“Medieval Yorkshire is the journal of the Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society. We are always looking for new submissions to the journal. If you are interested in publishing, please contact the editor at <medyorks.editor@yahs.org.uk >. Similarly, if you hear an interesting lecture on the subject of Medieval Yorkshire and a related subject why don’t you suggest to the speaker to have this published in Medieval Yorkshire”
So if you see or hear anything that could be of interest to the rest of the Section, please feel free to let us know.
This Saturday we have Hanna Vorholt talking about Illuminated manuscripts,
This will be a hybrid meeting at Swarthmore if you want to attend in person. If you would like to bring along something consumable to share with other members, it would be welcome, and members can collect their copy of the 2022 Medieval Yorkshire at the same time.
Openwork decoration from Whitby (courtesy of Christane Kroebel)
Hild was the first abbess of the Streoneshalh/Whitby monastery from 657 AD until her death in 680 AD. Within a few years, it rose to prominence as a centre for learning and for hosting the Synod of Whitby to decide the dating of Easter. Although few literary and documentary references to Hild and to Whitby are extant, the monastery continued to play an important part in the political life of Northumbria during the next three to four decades and is likely to have been an economic force afterwards. By the second half of the ninth century, all activity ceased and did not resume until after the Norman Conquest, when a Benedictine monastery was founded dedicated to St. Peter and St. Hild. This talk will trace Hild’s role and importance in the seventh century and her appeal throughout the Middle Ages and into the 21st century.
Small find from Whitby Abbey
Our speaker, Christiane Kroebel, is an independent researcher based in Whitby, North Yorkshire. She is hon. editor of Forum: the Journal of Council for British Archaeology Yorkshire, Whitby Museum curator for the abbey collection (volunteer) and was formerly hon. librarian and archivist of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society (2000-13). She studied at Durham University (History MA, 2003) and the Catholic University of America, Washington DC (Library and Information Science MSc, 1983). Her research interest is Anglo-Saxon history but more recently she has broadened her scope into medieval and early modern Whitby and vicinity.
This will take place at 2pm at Swarthmore Leeds on Saturday 10th February. Non-members are welcome but a donation to the cost of running the section would be appreciated.
“Mirrors for Men?” a technological and cultural comparison of European and Japanese medieval swords by Stefan Maeder.
The Japanese Sword is often praised as the apex of the swordsmith’s craft. A direct comparison between European medieval swords, treated according to the traditional Japanese method of sword-polishing, and Japanese counterpart yielded a range of new results. These encompass a better understanding of technological and cultural common points, as well as of differences between the most prestigious and symbolic weapons of pre-modern Japan and medieval Europe.
Sword tip
Stefan’s background is in prehistoric and early medieval archaeology with a specialization in arms and armour studies. This is a rare opportunity to hear about a comparative study of Japanese and European sword-making traditions and culture.
I must confess I had an ulterior motive in inviting our December speaker, Dr Bart Lambert of the University of York, to give a talk about late Medieval migration. Migration has been one of the topics of Manchester Museum’s thematic collecting project for the last 18 months, which culminated for me in a visit to the Greek island of Lesvos to collect a refugee’s life jacket just over a year ago. As part of the project I’ve looked at Roman inscriptions from Mancunium or Manchester in the museum collection but the medieval period posed more of a challenge. Everyone’s familiar with the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans but Dr Lambert’s talk opened up a whole new chapter about the movement of people during the later Middle Ages.
Statue of the Black Prince in Leeds
We are certainly no stranger to late Medieval migration in Leeds. One of the city’s prominent landmarks in City Square opposite the railway station is a statue of the Black Prince created by sculptor Thomas Brock (1847-1922). It was set up thanks to the generosity and civic-mindedness of Colonel Thomas William Harding who sought a suitably distinguished subject to be the focus of the Italianate piazza he had created. That there was no direct link with the history of city mattered little and the bronze scroll around the base of the statue reads like a roll-call of the Ladybird book of well-to-do, respectable and famous people during the reign of Edward III: Sir John Chandos, Sir Walter Nanny, William of Wykeham, John Wycliff, Chaucer, Froissart, van Arteveldt and du Guesclin. Not to mention bronze panels depicting the battles of Crecy and Sluys and a plaque honouring the Black Prince himself, ‘Edward, Prince of Wales, surnamed the Black Prince. The Hero of Crecy and Poitiers. The Flower of England’s chivalry…’
Van Arteveldt’s name in the scroll around the plinth of the statue
Of these, van Arteveldt is credited with encouraging Edward III to bring Flemish weavers and dyers to England, which Colonel Harding may have believed helped to lay the foundations of the West Yorkshire textile industry. As our speaker explained it is more likely that van Arteveldt was finding a home overseas where political exiles from Flanders wouldn’t pose a threat.
If civic statuary inspired by Victorian medievalism is a rather dubious source of information about late Medieval migration, Dr Lambert presented data of far more reliable kind: the records of the country’s alien population that were created for taxation purposes during the reign of Henry VI in order to help fund the war in France. The tax operated between 1440 and 1447. Juries were appointed in each community to identify who was an alien. Returns from the alien subsidy highlights the presence of French people, many of whom must have been refugees fleeing parts of France which had been occupied by the English but were being recaptured by the French monarchy. There were also labourers and servants from the Low Countries who realised that they could earn more money on the other side of the Channel. Similarly, there were Scottish People on the borders and Irish people in the West Country who at that time would have been classified as aliens because they came from a different kingdom of the British Isles.
If any of this echoes recent events you might not be surprised to learn that the immigrants brought with them new skills in making fine and fancy goods including clothing, footwear and jewellery that native crafts people found difficult to compete with. This caused tensions that resulted in appalling acts of violence against the newcomers, and even threats to mutilate immigrant workers so that they could not compete with English (in practice London) crafts people.
The tax came to an end in 1487 because it had ceased to gather significant sums of money. Bart suggested that by this time people on local juries had formed relationships with the immigrants and had less reason to report them to the authorities for taxation. So what begins as a rather unpleasant story about penalising vulnerable people in medieval society develops into something more heartening, a story of solidarity not marginalisation of the other.
Someone once said there’s nothing new under the sun except perhaps the cigarette. In this lecture the echoes of Brexit were all too loud. Many thanks to Bart for making us think as much about the present as about the past.
Our speaker at the first Medieval Section lecture of the new calendar year on 14th January will be Dr Elisa Foster, and she will be talking about ‘Investigating the Head Reliquary of St William of York: Processions, Piety and Place.’ Dr Foster has kindly sent an abstract of her presentation:
From its foundation in 1408, the Corpus Christi Guild in York was responsible for organising a city-wide procession of the Eucharist. Although the shrine used during this procession was destroyed in 1546, inventory records and account rolls reveal that guild members donated luxury items and devotional objects to attach to its surface. Such offerings were quite unusual for Eucharistic shrines, but were more commonly found on the shrines of saints, like those that could have been seen in York Minster. Although the majority of these shrines were located at fixed sites in the cathedral, the head reliquary shrine of St William was borne in procession around the city on the feast of the saint’s translation, and inventory records indicate that it was also adorned with luxury objects. These shrines are not often examined together, but both objects were deeply connected to the civic identity of late medieval York. This paper will argue that that the processional shrines of the Head of St William and Corpus Christi encouraged emulation and rivalry, both spiritually and civically. A comparative analysis of these shrines and their processions thus aims to reveal new insights into the complex nature of medieval civic identity in the City of York.
Elisa Foster a Henry Moore Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Fellow based at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. She received her PhD from Brown University in the United States, where she wrote her thesis on sculptures of the black Madonna in European art from c. 1200-1700. Her research on this topic has been recently published in Studies in Iconography, Peregrinations: A Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture and the edited volume, Envisioning Others: Race, Color and the Visual in Iberia and Latin America. In addition to her research on Black Madonnas, Elisa is co-editor a collection of essays titled Devotional Interaction in Medieval England and Its Afterlives, forthcoming in 2017. Her research in Yorkshire expands her interest in destroyed objects and iconoclasm, focusing specifically on the shrine of Corpus Christi in York, from which her talk on Saturday 14th January is derived.
As usual the lecture will be held at Swarthmore, 2-3pm. We look forward to seeing you there and have a Happy New Year.
The next lecture in the programme will be by Dr Audrey Thorstad talking about Interaction, daily life, and socialising spaces in early Tudor castles on 10th December. This will be held in the Swarthmore Institute.
Dr Thorstad kindly sent the following abstract and the photograph of Cowdray Castle:-
‘Castles have long been understood as elite military structures. However, recent approaches to castle studies have demonstrated that historical documents and archaeological remains depict a much more complex narrative for those living, working, and visiting a castle site during the Middle Ages and early modern periods. This paper will explore how people – from the lord and his family to members of the household and guests – moved around and used space in English castles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. My approach takes into account sources that have not previously been used together in order to explore the layout and chamber arrangements in an age when castles were supposedly in decline. By dismantling the idea of the decline paradigm often used to describe castles after the fourteenth century, this paper will argue that castles were in fact still heavily used by the nobility well into the sixteenth century.’
The Whixley cartulary, showing pages from the extent of Whixley manor, early 15th century.
Sylvia Thomas, our speaker for the October lecture, kindly sent the following notes about her talk at Swarthmore Education Centre this Saturday:
Since its foundation in 1863 the Society has accumulated significant archive collections from all over Yorkshire, many of them records of major families, some of which date back as far as the thirteenth century. Highlights are the enormous series of surviving court rolls of the manor of Wakefield (1274 – 1925), the fifteenth-century stock book and sixteenth-century lease book of Fountains Abbey, the secular cartulary of Whixley, North Yorkshire (1430), numerous early Yorkshire charters, and much more.
Initial from the Fountains Abbey stock book (late 15th century).
In 2015 all these collections were deposited by the Society for safe-keeping in the University of Leeds, Brotherton Library Special Collections, where they are again available for use by the public.
Sylvia Thomas is the former archivist and a past president of the YAHS, and a retired County Archivist of West Yorkshire. She is Joint Editor of the West Riding and Derbyshire volumes of Records of Early English Drama.
Wakefield’s Medieval Bridge and Chantry Chapel on Saturday 1st October
This event at The Hepworth, Wakefield will cover what is known about the Bridge and Chantry, as well as their context, with talks by an engineer about medieval bridge construction and a historian about the purpose of chantry chapels. Other talks will cover new research, both current research about bridge chapels and also research being carried out for The Hepworth into the antiquarian Gott Collection. The day will end with a visit to look at the Bridge and the Chapel.
This event coincides with the 660th anniversary of the start of worship at the Chapel, the 25th anniversary of the Friends of the Chantry Chapel and remembers the work of Kate Taylor towards its restoration.
The cost is £10 for members of Wakefield Historical Society/Friends of the Chantry Chapel, £15 for non-members. For more information, see www.wakefieldhistoricalsociety.org.uk or phone 07971 449463.
Chas Jones has kindly sent details of this year’s commemorations of the battles of Fulford and Stamford Bridge. Fulford was the first and arguably largest of the three battles in the autumn of 1066. Five days after the battle of Fulford the Vikings were caught off guard at Stamford Bridge by King Harold II and badly defeated. These two Yorkshire battles contributed to the defeat of King Harold a few weeks later at Hastings because his army was no longer fresh after its long march up to Yorkshire and back.
The archaeological digs of 2014 and 2015 on the site of the 1066 battle of Fulford yielded many fragments of bone, which appeared to be human. Sadly it was not possible to extract collagen for a carbon date or to do isotope analysis on these bones.
The work will resume this summer with more trenches where the bones were found. Another trench will expose a further section of the ancient road leading to the ford which was discovered last year.
Chas recently launched a ‘Crowdfunder’ appeal, featuring a film by Dan Snow, to get the money to open the site to visitors. As a part of the 950th anniversary of 1066 the site, which is on public land, will be open for families during the summer holidays to visit and dig some of the intriguing archaeology that was uncovered last year.
There will be a number of events to commemorate the Fulford and Stamford Bridge battles, culminating in a battle re-enactment at Stamford Bridge on 25th September, the 950th anniversary date of that battle before the trek south to Hastings. This is being organised by English Heritage.
Chas has spoken to Medieval Section in the past. Chas hopes some of our members might venture over to Fulford to do some digging or just to come and have a look. He also runs newsletter to which you can sign up.
July
As a part of the Council for British Archaeology, festival of archaeology, starting on Saturday 16 July we will be digging at the ford to expose more of the ancient road and land surface of 1066
When the dig is over on 31 July the site will be covered over to protect it from the weather and prepared to allow visitors to inspect the battle surface
August
Open Fulford site with free public access to the archaeology.
Site is open 11-4 every day but accessible outside these hours for unguided access
Access is free but a £10 family ticket is planned for those wanting to take part in the dig
A living history camp will be making items and talking to visitors
Prepare tableaux of three battles with panels to explain the history and the battles
September
The site will remain open to visitors as long as weather conditions permit. The hope is to keep them open until the battle of Hastings in mid-October, weather and floods permitting, to maximise visitor opportunities
Saturday 17
Riccall Rampage – 9.00 Talk at Riccall and Viking ‘breakfast’ when the walk reaches Fulford. The walk takes about 3 hours and is along paths and bike tracks
Living history and site open all day with several battlefield walks during the day
Workshop for school children make armour and paper weapons for the battle, 1-4
Private feast for supporters and sponsors on the site starts at 5
Sunday 18
00 Judging the best dressed Viking prior to Children’s re-enactment of the battle
10 – 12.30 Battle on the playing fields with children and some Viking leaders. Parents must stay behind the barriers. Only children and Vikings allowed on the battlefield. Great photo opportunity as the battle moves back and forth on the surface where the battle was fought
Living history and site open all day with several battlefield walks during the day
Monday 19
Site will be configured to receive field trips from local schools
Tuesday 20 (950 anniversary)
Dedicate the memorial for the warriors of the battle.
Mid-day walk round the battlefield
Focus will be on attracting media attention in the build up to the Stamford Bridge weekend
Wednesday 21
11-4 Brainstorm Conference “Where did the 1066 battles actually take place”
Themed Poetry and music evening in Fulford
Thursday 22
Tadcaster to Stamford Bridge ride & stride
Friday 23
Embroidery day with dye workshop on site
Saturday 24
Full day of events at SB including a battle
Victors feast and celebration for warriors in the evening
Sunday 25 (950 anniversary)
Second day of events at SB
5pm English Heritage ride to Hastings sets off from central York
October 15
English Heritage commemorates 1066 at Battle Abbey with a massive re-enactment
Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society 