Professor Collins, the new secretary of Pontefract Civic Society, will lift the lid on the history of the district's benevolence at Pontefract Museum on Tuesday October 21.
Prof Collins, of Carleton Road, Carleton, said: "In those days before the welfare state, any charity came from endowed benevolence.


"The problem was that it was difficult for charities funded by people's wills to be run the way the dead person directed."
The creation of Pontefract Park in 1780 and how its trustees abused their power is one highlight in the talk, the first of several organised by the civic society.
Prof Collins added: "Pontefract residents were given 325 acres of land – now the park – to pasture animals by the Duchy of Lancaster.


"The richest ratepayers in Pontefract looked after the land, charging others to let their animals graze there and selling coal.
"If they made excess income it was supposed to go towards roads and improvements, but they decided at an early stage that they would make some money on the side. In 1790 some of the trustees appropriated enough parkland to lay out a racecourse, without any revenue going to the charity running the park – this was strictly illegal.


"But the racecourse changed and survived to become an important part of Pontefract's social calendar."
The talk, called The Charities of Pontefract and District: Death, Benevolence and Abuse, a Historical Perspective, starts at 7.30pm.
Entry is £3 or £2 for civic society members.