Old parish churches are wonderful ways of experiencing the ways in which architectural tastes changed over many centuries. As well as being rewarding in their own right, these ever-shifting styles can be used to help put a date on the parts of a building as it develops. They also help make it a ‘...

The Dissolution of the Monasteries is often characterised as a simple story of greed and appropriation enacted by Thomas Cromwell on behalf Henry VIII, which saw the religious evicted and all England's great abbeys and priories destroyed in less than a decade. Whilst clearly a devastating experie...

In late 1348, the Black Death entered London. Over the next 9 months, it ravaged the populace killing thousands. This paper provides a detailed look at its arrival, spread and eventual disappearance, and looks at some of the archaeological and architectural evidence for its passage, its final dea...

Medieval tombs often depict husband and wife lying side-by-side and hand-in-hand, their love immortalised in elegantly carved stone: what Philip Larkin's poem An Arundel Tomb later described as their "stone fidelity". But there is more to these declarations of post-mortem love than meets the eye....

In medieval Europe, relics of dead martyrs were the ultimate must-have, venerated by princes and paupers alike. And the associated market for them was big business; a huge industry with an infrastructure to match. Crumbling bone, ravaged human hair, withering chunks of flesh, and the blood-soaked...

What do you do after writing a PhD on the medieval grotesque? In Alex Woodcock’s case it was to learn stonemasonry. Practical knowledge of working stone gradually transformed his understanding of medieval sculpture and eventually led to him working as a stonemason at Exeter Cathedral for several ...

The art and architecture of medieval churches was inextricably linked with the rituals that inhabited them: the Christian liturgy. Every year on November 25th, churches and monasteries across the country resounded with plainchant and polyphony dedicated to the saint that England had come to claim...

When we think of the pre-Reformation parish church, prior to King Henry VIII’s supposed “stripping of the altars”, the image conjured is often of an arena of visual delights; filled to the brim with all the smells and bells of traditional Catholicism—a highly sensory type of worship that offered ...

This talk explores the carved cadaver memorials in England. It places them in their theological and vernacular religious context, as well as providing a little information on where they sit in relation to images of the dead in medieval culture, and their connection to the body. It also touches on...

In the 16th century, the Chapel Royal was both at the heart of the Ecclesiastical Establishment as the personal chapel of the Supreme Governor, but at the same time very much outside it, even for a time, maintaining, along with the Royal Colleges of Westminster and Windsor, a form of liturgy that...

The medieval countess Matilda of Canossa (1046-1115) left a cultural legacy at her death that includes many of the monuments listed by UNESCO as among the heritage of our world. These include cathedrals at the center of Florence, Ferrara, Lucca, Mantua, Modena, Pisa, and Volterra. Known in Italy ...

In part one we explore the earliest stained glass to be found in England up to the Reformation era, revealing the evolving use of stained glass in gothic architecture and its role within the medieval church and society.

Dr Jasmine Allen is Director of The Stained Glass Museum (charity no. 116984...

​​In this talk given by Dr Christina Welch, we will explore the 'erotic' proto- and Reformation-era 'Death and the Maiden' artworks produced by the artists known as the Little Masters. It will set these in their historical context and consider how they relate to the perceived gender of Death as m...

Watch the sequel lecture to 'Matilda of Canossa: and the Conservation of Ancient Churches'.

Prof. Spike offers this second lecture to examine the rich details of Countess Matilda’s life and times. She will discuss how Matilda and her mother, Beatrice, two women born into a feudal male hierarchy,...

In the middle of the fourteenth century, about half the population of England was killed when a new pestilence swept across Eurasia. Historians continue to discuss - and to dispute - the effects of this extraordinary disaster on the continent's culture, economics and politics. This talk does not ...

The medieval concept of Purgatory as the Third Place led to a number of ways that medieval men and women attempted to mitigate its expected horrors. This lecture will consider how they were able to do this, in life and after their own deaths. Many physical remains of this belief survive, but are ...

The first half of the fourteenth century witnessed an extraordinary flowering of architecture, art and sculpture in Herefordshire and the central Welsh Marches. Much of Hereford Cathedral was rebuilt in these years, three exceptional parish churches were almost completely rebuilt, and gloriously ...

By taking us through a normal day in the life of an average parish church, we will explore how medieval churches were used on a daily basis and why they were therefore designed and built as they were – and then why they were modified as time went on (an aspect that frequently puzzled Pevsner) bec...

On 29 December 1170, four knights, believing the king wanted a turbulent Priest dealt with, confronted and murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Becket’s murder sent shockwaves across Europe and led to the establishment of one of Europe’s most popular and miraculous Cults and...

Consecration crosses can be seen in a number of medieval places of worship, including those belonging to the Churches Conservation Trust. Usually painted on the interior walls of a church, these white discs with a red cross in the centre signified to the congregation that the building was a sacre...

In this talk we will explore some of the different ways you might come across Vikings while visiting English medieval churches. Today we might think of the Vikings mostly as raiders and pillagers of churches, but the real story is more complex than that: there are also churches across England whi...

King Oswald was a Christian king of Northumbria who died in battle in 642, and was soon recognised as a saint. He was slain by the Mercian king Penda, who cut off Oswald's head and impaled it on a stake on the battlefield as a sign of his victory. By the end of the Middle Ages 4 different religio...

Join us on a historical tour exploring how and why Rood Screens came to be built that separated the congregation from the priests in parish churches. Through illustrated examples, some of the care and attention devoted to embellishing these screens by the parish congregations will be revealed. Fi...

The talk will cover the importance of the date of the Annunciation in the Christian Calendar, the development of devotion to the Mystery of the Annunciation and its expression in the art and imagery of medieval parish churches in England. It will look at the origin of the legends surrounding the ...