Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society

December Lecture: Chris Robson – The St Bees Man and Woman

St Bees Man Autopsy Team courtesy of Chris Robson

Our Christmas lecture at 2-3pm on Saturday December 12th will be given by Chris Robson of the St Bees Village History Group. Chris will be talking about the St Bees man and woman.

For anyone not familiar with this amazing archaeological discovery from the Middle Ages: in 1981 an archaeological investigation was carried out in a car park (where have we heard that one before? (!) – and even the students involved were from Leicester…), which was once the South Chancel of St Bees Priory Church in Cumbria.

The archaeologists discovered by chance a stone vault that would have at one time been in front of an altar. Inside the vault was a body-shaped lead coffin and the bones of a woman. The lead coffin was opened and to everybody’s surprise inside there was a body wrapped in protective layers of sticky linen.

The wrapped body after opening the lead coffin. Photo: Chris Robson

At a hastily arranged autopsy, the linen cloth was removed to expose a man so well-preserved that it was possible to discover how he died, to look at the state of his heart and liver, to see liquid blood in his lung and to guess what he had eaten for breakfast. The preservation of the body seemed to suggest that the man had been dead for only a few months, yet the building in which he had been buried fell down in 1500.

This lecture, which will be illustrated by some extraordinary pictures (sensitivity alert!), tells the story of the best-preserved medieval body found in modern times, and suggests who the man was and where he met his violent death. The identity of the lady is a key part of this historical puzzle.

This lecture will be held in our new venue at the Swarthmore. This being our December meeting, members will recall that we usually mark the occasion by bringing in mince pieces and savouries and mulled wine. This year I’ve been advised we can still bring in our own food and drink and we may even be able to use one of the hot water boilers to make cups of tea and coffee. If you are willing to bring some food or drink in for the meeting please would you let me know in advance so that we can co-ordinate and not end up with ten boxes of mince pies (!).

Writing a week or so after the event, I am pleased to report it passed off successfully and was enjoyed by all those who came, including the President. Members please be aware that Toby Jones can no longer give the advertised lecture about the Newport ship on 9th January. Instead David Cockman of the Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society has very kindly agreed to step in and speak to us about the Luttrell Psalter. This promises to be a visual treat. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Bryan Sitch
Hon.Secretary
Medieval Section
Yorskhire Archaeological Society

IMS Open Lecture

‘Men, Again, in Early Medieval Studies: Gender, Masculinity, Literature and Culture’

Tuesday 24th November 2015 at 17.30

Speaker: Clare Lees, Professor of Medieval Literature and History of the Language, Department of English Language & Literature, King’s College, London)
Location: Council Chamber, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds.

Richard II and the north

This Saturday, 14th Nov 2015, Alison McHardy is talking about Richard II and the north. Dr McHardy’s interest in Richard II arose from her teaching of this reign at three universities: London, Aberdeen and Nottingham.She has published a source book, The Reign of Richard II: From Minority to Tyranny 1377-97 (Manchester UP, 2012), which is intended to be the students’ friend. Also some articles:

‘Haxey’s case, 1397: the petition and its presenter reconsidered’, in ‘The Age of Richard II’ (1997).

‘Richard II: a personal portrait’, in ‘The Reign of Richard II’ (2000)

‘John Scarle: Ambition and Politics in the Late Medieval Church’ in ‘Image, Text and Church ‘(2009)

Her main research interest is in the relations and interaction between crown and church, and she has been publishing on this since 1972. In 2010 she published, with Gwilym Dodd, her successor at Nottingham, a volume called ‘Petitions to the Crown from English Religious Houses’ for the Canterbury and York Society, and this is the best-selling volume in the Society’s history.

With Phil Bradford, Dr McHardy is editing the material relating to proctors for the clergy in parliament. The first of the two volumes will go into production in the new year. This is also for the Canterbury and York Society.

With Gwilym Dodd Dr McHardy is working on a volume of ‘Petitions from Lincolnshire’ for the Lincoln Record Society – which she describes as great fun.

The lecture will be held at the Swarthmore Centre in Leeds and starts at 2.00pm. Contact the Hon.Secretary, Bryan Sitch, for more details.

Medieval Section Lecture series for 2015-2016: Sat.10th October Pickering parish church.

ChristopherRender1 (1) — St Christopher drawing by Janet Lenton

This year Medieval Section lectures will be held at Swarthmore, just down the road from Claremont, at 2pm. The full programme for the year can be found at http://medieval.yas.org.uk/content/programme.html

This Saturday, 10th October, Kate Giles will be talking about Antiquarians, Archbishops and Medieval wall paintings: the case of Pickering parish church.

In 1852, the traces of a remarkable scheme of 15th century wall paintings were uncovered during restoration works in Pickering parish church (North Yorkshire). Their discovery prompted a remarkable exchange between the then incumbent, the Rev. Ponsonby, local Antiquarians and the Archbishop of York which resulted in the attempted destruction of the paintings, which were only re-uncovered in the 1870s and extensively restored. Since then the paintings have attracted the scholarly attention of some of the country’s leading 20th century wall paintings experts including E.W.Tristram and E.C.Rouse. This lecture will tell the story of these remarkable paintings and in doing, seek to explain how and why an understanding of the study of the ‘English primitives’ is central to our understanding of the development of medieval archaeology today.

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.

Wressle Castle – a day school on Saturday 26 September 2015 with Barbara English, Margaret Pinder & Ed Dennison

An event likely to be of interest to members of the Medieval Section:- Wressle Castle was built around 1380 and owned for centuries by the Percy family, earls and later dukes of Northumberland. The castle still has substantial walls, although the majority of it was destroyed in the Civil War. It is in private ownership and few people will have visited it, although many will have seen it when travelling by train on the Hull/Selby line. However, following a recent programme of restoration by Natural England, English Heritage and other bodies, it is now possible for the first time in many years to visit the interior and the rest of the site. It has a great history, and there are descriptions of it from the 1500s as well as detailed drawings from the 1600s before it was ruined.

Programme

9.30 Depart Durham Ox, Norwood, Beverley

10.15 Coffee and welcome Wressle village hall

10.30-12.15 The history of the Percies (Barbara English) and the history & archaeology of Wressle castle (Ed Dennison*)

12.15-1.00 Lunch

1.00-1.45 Wressle furnishings, gardens and household from 16^th century sources, the Northumberland Household Book and John Leland (Margaret Pinder)

1.45 -3.30 Site visit to Wressle castle

3.30 Return to Wressle village hall, refreshments and close

4.15 Depart Wressle

5.30 Arrive Durham Ox, Norwood, Beverley

*Ed Dennison of Ed Dennison Archaeological Services has been closely involved with the recent works to Wressle Castle and is one of the leading authorities on the castle buildings and the site.

Tickets:

£45.00 including coach travel to and from Wressle, lunch, other refreshments, site visit and donation to charity (by request of the landowner).

£35.00 if travelling to/from Wressle by own transport.

To book this tour and for information on our other courses, please contact:

Barbara English

barbara@chapters-and-verse.com

01482 881333

Margaret Pinder

margaret@chapters-and-verse.com

01482 871788

The Richard III Foundation 2015 annual conference: “England during the Reign of the Yorkist Kings”

The Richard III Foundation, Inc. is pleased to announce its 2015 annual conference “England during the Reign of the Yorkist Kings”. Students of (high) Medieval Yorkshire will find much of interest in the programme, which includes some old friends from the Medieval Section lecture programme.

Saturday, October 17

Our conference will be held at the Dixie Grammar School in Market Bosworth. Registration begins at 8:30 with the conference starting promptly at 9 am and ending at 5:00 pm.

Our speakers and topics are:

Professor Peter Hancock—William, Lord Hastings and the Turbulent Summer of 1483

Kate Giles—The Middleham Jewel and Richard III

David Hipshon—The Renaissance and the Yorkists

Helen Cox— Revisiting the Battle of Wakefield

Bob Woosnam-Savage —Killed the Boar, Shaved his Head’; the Violent Death of Richard III

Group Captain Clive Montellier RAF—Sending King Edward to Military Staff College

Dominic Smee—Richard III: Sharing the experience of a King

Susan Troxell—”Wherefore the White Boar? Yorkist Symbolism

The Conference Package, which includes conference and membership in the Foundation for one year, costs £50.

To reserve your seat, please mail your registration form along with your check payable to “The Richard III Foundation, Inc.” and submit to Ms. Dorothy Davies, Half Moon House, 32 Church Lane, Ryde. Isle of Wight PO33 2NB. For further questions, please email the Foundation at Richard3Foundation@aol.com. Website: www.richard111.com.

Desperately Seeking Silver Salver

Silver salver presented to Peter Muir. What happened to it?

The latest issue (June 2015) of Arrowhead, the newsletter of the Archer-Antiquaries, features an interesting article by Manchester Museum’s Curator of Archery, Wendy Hodkinson, about a silver salver awarded to a man called Peter Muir in 1878. The occasion of the award was Muir’s retirement from his position as Officer and Bowmaker to the Royal Company, a role he had held for more than fifty years in an exemplary manner. The salver is inscribed with the legend ‘Royal Company of Archers The Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland’ above and ‘His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch Captain General’ below. The General Council and Members of her Majesty’s Bodyguard also presented Peter Muir with 450 sovereigns, which as Wendy points out in her article, is some golden handshake!

Muir was born in the west of Scotland in 1809 and was the only bowyer to win a gold medal for his products at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was one three bowyers who dominated the trade in the 19th century. Muir competed in archery tournaments. He was champion in England in 1845, 1847 and 1863, and Scottish National Champion in 1859. One of his duties was to teach new members of the Company to use the bow. Yet Peter Muir seems to have to fallen into the position by accident. When the previous Bowmaker to the Company of Archers fell ill, enquiries were made of Peter Muir’s father to see if he knew of anyone who could fill the position, and he recommended his son. Peter Muir’s service lasted fifty years.

In the 21st century it may appear quaint, even a little strange that the Victorians attached so much importance to archery. The Victorians were fascinated with the Middle Ages because it seemed to them to have been a golden age before the horrors of the Industrial Revolution, when it seemed to them social relations had been more harmonious. If there were strict social divisions and people were expected to know their place, at least the great and the good had acted in the interests of the commoners out of a sense of ‘noblesse oblige’. Of course this was all utter nonsense, but it was very influential at the time. It is not for nothing that in the city centre of Leeds, there is a statue of the Black Prince (not that there is any connection with Leeds), Armley Gaol was built to look like a Medieval Castle, and in Thornton’s Arcade shoppers are treated to a clock that shows characters from Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe every hour. The popularity of Neo-Gothic architectural style as exemplified by the Houses of Parliament, Manchester’s Town Hall and our very own Manchester Museum shows how important Medievalism was to the Victorians.

So popular was archery in 19th century Scotland that there was a long list of archery societies with names as eccentric as the sport was archaic: the Kilwinning Papingo (!), the Ardrossan Archers (before 1845), the Dalry Archers (c.1842), the Irvine Toxophilites (1802-1866), the Paisley Archers (1805-1815; 1858-1910; 1968+), the Saltcoat Archers (c.1856) and the Zingari Archers of Kilmarnock (c.1860). I mean you couldn’t make it up could you?

I would read the vogue for archery, including the inauguration of a Royal Bodyguard or Company of Archers as but one rather quaint component of their Medievalism. However, the fact that such a large amount of money and a silver salver were presented to Muir, and the elevated social circle in which he operated show that archery was taken very seriously. As an adjunct to royalty and the highest levels of the Establishment, Victorian archery was akin to another popular Medieval sport, falconry. Muir described himself as a ‘working-man’ and there is nothing unusual in that, in the same way that royalty today happily rub shoulders with jockeys in pursuance of ‘the sport of kings’.

Wendy ends her fascinating article about Peter Muir with an appeal for members of the public to come forward if they know what happened to the silver salver given to Peter Muir. It is known not to be in Archers’ Hall in Edinburgh. It’s not in the Beechin Wood Collection. Nor is it in the Museum of Scotland. So where is it? Over to you dear reader…..

In writing this blog I have drawn heavily on Wendy’s article in Arrowhead, the newsletter of the Archer-Antiquaries, issue 129 for June 2015, pp. 6-10. I am grateful to her for sharing her archery expertise.

History and conservation of the monumental medieval sculpture of St Christopher from Norton Priory

Our speaker at this Saturday’s lecture meeting at Claremont is Samantha Sportun. Sam has 18 years’ experience in Museums and currently manages the collection care team (Conservation/Workshop technicians) at Manchester Museum. Before taking up this post she ran the Sculpture Conservation workshop at National Museums Liverpool looking after their wide and varied sculpture collection as well as taking on the conservation of some of the iconic monuments in the North–West.

She is currently a part-time PhD student researching digital touch in Museum, exploring ways of using 3D technology to share objects stories through handling and touch. The interest in this area of research started at the time that St Christopher was conserved by the team in the Conservation Centre.

St Christopher is the largest stone sculpture that survives from the medieval period. Art historians have generally dated it to a period of around 1380 – 1400 on stylistic grounds. Come along to what promises to be a fascinating lecture to close our annual programme.

Bryan Sitch
Hon. Secretary
Medieval Section

Celebrating 30 Years of Yorvik: Saturday 20th June 2015

We are grateful once again to John Cruse for drawing to our attention the following event:-

Saturday 20th June 2015

Rahtz Lecture Theatre, King’s Manor, York

In 2014 the JORVIK Viking Centre celebrated its 30th birthday. For three decades it has welcomed visitors to the site of the Coppergate dig, an undertaking that revolutionised approaches to Viking-era England both within and beyond the academy, through a range of new investigative and interpretative techniques. But where do we stand in 2015?

This one-day, interdisciplinary conference will bring together heritage professionals and researchers in such related fields as archaeology, history and public history to explore a range of current themes in early medieval research covering the period up to and including the early twelfth century, as well as the real or potential impacts of this research in the public sphere.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

David Petts, Lecturer in the Archaeology of Northern England, University of Durham
Edmund Southworth, Director, Manx National Heritage
Julie Gibson, Lecturer and County Archaeologist for Orkney, University of the Highlands and Islands

Registration from 9am, 10am start and a 4pm finish
£25 adult, £20 student / conc. / Friends of YAT
Ticket price includes morning/afternoon refreshments and lunch

Add to your experience with a VIP wine & cheese reception and private
group tour of JORVIK with the opportunity to see and handle finds
from Coppergate. Ticket upgrade £10 per person. Reception starts at
6pm at JORVIK.
Pre-booking essential:
visit http://www.jorvikbookings.com or call 01904 615505