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.
Category: Victorian
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.
Ian Coulson Awards, Maritime Kent and Canterbury
This week’s blog contains several items of good news, somewhat in contrast to the national situation. Firstly, it gives me great pleasure to record that Tracey Dessoy and Jane Richardson have been awarded grants from the Ian Coulson Postgraduate Award fund.
Virtual ‘Becket’ Pavement – celebrating medieval animals
As this is the last blog before its 2-week ‘vacacion’, I thought I would remind readers about the great opportunity for a part-funded MA by Research on a project based around the St Albans Library inventory. Due to the generosity of a local benefactor, this is a chance for someone interested in Book History and Material Culture to investigate a substantial gentry family library collected in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which covers a very wide range of fascinating subjects. Annotations cover the period up to the auction of the library books in 1938 and the inventory also includes silver and plate, jewels, statues, objects of worth and paintings. This project will draw on comparable ‘great house’ libraries to explore, for example, ideas about collecting and reading habits, as well as the presence of book-sharing networks among this group in Hanoverian and Victorian society. The successful applicant will be offered a bursary of £1000, with the possibility of applying for a further £1000 from the Ian Coulson Award fund. If this sounds exciting and you would like to find out more about the opportunity, please do contact Dr Claire Bartram who will be one of the supervisors: claire.bartram@canterbury.ac.uk
Exploring book culture and the Gough Map
I thought I would start this week by telling you about an exciting opportunity for someone who is interested in the History of the Book and who would like to undertake a postgraduate degree in the School of Humanities as part of the Kent History Postgraduates group.
Mapping landscapes from Charles Dickens to Hilary Mantel
I thought I would just begin by mentioning that Dr Diane Heath is intending to submit her HLF ‘Medieval Animals’ project application in the next week or so, which is excellent news! Also good news is that several of the taught MEMS MA students are going to be working on Canterbury research projects this term: Amber’s project is linked to the Roman Museum, Ed will work on Canterbury Castle, Beth will be looking at the history of St Mildred’s church and its patron saint, keeping with Kentish saints Steph will be exploring material for the ‘Kentish Saints and Martyrs’ exhibition to be held at Eastbridge, while Alisha and Lizzie will be working with Professor Louise Wilkinson in conjunction with people from the Medieval Pageant organising committee.
Tonbridge, Eleanor de Montfort and Medway Defences – busy again!
This week we move from Tonbridge in the west to Dover in the south, Medway in the north and Canterbury in the east.
Exploring British Library and Cambridge sources
This week I’m reporting on the Kent History Postgraduates meeting and bringing news about future Centre events.
Cobham and Wye Colleges
This week the Centre has been working with Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Kent Archaeological Society, as well as other outreach opportunities.