buildings

“Romantic and storied” St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall….

Jun 11, 2023

anniversaries, buildings, religion

castles, Cornwall, Country Life, Dissolution of the Monasteries, France, legends, Mont St. Michel, novels, St. Aubyn family, St. michael’s Mount, Syon Abbey

Once again the excellent Country Life magazine has come up with an interesting item, this time about St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall Unfortunately, considering this is a Country Life article, there aren’t many photographs, and none at all of the castle interior. But if you go here you’ll find some very exciting views of the approach…
The undead of Wharram Percy….! 😱

Jun 10, 2023

buildings, religion

burials, churches, Great Plague, lost villages, Malton, maps, mutilation, North Yorkshire, Ordnance Survey, Wharram Percy, zombies

Our landscape is strewn with abandoned medieval villages, which are usually marked on Ordnance Survey maps. Their fate is often linked to the decimation caused by the Black Death, but there is one that’s slightly different in that it certainly doesn’t only apply to deaths caused by the plague. Wharram Percy was struck by the…
The reason for confession….

Jun 9, 2023

art, buildings, religion

“confessions”, deathbed, hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, Italy, Siena

We’ve all seen illustrations of harrowing deathbed scenes, and in the medieval period such occasions were only too familiar and frequent. If you go here you’ll find an extremely interesting article about the whys and wherefors of confession in those final moments. But of course, confession was used in many other situations too, and the…
Marriage in Medieval London And Extricating Oneself Only You Couldn’t…

Jun 8, 2023

anniversaries, buildings, law, religion

a mensa et thoro, a vincula, adultery, Affinity, amnesia, annulments, banns, bigamy, Church courts, coercion, consanguinity, consummation, contracts, cruelty, denial, divorce, Edward IV, fornication, future consent, heresy, Lady Eleanor Talbot, love, marriage, mediaeval canon law, present consent, validity, witnesses

My lastest A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com post. Artist’s impression of a medieval wedding being solemnised. ‘Frieze of a Medieval Wedding’. Artist Thomas Stothard (1755-1835) Yale Centre for British Art. I have, in my most recent meanderings, meandered quite a bit. Of late I’ve meandered from the Plague Pits of London 1665 to Gleaston Castle, rendezvous…
More historic walks on Channel Five

Jun 6, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, religion, television reviews

Arthur Williams, barrage balloons, Battle of Britain, blackouts, Blitz, Cardiff, Channel Five, Clydebank, D-Day, Dan Jones, Devon, East Anglia, Great Yarmouth, Hampshire, Leiston Abbey, Liverpool, London, mining, Onyeka Nubia, pill boxes, Port Talbot, Rob Bell, Second, South Wales, steel, Suzannah Lipscomb, Walking Wartime Britain

If it isn’t Rob Bell walking Britain’s Lost Battlefields or Railways, Dan Jones walking Britain’s Roman Roads, Suzannah Lipscomb walking “Tudor” England or Onyeka Nubia walking Victorian Britain, it is Arthur Williams (the former marine and pilot) walking Wartime Britain. This is a fascinating series in its own right, showing how areas of the country…
Also found in St. Albans …

Jun 5, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion

Charles Earl Spencer, JD Wetherspoon, John Churchill Duke of Marlborough, pubs, Sarah Jennings, secret marriage, Sir Henry Winston, Sir John Jennings, St. Albans, Water End Barn, Winston Churchill

… is the Water End Barn, now the city‘s JD Wetherspoon but originally the property of Sir John Jennings. Sarah Jennings, his granddaughter and later the favourite of Queen Anne, married John Churchill in secret (which nobody else ever did, of course) and they became the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. As you can…
Hanley Castle

Jun 3, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy

Azincourt, Bannockburn, Brian Wainwright, Bruces, Canterbury, churches, Constance of York, de Clares, Edmund of Langley, Edward Despenser, Edward Duke of York, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Eleanor de Clare, Elizabeth Burghersh, Epiphany Rising, George Duke of Clarence, Glamorgan, Hanley Castle, Henry Duke of Warwick, Henry III, Henry V, Huchon Despenser, Hugh Despencer the Younger, Isabel le Despenser, Joan of Acre, John, Kathryn Warner, Malvern Chase, massacre of Jews, novels, Richard II, Richard of Warwick, ruins, Tewkesbury, Thomas Despenser, unofficial executions, William la Zouche, Worcestershire, Worcestershire Historical Society

Hanley Castle is located in the south-western part of Worcestershire, only a short distance from the Gloucestershire border. Today it is a small, agreeable village, notable for a school, an excellent pub, The Three Kings and an interesting church, consecrated in 1325. As the place name implies, there was once a castle here, although all…
A woman friend of King Richard II.

Jun 1, 2023

battles, buildings, sources, travel

Douglas Biggs, Duchess of Surrey, Duke of Surrey, Eltham Palace, Ireland, Margaret Sarnesfield, Richard II, widows

Thanks to the works of Douglas Biggs (cited below) I have learned something new and interesting about King Richard II. When he went to Ireland in 1399, he took a woman with him. The lady in question was a knight’s widow called Margaret Sarnesfield. Although her origins are uncertain, it is probable that she was…
Where to dig and investigate next….?

May 31, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, religion, Science

castles, Collyweston, Druminmor, Joan of Navarre, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Leeds Castle, witchcraft

It’s always interesting to know where archaeologists hope to thrust their trusty trowels next, and this article lists some sites in England. The heading Category England seems clear enough to me. Um, not so, because Scotland, Ireland and the Welsh Marches are well represented. So, incidentally are Lancashire and Yorkshire, but then they are in…
Thomas of Woodstock was an unpleasant, supposedly pious bully….

May 30, 2023

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, religion, The play’s the thing

Duke of Sussex, Edmund of Langley, Edward III, Edward of Woodstock, Eleanor de Bohun, Henry IV, John of Gaunt, Lionel of Antwerp, Lords Apellant, Mary de Bohun, Peasants’ Revolt, Pontefract Castle, Radcot Bridge, rats, Richard II, succession, Thomas of woodstock, William Shakespeare

This article Thomas of Woodstock and Shakespeare’s Twisted History | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net) begins as follows:- “….William Shakespeare wrote ten history plays. Of these, one of the most famous is Richard II . The play Richard II , written around 1595, is based on the rule of King Richard II (reign 1377-1399), but one of the main characters in…