Evesham Abbey
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While visiting Evesham for last year’s medieval re-enactment, I happened on the village of Cropthorne, with its large medieval church. I do a fair bit of church-crawling, and this was a fine specimen, built near the sites of a Saxon hunting lodge and containing a 9th century Saxon cross. It also had some interesting 17thc monuments to…
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Well, I have always regarded those awful pointed shoes of the 14th to 16th centuries as a rather daft fashion fad, and to be avoided if you had to go up stairs because you’d have to accomplish the ascent sideways, like a crab. But it seems this footwear was much more than that! In fact…
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This portrait of Richard II in Westminster Abbey is familiar. What is less well-known is that it is heavily ‘restored’ over the years, most recently in 1866. In Richard II, Manhood, Youth and Politics, 1377-99, Christopher Fletcher reveals that when examined under infra-red reflectography the king’s beard was much more developed, covering much of his…