I regret to inform readers that we have just received the news that Professor Sarah Rees Jones, who had stepped in to give the Medieval Section lecture tomorrow afternoon at Swarthmore in place of Dr Peter Addyman has had to pull out due to ill health. In the circumstances we cannot find another replacement in the time avalable, so we regret that the lecture will have to be cancelled. Please pass this news on to anyone you know who you think may not receive it via this means, or through the Medieval section mailing list and blog.
Category: Medieval Section Committee
Brian S.Donaghey
It is with great sadness that I report that Brian Donaghey, former editor and secretary of the Medieval Section, passed away on 28 August. Brian, who until his retirement worked in the School of English, University of Sheffield, was an active member of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and the Medieval Section for a great many years. He was one of the Historic Buildings officers, monitoring planning applications, and also joined David Michelmore and Sylvia Thomas in running the popular Palaeography weekends during the 1970s and 1980s. Brian played a particularly important role in the Medieval Section, where he edited ‘Medieval Yorkshire’. Brian’s retrospective on thirty years of the section published in Medieval Yorkshire is a valuable source of information, enlivened by Brian’s wonderful, quiet sense of humour. I am going to put together an obituary for Brian, to appear in the next Medieval Yorkshire, and I’d like to make this appeal to members of the section to send me any memories they’d like to share of having worked with Brian, also a photograph of Brian at one of the Medieval Section events if possible. Please be aware I am in touch with Brian’s widow, Helen. Thank you.
Medieval Section AGM April 11th 2015
If you are wondering what our Honorary Joint Editor is smiling about, it’s the opportunity to acquire back-copies of the section journal Medieval Yorkshire for free. Yes all those obscure back numbers of the journal that you’ve been scouring second hand book shops, Amazon and ABE in search of, you may find being given away at the next section AGM on Saturday April 11th at 2pm.
Last Saturday at our most recent committee committee meeting we considered what to do with previous issues of Medieval Yorkshire and other section publications such as Medieval Dairying. This is in response to the main society asking the sections to think about what needed to kept and what could be disposed of when Claremont is eventually sold and the society moves into new premises.
Now that electronic publishing is a viable option we can provide researchers with a pdf in return for a payment on PayPal without having to maintain a large stock. We already have four issues scanned and with Axel Muller’s assistance we are working on scanning the rest. We shall of course keep a couple of issues of each volume for future reference but it does mean we can be a bit more economical space-wise.
If you’d like back copies of Medieval Yorkshire we’ll be giving them to members at the next AGM so do come along, to take part in the meeting, at which some new faces will be presenting themselves for election, and you can also enjoy the next presentation in our lecture programme by Richard Thomason about ‘Hospitality in a Cistercian Abbey: the Case of Kirkstall in the Later Middle Ages’. So do come along.
Sadly we had some hiccups with the latest mailing of the new look Medieval Yorkshire (New Series). Due to circumstances beyond our control we only have enough to distribute to fully-subscribed members and a few extra copies for review. It looks unlikely that we shall have many to sell to non-members. Of course, a pdf download copy of Medieval Yorkshire can be provided for the more modest sum of £5.50.
For little more than £10 extra you can subscribe to the section and enjoy up to eight top quality lectures about different aspects of Medieval Yorkshire and elsewhere. That’s just £1.25 per lecture, though I noticed recently that people who are not members of the section have been taking liberties and attending the lectures as prospective members repeatedly. Without wanting to be too officious about this the committee thinks it is perfectly acceptable to come to one or two lecture meetings to see if it is ‘for you’ but after that someone who comes along should really make a contribution to the cost of organising the lecture. At least £2. Otherwise those members who have paid their subscriptions are effectively subsidising prospective members and that simply isn’t fair. We would always wish to make joining the Medieval Section by payment of the annual subscription (£16) the most cost effective option for people. And don’t forget that in addition to the lectures paid-up members also receive the section journal Medieval Yorkshire. I can’t think of many societies where you would receive all these benefits for such a modest subscription.
Annual General Meeting – 1/10/2014
I attended yesterday’s AGM at which a report was made about the proposed dramatic but probably inevitable changes: the transfer to University of Leeds Brotherton Library of the society’s archive and library and the closing of Claremont prior to sale.
The reason for these changes is the society’s difficult financial situation. Money raised from subscriptions has gone down and the society is no longer able to afford the upkeep of the Claremont building and other expenses. Indeed it is only thanks to the generosity of members and an exceptional level of donations and legacies that the society has been able keep itself in the black over the last few years. Brian Barber, the Treasurer, is confident that the society can support itself over the next year but the deficit is unsustainable.
The result for members of the society and section members is that in future we will have to go to the Brotherton Library to access the library. This is very sad because one of the great benefits of membership has been the privilege of browsing the bookshelves at Claremont. The transfer agreement allows YAS members to access the University of Leeds’ collection, so, as one wag described it on Saturday, it could be seen as an extension of the library… Society members will be treated as external readers.
The University will not accept duplicates of books it already has on its shelves and one consequence of this is that the Medieval Section will be asked to identify books which the section has bought in the past specially for the library. If you can think of books we have bought as a section please would you let me know so that Kirsty can mark them up on the shelves in the library as requiring special treatment. An appeal was made for volunteers to help Kirsty with preparing for the move. If you might be able to help please contact the library in advance so that this can be planned. There will be discussion with all the sections about what happens to section books. It was stressed that this work is at an early stage but we do need to identify books affected by the move on which we would have a claim as a section.
At yesterday’s AGM a proposal was made to transfer the Wakefield Court Rolls to West Yorkshire Records Office which now has support for a new premises. The Management Board was not in favour of such a transfer and after discussion a vote was taken and the proposal was turned down by a substantial majority.
Meetings will be held elsewhere at a venue still to be decided. For those Medieval Section members who attend the monthly lectures this will mean a change of venue but all I can do is keep you informed via the Section blog and by post if necessary. The Medieval Section Committee will continue to organise lectures but I cannot tell you yet where they’ll be held. Sylvia Thomas appealed at the following Council meeting in the afternoon for members to let her know what facilities they’d like to see at a new Society venue. There will have to be meeting room with AV facilities. I have requested that the new venue also has a kitchen a space for consumption of buffet type food because of the Section’s popular Xmas tea. The Society will keep runs of its publications for reference at the new site. It is not clear whether it will buy or rent new premises at the present time.
The library at Claremont will be open until the end of the year but after January there will be restricted opening: open as normal on a Saturday but open only by appointment Tuesday to Thursday.
One last bit of news: the next volume of the Wakefield Court Rolls has been published. The price is £9 for members.
Richard III in the News Again
I am very grateful to Medieval Section member David Harpin who has kindly sent a photo of a silver coin of Richard III. Earlier this week the Daily Telegraph ran a story by Sarah Knapton about the DNA sequencing of the last Plantagenet king’s remains. The development of genetic research and the sequencing of the entire genomes of individuals who lived in the past is revealing new information. Richard III will be one of a relatively small number of people from the past who have been studied in this way. The researchers led by Dr Turi King (University of Leicester) hope to be able to report what colour Richard’s eyes and hair were and whether he would have been susceptible to diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The research may reveal evidence of infectious bacteria. It is already known that Richard suffered from roundworm.
In the issue (Wednesday 12th February) Harry Mount, author of How England made the English, was looking forward to finding out the results of the research, which he hoped would shed light on the DNA segments passed down the royal bloodline. He reiterated just how shaky was Henry VII’s claim to the throne in terms of his share of ‘royal’ blood. This line of research will no doubt develop over time but already there are other Medieval characters this could be applied to, such as Alfred, whose remains have been identified. So, as previously mentioned, the next few years are full of exciting potential for Medieval history and archaeology.
Members will remember I’m sure Bob Woosnam Savage’s lecture about the recent research on Richard’s remains. Bob being a consummate professional would not reveal what he knew but intimated to us that further exciting work was taking place. So you could say that you (almost) heard about it at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society Medieval Section lecture first!
New Committee Medieval Section Y.A.S.
At last Saturday’s AGM as there were no nominations for the vacant posts on the committee it was suggested that it might be appropriate to disband the Medieval Section”. Only one serving officer, the Treasurer, was willing to continue – me (!).
After 44 years of promoting Medieval archaeology in Yorkshire this is a particularly sad, but far from hopeless, state of affairs. I said in my Treasurer’s report that we have a stable membership of about 130 with 16 institutional members. Nor are we short of funds, though some of it will be needed to publish the section journal Medieval Yorkshire. The Prehistoric and the Roman sections are both thriving, so why not the Medieval section? I can think of no richer region for Medieval archaeology than Yorkshire with all its abbeys and castles, not to mention fantastic museum collections and people actively researching many different aspects of the period.
A number of people at the AGM felt that something should be done to save the section and Janet Senior, Roy Andrews and I have formed an embryonic committee with the intention of recruiting new members and officers.
We need another three ordinary committee members and a Chairman. Jo Heron has kindly agreed to serve as Treasurer, allowing me to take over from Mike Edwards as Hon.Secretary. Stephen Moorhouse will continue as Hon.Editor. We have also had offers to serve on committee from staff at the International Medieval Institute.
Other volunteers would be most welcome. With quarterly meetings on a Thursday evening at Claremont it is not onerous and you do get to find out what’s happening across the county and make your voice heard in how the section is run.
We are not out of the woods yet but just over a week after the AGM I think we are within sight of forming a fully-functioning committee. Our remit will be to turn round the section and make it sustainable. We’d like more members to attend meetings at Claremont and in time to become members of committee and continue the work of running the section.
We also need to re-engage the members. With that end in mind Janet, Roy and I have put together a provisional programme of lectures for autumn this year and spring 2014. Starting in September there will be lectures on a range of different topics 2-3.30pm every second Saturday of the month at Claremont and it would be great to see members attending. I will post details once the Committee has approved the programme, all being well after May 9th. We hope to confirm a talk on the recent identification of Richard III‘s remains at Leicester in December.
I would very much appreciate it if members reading this Blog would respond with your thoughts and suggestions. What sorts of activities would you like to see: talks, day schools, excursions, visits to museums, social activities (like the famous Xmas high tea)? If you can suggest speakers for our programme for coming years or places to visit do please let us know. Even better, why not join us on committee?
We run the section in order to promote interest in Medieval Yorkshire and we genuinely want to offer events and activities that members will take part in and enjoy. Please help us to ensure that the Medieval section continues.
Bryan Sitch
Hon.Secretary
Medieval Section
Yorkshire Archaeological Society
Saturday 4th May 2013
Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society 