2. 12:15 Pause Panel 7: Chair 13:00 Haakon Vinje (Head of the Norwegian War Graves Service, Ministry of Culture and Equality.) Norwegian War Graves in the United Kingdom 13:30 Mark Russell (Independent Historian) 333 Squadron RNoAF and Norwegian clandestine operations from Scotland during World War Two 14:00 Inga Grønnerud (Kongsvinger Muncipality) Going to Scotland to be a teacher in housekeeping education - in the pre and postwar era. Transnational connections between Norway and the United Kingdom in a historic context revealing Scandinavian involvement in the British educational system (becoming “husstellslærerinner”). 14:30 Pause Panel 7: chair: Thomas Alexander Husøy 14:45 Ranghild Bie (Vest Agder Museums) A Ship Between Nations: SS Hestmanden and Anglo-Norwegian wartime connections 15:15 Dr. Peter Reid (Robert Gordon University, Digital Talk) Little Norway of the Moray Firth: Stories of the Norwegian and Danish Communities in the town of Buckie During the Second World War 16:30 - 17:00 Service of commemoration and rededication, Norwegian war graves in Cathays Cemetery.