Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society
Medieval History and Archaeology of Yorkshire
13/09/2025 Mary Garrison Alcuin’s World through his letters and verse
11/10/2025 Julie Hickey tbc
08/11/2025 Marta Cobb Margery Kemp in Yorkshire
13/12/2025 Graham Mitchell Richard, the Northern King
10/01/2026 James Doherty (The 1st Crusade)
14/02/2026 Chris Atkinson (Charcoal burning)
14/03/2026 Jo Buckberry (Black Death skeletons)
11/04/2026 Michaela Zoschg The Wakefield Cross
09/05/2026 AGM and tba
The new programme starts in September and up to Christmas, we have:
13/09/2025 Mary Garrison Alcuin’s World through his Letters and Verse
11/10/2025 Julia Hickey Border reivers, Tudor period?
08/11/2025 Marta Cobb Margery Kempe in Yorkshire
13/12/2025 Graham Mitchell Richard, the Northern King
In January, we continue with lectures on charcoal burning research, black death skeletons and, hopefully, the 1st crusade. We also have a meeting with a curator from the Victoria & Albert Museum on the Wakefield Cross, see below:The 12th-Century Ivory Carving (The Deposition from the Cross)
What it is: A rare and valuable 12th-century ivory carving depicting Joseph of Arimathea lifting Christ’s body from the cross.
Discovery: Rediscovered in 1769, hidden in a house on Northgate, Wakefield, since the Reformation.
Current Location/Significance: Recently made headlines when its owners sought to sell it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for £2 million, leading to a UK export ban and a national effort to raise the funds to keep it in Britain, with the Victoria and Albert Museum eventually acquiring it.
Our speaker will be Stephanie Wynne-Jones and her topic is something completely different for us –
‘Trade, travel and religion on the medieval Swahili coast’
If you are not a member and would like to attend then you also will need to contact Jo by the 7th.
The address to use is jo.heronmedsection@gmail.com
Please note that you do NOT have to have a zoom account to join the meeting. When you log in using the link, you will be asked if you have an account or prefer to join using your browser. If need be, you can join by using the Meeting ID and passcode.
Contact Jo if you need the link.
| 11/01/2025 | Julia Hickeys | Border reivers, Tudor |
| 08/02/2025 | Stephanie Wynne-Jones | Archaeology of objects and trade |
| 08/03/2025 | Adam Cook | Identity In Yorkshire & Northumberland, 1066-1216 |
| 05/04/2025 | Alex Harvey | Viking in Yorkshire |
| 10/05/2025 | Glyn Coppack | Bridlington Priory |
| 07/06/2025 | Tom Pickles | Early Christian churches & Landscaapes in Yorkshire (AD 400-1100) |
Our speaker, John Jenkins, will be talking about the work done at York’s Guildhall.
Members on the mailing list will already have the link so if you haven’t received the mail first check your junk mail box and if it isn’t there contact Jo.
If you are not a member and would like to attend then you also will need to contact Jo by the 9th.
The address to use is jo.heronmedsection@gmail.com
Claire Burridge will be talking about ‘Books and bodies: Integrating historical and archaeological evidence to study medieval health and medicine’.
She will be talking to us from Oslo.
09/09/2023 Gary Brannan Black death wills
11/11/2023 George Loffman 105-111 Micklegate, York: excavations in the precinct of the Holy Trinity Priory’
09/12/2023 Hanna Vorholt Illuminated manuscripts,
13/01/2024 Clare Burridge Historical medecine
10/02/2024 John Jenkins York’s Medieval Guildhall
09/03/2024 Kate Giles Medieval Wall paintings at Pickering Church
13/04/2024 Eleanor Rye Place-names, language, and early medieval landscapes
11/05/2024 Jane Richardson Medieval finds at Garforth, Leeds
08/06/2024 Mike Ingram Bosworth
All meetings will be held on Zoom but the December meeting will also be held live at Swarthmore.
Our next meeting will be held next Saturday at 14.00, and our speaker will be Jonathan Clark of the Landmark Trust speaking about Caverley Old Hall. This is the delayed presentation we hope to have earlier this season.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsduuqqDIoH9AqzxMUkFZ3s1Uc0z4E_y2W
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting, and it will reconfirmed on Friday.
Remembering St Hilda in the Later Middle Ages a talk by Christiane Kroebel (Associate Fellow, Institute of Historical Research, and curator of Whitby Museum’s Abbey collection)
Abstract
Medieval Section members may recall that I spoke about St Hilda in 2017. This is the result after several years of further research into this well-known figure from early medieval England but how she was regarded in the later Middle Ages is considered here. After the Norman Conquest, she became the focus of renewed interest which resulted in the foundation of a Benedictine monastery at Whitby. However, St Hilda’s appeal can be seen elsewhere and is traced through church dedications and secular and monastic texts. Uncovering the history of these churches found a small number of people who promoted her memorialization after the Conquest and their influence affected where her name is found in locations in Yorkshire and northern England. A network of secular landholders as patrons can be detected. It seems that in later centuries devotion to her never reached great popularity nevertheless she had her following amongst the laity and in diverse monastic foundations. By the fourteenth century, two miracles became popular whose origin cannot be firmly established as coming from Whitby but resonated locally.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsd-mopjItHNIvF741i6I6e0BmbKZn13dK
The link to register for Uncovering Rievaulx Abbey’s landscapes – the Cistercian taskscape and environmental change is :
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88965644988?pwd=aGtjYi9WU2pFRG4wbkhtQzBpRVJnUT09
Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society 