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TAG: Canterbury cathedral

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Tudors and Stuarts 2021 and much, much more!

A Happy New Year to all readers, albeit I appreciate it has been and continues to be exceedingly tough, including as we now head into a third lockdown in Great Britain. Consequently, I thought this week I would concentrate on the upcoming online events the Centre is organising between now and Easter, including the Tudors and Stuarts History Weekend and Lunch Time Lectures.

Becket, Canterbury – new, exciting research discoveries

I thought I would first bring news of the next and hopefully last online events the Centre will be running as we inch towards getting back to physical rather than virtual events. Again, please come and join us for Professor Paul Bennett’s Becket Lecture next Wednesday 16 December starting at 7pm.

Exploring Kent’s history, maritime, monasteries and medieval animals

I will come to Jane’s presentation for the meeting of the Kent History Postgraduates Group shortly, but first I wanted to let you know about a few other matters involving Centre staff, including, of course, the Kentish Book Culture book launch (see last week for the booking url). Furthermore, Dr Diane Heath has just heard that she can apply again to the HLF because they have just reopened for bids, having closed suddenly last March. This means Diane can revive her ‘Medieval Animals’ project, and she has been talking again to her external partners, and will do so more fully this week with the intention of applying for a grant very shortly.

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.