January 2016 – Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society

Medieval Section February 2016 Lecture: the Gilbertines in Yorkshire

The February 2016 lecture will cover the archaeology of the Order of the Gilbertines, focusing on the layout and function of both double and much overlooked single houses. The lecture will primarily focus on the Yorkshire houses of Watton, Ellerton, Malton and St. Andrews, York. Comparisons of layout will also be drawn with other monastic orders to place the Gilbertines within a wider national context and to help shed light on how they were regarded by their contemporaries. Previous excavation, survey and interpretation will be drawn together and re-evaluated. This will include, for the first time, evaluation of St. John Hope’s nineteenth century excavations at Watton Priory with new a resistivity survey carried out on the site by the speaker in 2014.

Our speaker Peter Townend will draw upon research carried out over the last three years for his PhD thesis on the Monastic Order of the Gilbertines. He intends to submit his thesis for examination by Easter of this year, so we are very grateful to him for speaking when he has weightier matters to think about. Peter has a background in landscape archaeology and completed his Masters in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Sheffield in 2009, following a undergraduate degree in History and Archaeology at the University of Hull. He worked for a number of years at Northamptonshire Archaeology. He is currently collaborating with his supervisor Dr Hugh Willmott on the Thornton Abbey Research Project having previously worked together at Monk Bretton Priory and Humberston Abbey. Publications for all three of these sites are planned for this coming year. Attendees at the monthly lectures and followers of this blog will be familiar with Monk Bretton because Dr Willmott kindly spoke to the Medieval Section in April 2014.

IMS OPEN LECTURE

Tuesday, 12th January at 17:30 in the Council Chamber (Parkinson Building)

The first IMS Open Lecture of the new year is given by Gábor Klaniczay, entitled ‘Visible Pain and Invisible Wounds. The Debates around the Stigmata of Saint Catherine of Siena’

New Year 2016 lecture: David Cockman on the Luttrell Psalter

On Saturday 9th January David Cockman will speak at our New Year meeting on the subject of the Luttrell Psalter, one of the great surviving treasures of the Middle Ages. It was commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Irnham in Lincolnshire during the mid-14th century. What distinguishes the Psalter from many others of the same period is the vast number and richness of the images which decorate the Latin text. These provide a graphic insight into medieval peasant life, which can be found virtually nowhere else.

Our speaker will explore the Luttrell psalter as a non-medieval specialist. He is fascinated by unique light it sheds on everyday life on the 14th century. This exploration is much easier now because of the availability of a digital copy of the psalter. He has also spent some time at Irnham to see just how much of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell’s world as described in the psalter can still be identified and this will also form part of the talk.

David is a member of Holmfirth Local History Group and serves on the committee of Huddersfield Archaeology Society. His moment of fame came when he appeared on one of Michael Portillo’s railway programmes talking about the great Holmfirth flood of 1852. For this contribution he was rewarded with a free cup of BBC tea, which he says makes the Medieval Section’s offer of a book token in lieu of fee seem like a win on the Euro Lottery!

The lecture will be at 2-3pm in our new venue at Swarthmore Education Centre at the bottom of Clarendon Road in Leeds. It promises to be a visual treat and just the thing to revive the jaded senses after the over-indulgence of the festive season.