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Category: local and regional history

Becket, Lossenham, Medieval Animals and St Dunstan’s – exciting projects

As promised, I’m bringing news of ongoing projects involving Centre staff and without putting any pressure on Dr Diane Heath, I believe her HLF application for her ‘Medieval Animals Heritage’ project will be submitted this week. This is brilliant news because this project on dragons, mermaids, lions and pelicans (and other animals) has the potential to bring wellbeing and spiritual uplift to east Kent, much as these animals did around 800 to 900 years ago. 

In the news – Becket, Nonington and Kent History Postgraduates

I thought I would start with a couple of news items, especially Thomas Becket: Life, Death and Legacy, a three-day online conference organised by the HLF-funded Canterbury Journey team at Canterbury Cathedral, with staff at the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University from Wednesday 28 to Friday 30 April. The conference programme is now available on the website: https://becket2020.com/ and any questions, please email: canterburybecket2020@gmail.com Standard Tickets are £25 per day and for students the day rate is £10.

Kent History Postgraduates, Becket and Tudors and Stuarts 2021

As we draw near to the Tudors and Stuarts History Weekend this coming weekend, Dr Diane Heath and Toby Charlton-Taylor are very busy having practice sessions with our great speakers. This has been interesting if at times nerve-racking and Diane and I are exceedingly grateful to Toby for his expertise, patience and ingenuity. However, we are almost there! For details and booking see: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/tudors-stuarts

Tudors and Stuarts, Becket and much, much more

We have now started the countdown to the online Tudors and Stuarts History Weekend on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 March having had the first practice with one of our speakers this morning. Currently Dr Diane Heath, Toby Charlton-Taylor and I have another tomorrow and three scheduled for Friday with the rest to take place next week.

Research and Knowledge Exchange in Kent – expanding opportunities

We are now only a couple of weeks away from the Tudors and Stuarts online History Weekend on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th March – very exciting! And there are a couple of new initiatives I want to tell you about. Firstly, calling all history school and sixth form college teachers, in a spirit of inclusivity and broadening participation, we are delighted to make a great offer to your students, so please check out the History Weekend website: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/tudors-stuarts and under ‘find out more’ see the Weekend Ticket details. Secondly, Craig at the CCCU Bookshop has created a special ‘bookstore’ for Tudors and Stuarts 2021: https://bookshop.canterbury.ac.uk/canterbury-history-weekend-2021

Medieval Kent and Early Tudor Canterbury – more news!

This week is a mix of news and reports on specific projects or events. As a start, I thought I would mention that Dr Diane Heath has had a favourable report back from her initial application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Consequently, she and Penny Bernard have now started to fill in the main form – fingers crossed that they are successful for their wonderful ‘Medieval Animals’ project.

Women and medieval piety – Canterbury and Syon Abbey

We are now just over a month away from the online Tudors and Stuarts 2021 History Weekend on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th March, which is extremely exciting. We are looking forward to welcoming virtually such a fantastic group of speakers who will be covering some fascinating topics, including Alec Ryrie on just how the Tudors cemented their new Church, Amy Blakeway on that explosive relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, and Onyeka Nubia’s exploration of the black presence in Tudor England. Please to check out these talks and all the others at https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/tudors-stuarts and come and join us for what promises to be a brilliant and stimulating weekend. All things being well, I’ll be doing a piece on KMTV next Wednesday on the Weekend, please do look out for this.

CHAS Canterbury through the Centuries and KHP – new discoveries

This week I’m playing catch up, and because there is so much, I’m going to save the last of the Lunch Time Lectures by Anna-Nadine Pike until next week (for the joining url, see last week’s blog). Moreover, even though I wasn’t able to get to it, apologies Dean, I just want to say that as co-organiser Dean’s online conference on Jews in medieval England has also taken place this week. Thus, the Centre for Kent History and Heritage is very active on all sorts of fronts.

Representations of the Arctic and Dover – terrific talks

This has been yet again a busy week at the Centre, Dr Diane Heath is putting together her revised application to the HLF for her ‘Medieval Animals’ project, Dr Claire Bartram gave an online lecture to the Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society yesterday evening, see report below, and I am giving one of the talks at the free CHAS Centenary online conference this coming Canterbury, see below for details including the joining url. Moreover, yesterday was the penultimate Lunch Time Lecture, also see below, as well as a meeting of the Kent History Postgraduates group – report next week.

Becket, Canterbury, Gothic images and the Arctic – great news

Before I get to the Lunch Time Lectures – today and next week, I thought I would bring you some exciting news about the Becket 2020 online conference, the Manorial Register for Kent, and the CHAS online conference coming up shortly, as well as just briefly mentioning that there is now a small group working on medieval and early modern wills for Newenden and surrounding parishes as part of the Lossenham project. We had our first online meeting this week and everyone is enthusiastic with work having already started and we are now going up a gear – more on this in future weeks and thanks to everyone involved.