In many respects it seems to me that the coming year is likely to be a golden year for Medieval studies because of the important anniversaries that fall in 2015. John Walsh in The Independent on 1st January helpfully pointed out that this summer it will be one thousand years since the Viking invasion of England led by Canute, son of Sweyn Forkbeard. Jorvik Viking Festival will take place on 14th-22nd February and will feature battle re-enactments, guided walks and other activities.
On 15th June it will be 800 years since the Magna Carta was agreed at Runnymede in Surrey. The British Library, Lincoln Castle and Salisbury Cathedral have copies of Magna Carta and are putting on exhibitions. Perhaps the Medieval Section could organise a day trip to Lincoln to see the exhibition? If you’d be interested in going to see the exhibition do please get in touch and I’ll try to organize a visit.
New £2 coin to commemorate Magna Carta
There will be a £2 coin commemorating Magna Carta on its obverse this year, and a set of stamps. However, if you look at the £2 coin (above) the designer has made a schoolboy error in depicting King John about to sign Magna Carta using a quill, whereas in fact, it would have been imprinted with the king’s seal. Nor would the king have troubled himself with the act of sealing. That was the job of a particular member of Chancery known as a spigurnel. This and many other fascinating details concerning Magna Carta can be found in the new book by Dan Jones, Magna Carta the Making and Legacy of the Great Charter (Head of Zeus, 2014).
Dan Jones’ new book on Magna Carta
If Lincoln is beyond the pale for a Yorkshire Medieval Section, Yorkshire Medieval Festival takes place in York 1st-31st August with archery, birds of prey, jousting knights and of course the beautiful historic city as a setting. York Early Music festival takes place 3rd-11th July and features a new medieval soundscape for the 1928 silent classic La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc.
A third anniversary is that of the battle of Agincourt which was fought on 25th October 1415: 600 years ago.
These are all compelling reasons to celebrate our Medieval history, archaeology and heritage sites in 2015, and I note that Jeremy Black writing in The Times (3/1/2015) suggests that the celebration of anniversaries is in itself something of a Medieval practice: Henry III celebrated Edward the Confessor and Henry VIII the victories of Edward III and Henry V.
And as if there weren’t enough I read in the DailyTelegraph (2/1/2015) a report about the discovery of a hoard of 5,251 Anglo-Saxon silver coins in a lead container in a field near Aylesbury, Bucks., by metal-detector user Paul Coleman. There are coins of Ethelred the Unready (978-1016) and Canute (1016-1035). I saw some footage of what was described on the evening news as the excavation of the hoard. Actually it looked more like reaching into the bran tub at a children’s party.
No doubt the much-discussed reburial of the remains of Richard III will be attended by a reevaluation of the controversial king’s reputation. Whether his final resting place will be Leicester or York is impossible to say at the present time. As the speaker at our Christmas lecture on this subject just over a year ago, Bob Woosnam-Savage, said the chances of finding the last Plantagenet king’s remains fist attempt must have appeared impossibly low but the archaeology has surprised everyone and Richard now joins the list of famous historical personalities who have been rescued from the oblivion of a forgotten grave, to the extent of having the very flesh put back on their bones though the technique of facial reconstruction, a technique I’m proud to say was pioneered at University of Manchester.
Another reason to be cheerful, if any were needed, is the imminent publication of the Medieval Section’s journal Medieval Yorkshire, which is being compiled and edited by our Hon.Joint Editor, David Asquith, and Sue Alexander. This is the first time for a number of years that the section has been in a position to publish a journal. Seeing this in print will be the realisation of the third leg of a strategy to re-energise the section after it came close to being closed two years ago (the other two being the creation of this blog and the resumption of the section’s monthly lectures).
I’ve received an enquiry from someone who lives near Armitstead and who has read a copy of Medieval Yorkshire vol.34. He is interested in finding out about any research on the area around Settle, Giggleswick, Stainforth and Malham. The enquirer wants to know who to contact if he has questions. The gentleman asks whether Paley Green have been a settlement or a single farmstead. Would all the mentioned have had links with the monasteries? Can one of our members help?
You may be grumbling about seeing premature Xmas advertisements on the TV but we need to plan our December meeting. As many of you will know, it is a long-since well-established custom of the Medieval Section to hold a Xmas tea after the lecture in December. We had planned originally to invite someone from the Newport Ship project to talk on 13th December but, because of the speaker’s changed family circumstances (there has been a new addition to the family), that arrangement has, sadly but understandably, fallen through.
However, I am very pleased to tell you that Robert Richards has kindly agreed to talk to us about All Saints Church in York.
Medieval Section Xmas party (2013)
Last year’s meeting was very enjoyable as I’m sure those who attended will testify (see above).
Hot from the YAS Press……is the latest volume – the 17th – in the Wakefield Court Rolls series. This is an edition of the manorial court roll for 1436-7. It follows from the edition of the court rolls for 1433-6 published as volume 15. The Wakefield series is by far the longest- running edition of manorial records series ever published. It was established by the YAS fifty years ago, to make as much as possible of this remarkable archive easily available to readers.
The manor was one of the largest in the country: over 100 square miles, compared to an typical size of only 6, and its records span eight centuries, from 1274 to 1925. Their national importance was acknowledged in 2011 when the archive was inscribed on the UK register of UNESCO’s Memory of the World. The story of how the YAS came to own this remarkable archive, and how the society has promoted it from 1898 to the present, is the subject of an anniversary essay in the new volume.
The series has published court rolls from all periods, from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. There are four more medieval volumes in progress, by editors at work in West Yorkshire, Scotland and Canada.
Volumes are published every other year. You can subscribe to the series for £9 in the UK and, because of the alarming cost of postage, £13 if you live abroad.
My thanks to Brian Barber for writing this for the Medieval Section blog.
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.
New volume of the Wakefield Court Rolls
One last bit of news: the next volume of the Wakefield Court Rolls has been published. The price is £9 for members.
In 1429 the eight year old Henry VI was presented at his coronation feast with a custard pie garnished with an English lion grasping a French fleur de lys in its claws. This edible emblem of territorial ambition and legitimacy to rule over the conquered is not an isolated example of a food item purposefully loaded with meaning at this period. Henry was also served with a pie in the form of a shield, garnished with ‘lozenges gilt” and borage flowers, chosen for the powerful ‘cordial’ effect they would have on the young king’s humours. From a pasty in the form of a bird served to the Worshipful Company of Salters at their Christmas Feast in 1394, to the funeral bake metes of Hamlet’s murdered father, pies and other pastry creations figured large in Renaissance culture.
In this free illustrated lecture, food historian Ivan Day will discuss the role of food as emblem, as a vehicle for Galenic dietary theory and as an occasional player in power politics.Booking is essential as places are limited. Phone Wakefield Museum on 01924 302700 or email museumslearning@wakefield.gov.uk
Excavations at Pontefract Friary in 2011 (courtesy of Simon Tomson)
St Richard’s Dominican Friary in Pontefract was one of 56 Dominican friaries in England by 1300, but, as our speaker told the audience, it was not known precisely where it was until very recently. The opportunity to locate the missing friary arose when the A & E department of the local hospital was demolished. Pontefract Castle dates from the 1080s and Pontefract was laid out as a planned town by the de Lacys in front of the castle along an east west ridge. The present town centre overlies the medieval suburb. A number of place names clues suggest that the friary had once been nearby: Friar Wood and Friar Wood Lane. Pontefract Friary Action Group (PFAG) gathered 2000 signatures in just a fortnight to press for the site to be explored archaeologically. The hospital authorities planned to reduce the ground surface by a metre. WYAS conducted a desktop assessment which showed there was a high likelihood of there being archaeology beneath the hospital estate. Balfour Beatty Heathcoe provided £10,000 to fund the excavation.
Friaries came late (from the 1250s) on the medieval monastic scene and, having to set up where they could, tend to be extra-mural and Simon showed a map of medieval Bristol for comparison. The friaries were outside the town on the flood plain. Beverley Friary set up over the town sewer! In Pontefract Eric Holder and Pontefract and District Archaeology society excavated pits at the bottom of the hill where it was thought the friary might lie. Joining up dots from the exploratory trenches enabled the excavators to tentatively mark out the plan of the cloister. Drought marks in a garden suggested a possible guesthouse on the west side of the cloister. It appears the friary garderobe flowed into a duck pond.
The society had to meet a number of health and safety requirements in order to dig but within 10 days of coming back off holiday, the Chairman supported by the society had mobilised 30 volunteers and were ready to start digging. They sank a number of 2m square sondage pits but they only revealed an undifferentiated five feet thick grey garden soil which had been turned over repeatedly. It had been the dumping ground for the contents of privies mixed with ash and contained lots of clay pipe fragments and broken pottery. Black and white photographs of the site showed how it had been used to grow liquorice, which requires deep well-drained soils, during the early modern period.
Liquorice from Manchester Museum Botany collection (courtesy of Claire Miles)
The grey layer rested on top of the local coal measure sandstone. The surface of the sandstone contained one burial: that of a man who had been hanged. The radiocarbon date suggested he’d lived between 1283 and 1394. Simon speculated he might be a veteran of the Battle of Boroughbridge (1322) in which Thomas of Lancaster, who had risen in rebellion against King Edward II, was defeated. Afterwards the Earl was brought back to Pontefract, tried and executed.
The site where the skeleton was found lay against an 8 metre vertical sandstone cliff face which had been quarried extensively for the stone from which the friary had been constructed. A rock-cut foundation trench was found providing the footing for the North wall of the friary church. The friary was extensively robbed when Pontefract was being rebuilt after three destructive sieges during the English Civil War. However, the excavators found a major east-west wall with three buttresses and an impressive but unfinished broken grave cover incorporated into a buttress. It had been damaged by the stonemason during manufacture and had been re-used. Against the wall a line of whitewash could be seen. Black and white floor tiles had butted up against the wall. On the inside of the east wall was found what was believed to be part of the base of the altar. The dating of the tiles suggests they were made prior to the founding of the friary and may have been used and re-used several times before being given to the friary.
Head niche of Purbeck marble (courtesy of Simon Tomson)
The head niche of a sarcophagus of Purbeck marble was found near a rebate in one side of the chancel. This sarcophagus would have been expensive and shows that the person buried there was of high status. Unfortunately most of the sarcophagus appears to have been made into lime for mortar after the Dissolution in 1536. Several brass letters dating from the early to mid-15th century were also found. Nevertheless there are a couple of candidates, whose last resting place this might have been. The battle of Wakefield took place in 1460. Richard Duke of York and his son Edmund Earl of Rutland both lost their lives. There is historical evidence that they were buried at Pontefract Friary. In 1476 Edward IV and Richard Duke of Gloucester arranged a funeral cortege to take their father’s remains for re-burial at Fotheringhay. Pieces of window tracery dating from about 1375 were found. There is also historical evidence that John of Gaunt provided wood for rebuilding the friary roof after 1365.
To the north lay the cemetery. The society sampled one of the skeletons. Simon thought the radiocarbon date obtained for the skeleton (1283-1394) was suspiciously close to that of the skeleton of the hanged man. He suspected that radon gas seeping up out of the coal measures might be blurring the precision of the results. The partial plan revealed by the excavation enabled Simon to overlay onto it a plan of a surviving friary, such as that of Norwich to give an impression of the complete plan of Pontefract Friary. This enabled him to predict the line of the south wall and he tested the theory by digging in a narrow piece of land between the children’s ward and the public road. The south wall of the church was found and it was the buttress was only half a metre out! Simon showed a photo of the Blackfriars Theatre in Boston which gives an idea of how the building next to the cloister might have looked.
Simon Tomson is Excavation Field Director, Pontefract and District Archaeological Society. Our sincerest thanks to Simon for giving his lecture and providing images for use in this blog post.
Plan of Monk Bretton in the light of recent excavations (courtesy of Dr Hugh Willmott).
The speaker at April’s lecture meeting is interested in the end of the monasteries, and, as Monk Bretton is close to Sheffield and has an interesting Post-Dissolution history; it was the perfect site for fieldwork. But why bother? Don’t we know it all anyway? There are a lot of historical records, including suppression records, with which to map the process of destruction and rebirth that takes place on such sites. However, archaeologists have generally been more interested in the story of how the abbeys were founded, and how the architectural styles changed over time, rather than what happened after their Dissolution. The fact that the majority have a Post-Dissolution life that may be longer than the duration of the monastic occupation is often ignored. Simon Thurley in his 2007 Gresham Lecture ‘The Fabrication of Medieval History’ referred to the policy of the Office or Ministry of Works (M.O.W.) under the guidance of Sir Charles Reed Peers (1868-1952), which was summarised as “Our job is to throw up the distinctive character and individuality of the medieval constructor”. So it was that Monk Bretton was turned into a lovely ruin with a beautifully manicured lawn during the consolidation work carried out there from the 1930s to 1950s. In keeping with the M.O.W.’s policy the Post-Dissolution phases were seen as an inconvenience and swept away during the tidying up of the site. During the recent archaeological work, which the speaker directed, the aim was to explain how the functioning farmhouse created out of the monastic buildings was turned into a picturesque ruin. It is easy to blame people in the past, however, and there is still today the feeling that the Middle Ages are the ‘real’ or ‘pure’ past and that all the other interventions are to be regarded as unfortunate. This leaves us with a rather black-and-white picture of the dedicated religious in their abbeys and priories and the unprincipled secular determined to exploit the situation at the Dissolution. In advertising its annual conference, the Society of Church Archaeology has stated “In Yorkshire the avarice and greed of those who sought to benefit from the Dissolution came into stark conflict with the piety of those who aimed to retain vestiges of the Old Religion” (2010) but this is a simplification of a relationship that was more complex, as our speaker aimed to show in his presentation.
Founded in 1153, Monk Bretton was a Cluniac house under the jurisdiction of Pontefract. In 1281 it became an independent Benedictine house (although there was bloodshed over this when an armed group led by the Prior from Pontefract disputed control of its wealth!). It was dissolved on 39th November 1538. Its estate was valued at £246 19s 4d. It was granted to William Blithman, one of the assessors. He grew up locally and was one of Cromwell’s key agents in Yorkshire, which would explain Blithman’s interest in Monk Bretton. The priory was purchased at the suggestion of Bess of Hardwick for her stepson Henry Talbot in 1580. It left the possession of the Talbot family during the early 17th century and then slipped into historical obscurity. The site was cleared by land owner John Horne during the 1920s and taken into guardianship by the Office of Works in 1937 and turned into a public monument. The last owner, John Horne, corresponded with the President of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Dr Walker. Literature published about the site explains Monk Bretton was a Talbot residence. The residence was in the west range, where a stair case and gateway represented the core of the Tudor mansion but there is little that is Tudor in the present predominantly medieval range. Other Talbot mansions are known. The Earl of Shrewsbury was one of the richest noblemen in the country and the Talbot family owned Rufford Abbey (Nottinghamshire, 1540) where the main range was turned into a fancy house; a new build at New Hall Pontefract (1591), which was demolished to make way for the M62 motorway; and Worksop Manor (1590s).
The recent work began with an intensive resistivity survey of the core of the monastic site. It proved to be surprisingly empty of archaeological features, apart from a collapsed mine shaft that runs underneath the site. Apart from patches of debris showing where buildings were cleared by the M.O.W. there was little to be seen. However, an anomaly beyond the church seemed to show a set of walls. Test pits were dug in Easter 2010. A test pit dug north of the North Transept revealed walls and a piece of early to mid-16th century German stoneware was found, as well as an area of puddled clay in which there were lots of broken edges of window glass. These were the trimmings (never leaded) or offcuts from creating windows. They were not monastic but were 16th or 17th century in date.
This work was followed by further documentary research and the digging of a larger trench. When the old M.O.W. files were inspected a piece of graph paper dated 31st May 1950 was found on which there was a sketch plan of a building that was recorded near the North Transept wall. It had been recorded accurately but in rudimentary fashion before being back-filled because it didn’t fit the prevailing contemporary interpretative narrative that focused on the monastic rather than the Post-Dissolution archaeology. Further excavations in July 2010 dug up an area of the lawn and the area where window glass had been found. The latter revealed a boundary wall with puddled clay on one side and medieval garden soils beneath. It was not the intention to excavate a medieval garden and the trench was closed.
The trench north of the Transept was more complex because it revealed lots of walls and features. Here was evidence of Tudor building and Post-Medieval material culture but the more the excavators dug the less it seemed to make sense! The chief obstacle was the M.O.W.’s excavation technique which consisted of following walls to create a plan of the buildings on the site. Unfortunately this divorced the walls and buildings from their archaeological contexts and associated dating evidence, leaving them ‘floating’. However some nice pieces of a carved stone syncopated arcade from the Cloister were found.
The garderobe at Monk Bretton (photo courtesy of Dr Hugh Willmott)
Later building work appears to have respected an earlier feature that had been left in situ. This was interpreted as a ‘furnace’ during the 1950s but it turned out to be a closed-shaft garderobe built against a wall, complete with an exit chute. The M.O.W. excavators found pottery here and this was traced and turned out to be an almost complete urinal. Urinals are often found down reredorter drains. This suggests whatever was going on in the area was of a domestic nature but just north of the North Transept seemed like a strange place for a substantial building of this kind. However, Castle Acre Priory had a similar building running away from the North Transept.
Medieval urinal found in garderobe at Monk Bretton (courtesy of Dr Hugh Willmott).
The recent excavations also revealed late medieval coarse wares amongst the 1950s back-fill. The most interesting pieces turned out to be industrial wares. A 14th or 15th century drinking jug was badly corroded. Perhaps it had been used for boiling something acidic as part of a metal-working. A pot with greenish-blue deposit proved to be unexpectedly dangerous because the analysis revealed it contained copper arsenate! It had probably been used as a dye pigment. Similar vessels were discovered at Pontefract Priory. Clearly some interesting activity was going on at the Priory in the 15th century. However, the finds also reveal high status activity too. The current excavations uncovered a Germanic drinking glass or beaker as well as window glass, decorated with grisaille and lead canes. Nice windows and imported glass may suggest this was the early guesthouse.
Most of the walls related to the mid-16th century phase before the site came into the possession of the Talbot family. A lot of medieval stone was reused making dating the activity difficult. A large fireplace was reused and incorporated pieces from different fireplaces to create two water tanks. The edges of the tanks were chipped. The timber frame building resting on stone sleeper walls appears to have been a smithy and there is evidence of burning. Lots of good ceramics were recovered from the drain including so-called Cistercian wares and Blackwares as well as a decorative stone crocket (a decorative architectural element probably from a pinicle on the monastic church). Another metalwork sample proved to copper alloy containing significant traces of zinc and tin. This is the composition of bell metal and it is interesting that five bells are mentioned in the Suppression document. There was a lot of lead work too that had been cut off and twisted ready for melting down and recycling.
In the final phase dating to the late 16th century, much was demolished and filled-in. This is about the time when the site was acquired by the Talbot family. In addition to the construction of the smithy there had been some reconstruction at Monk Bretton under Blithman’s ownership elsewhere on the site. Parts of the Church Nave were demolished. Part of the North Aisle went to Wentworth where it was built into the Parish Church. Our speaker pointed out that one of the first things that Post-Dissolution owners did was to slight the church to ensure that the monks did not return. This was only prudent at a time when the political wind was blowing both ways. The eastern end of the church that was left appears to have been retained as a barn.
In order to better understand what happened at Monk Bretton in the late 16th and 17th centuries and before the M.O.W. tidied up the site, Ordnance Survey maps were consulted. One edition of 1931 was published just before the M.O.W. acquired the site. Another of 1906 shows a west range. Part of the farmhouse and medieval masonry were incorporated to create a long gallery. Photographs in Barnsley Archives Office show this as a long gallery with a timber-framed top hall, and with Tudor chimneys coming off it. People reused the stone from this Post-Dissolution building. The Tudor House seems to have had an inserted stairwell and a long gallery. In a letter from the last owner Mr Horne to Dr Walker of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, a series of investigations are described: ‘In the centre refectory wall is a circular structure which may have been a fireplace. There is a wall going through the centre of the building put in at the time of the 16th century…’ The circular structure must have been a bread oven. Another building described as the ‘administration building’ has been dated to the 13th century on the basis of some rather fine columns but archival research shows that the M.O.W. made extensive changes to this structure in the 1930s and ‘medievalised’ what probably started out as a stable or coach house in the Post-Medieval phase of Monk Bretton. During the 1930s Monk Bretton was ‘fossilised’ as a medieval monument even though by this time it had been transformed into a working farm.
The lecture showed that life at Monk Bretton went on long after the closure of the priory in 1538 and indeed the Post-Dissolution phase lasted as long as the duration of the monastic occupation. The recent archaeological work showed what happened to a site at the Dissolution and what was involved in the transition from an ecclesiastical estate to a secular one. Life went on the and to the peasant working the land there would not have been much, if any, difference. Sadly this continuity is often overlooked in the traditional narrative of the Dissolution being about the destruction of the monasteries and the expulsion of the monks. In this Monk Bretton is not on its own. There must have been hundreds of Monk Brettons in the landscape after the Dissolution. About one third of religious sites were destroyed; between a third and a half were converted into a house or farm; and about a fifth remained in parochial religious use. The situation is slightly different in Wales and very different in Scotland.
The Section is very grateful to Dr Willmott for kindly commenting on the text (though any mistakes that remain are the Hon.Secretary’s responsibility) and for providing photographs. Dr Willmott was planning to publish the more detailed report on the 2010 excavations in the YAJ, but is currently finalising the ‘grey’ report for English Heritage.Dr Willmott has also offered to speak to the Section about his work at Thornton Abbey in North Lincolnshire at a date to be confirmed.
Yesterday’s Medieval Section AGM was one of the best-attended and longest-lasting AGMs that I can remember in all the years that I have been a member. Twenty-one people were present. Unfortunately Axel Muller (Chairman), Jo Heron (Treasurer) and Steve Moorhouse (Hon. Editor) could not come so I read their respective reports to the gathering. Janet Senior kindly stepped in to chair the meeting which meant I was not talking all of the time.
Basically we are in much better shape than we were a year ago.The twin strategy of reviving the Saturday afternoon monthly lectures and creating a section blog has stimulated interest so that once again members are offering themselves for election to committee. Craig Fletcher has joined the committee and replaces Marta Cobb who has stepped down. Thanks to them both for serving. It was the absence of volunteers willing to stand for committee that prompted last year’s proposal that the section be wound up. The membership is about the same at 130, although there are still subscriptions outstanding.
The main point of discussion was the Section journal Medieval Yorkshire. David Asquith kindly offered to facilitate the production of the journal. Whilst David has not said he will become Hon. Editor this is a most welcome step that hopefully will enable us to resume publication of Medieval Yorkshire. Sadly due to the ill-health of Stephen Moorhouse there has not been any progress with the catch-up volumes 38 and 39/40.
Dr Hugh Willmott addressing the section about Monk Bretton Priory.
The AGM was followed by Dr Hugh Willmott (University of Sheffield) who talked to us about recent work at Monk Bretton Priory. I’ll put a summary of this talk on the blog in due course.
Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society 