Bristol
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June, July, August 1399. How England fell.
Berkeley Castle, Bishop of Norwich, Bridlington Priory, Bristol, Carmarthen, Chester, Chris Given-Wilson, Cromer, Doncaster, Douglas Biggs, Earl of Wiltshire, Edward Duke of York, executions, Glamorgan, Gloucester Castle, Henry Greene, Henry IV, John of Gaunt, Milford Haven, Nigel Saul, North Wales, Oxford, Pevensey Bay, Richard II, Shrewsbury, Sir John Bussy, sir john russell, Sir Piers Legh of Lyme, Thomas Despenser, Thomas of Lancaster, Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester, Waterford, YorkshireThe sources for these weeks take some unravelling. The most useful secondary source is Three Armies in Britain by Douglas Biggs, a book that, unfortunately, has not received the credit due to it. Nigel Saul‘s Richard II is of value, as is Chronicles of the Revolution by Chris Given-Wilson. The analysis that follows is largely…
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I must admit to having ‘all wrong’ about Bristol. For a long while I thought its cathedral was likely just an overgrown parish church and did not visit, preferring to explore the famous church of St Mary Redcliffe instead. How wrong I was. The cathedral was, in fact, a large Augustinian abbey, founded by Robert…
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Antony Woodville, quite early in his career, had an affair with Gwenllian Stradling which led to the birth of a daughter, Margaret Woodville. As it turned out, although he subsequently married twice, this was his only child. Or certainly, his only child who grew up. The Stradlings were a long-standing Glamorgan gentry family, based at…
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Thanks to a post on the Richard III Society Forum, I was steered to the following interesting Ian Arthurson article about medieval spying. We know that the Tudors excelled in this dangerous world, but it’s not so well known that it was quite rife during the Wars of the Roses as well. Royalty—and the Church—always…
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In the back of the beautiful Stourhead gardens stands a mysterious piece of old Bristol–the Bristol High Cross. When you first see it, you almost think it might be a modern folly, but it is the ‘real thing’, a medieval cross. In the 1700’s such relics of the past were considered old-fashioned and valueless; in…
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“Bone Detectives” come to Ipswich …
A9, Amesbury, Bath, Beaker Folk, Beeston Castle, body snatching, Bristol, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Caithness, Canon William Dutton, Cheshire, curses, dissection, Dutton family, Egypt, Fifth Crusade, Great Budworth, Ipswich waterfront, John de Lacy, jousting, Minerva, Norton Priory, Paget’s disease, post-mortem damage, Raksha Dave, Ranulf Earl of Chester, Roman Britain, Runcorn, Scotland, Sir Geoffrey Dutton, St. Augustines, St. George’s Concert Hall, Stoke Quay, Tori Herridge, wounds… and other venues, with Tori Herridge and Raksha Dave. This Channel Four series, which consists of five episodes, begins at Stoke Quay on the town’s Waterfront where a long-forgotten (St. Augustine’s) burial ground was fully explored before some new buildings were constructed. Three bodies in particular were examined: 1) A wealthy man buried in…
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A pleasant surprise
“Princes”, Avon-Kennet Canal, Birmingham, Bristol, Brunel, canals, centurions, Channel Five, Coventry, Crimewatch, Dan Jones, Edward II, Endeavour Morse, Grand Union Canal, Lancashire towns, Lancaster, Leeds-Liverpool Canal, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Oxford Canal, ports, rainfall, red hot poker, Richard III, Roman roads, The Wench is Dead, trade, transport, YorkshireIn recent years, Dan Jones’ posing and fanciful Crimewatch-style re-enactments, together with Starkeyesque conclusions formed before he started, has marred quite a few series on mediaeval history. Now he seems to have changed tack completely with this series, covering canal building from the middle of the eighteenth century and – yes – I rather enjoyed…
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