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Past events
Welcome to the picture gallery of past MBS events.
These days we
have only two meetings a year, including our AGM, at our base in the Art Workers Guild in
London, but instead prefer to get out and about, holding the remainder of our meetings around the
country, often in churches where we can study brasses, incised slabs and other
monuments in their architectural context. Although these meetings are very
popular with members, many are unable to attend. So, from Spring 2005 we we will
providing picture reports of our meetings, to supplement the full written
reports that appear in MBS Bulletin.
13 January 2007: London,
Art Workers Guild
24 February 2007: Tower of London, Costume day (joint CMS/MEDATS/MBS symposium)
12 May 2007: Ipswich, Study Day
14 July 2007: London, Harrow on the hill
14 July 2007: London, Harrow on the hill
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Rather than visit a city church this
year, the society spread its net to Greater London and specifically
to Harrow on the Hill. As an added attraction, we were given access
to the original classroom and the chapel of Harrow School. As Rita
Buswell, the school archivist, observed, the tradition of the boys
carving their names in the wooden surfaces of the old schoolroom
appeared in the case of the most famous, including Winston Churchill,
to include extra examples cut at a later date. The chapel's memorials
include several late brasses.
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At the church, John Lampitt,
who had been churchwarden for many years, covered the architectural history,
noting that the recent discovery of a skeleton pushed the history even
further back than had been thought. Stephen Freeth enlarged on the
architecture, producing a copy of G G Scott's plans showing the church as it
was prior to his reordering. Derrick Chivers then described the largest
collection of brasses in a Middlesex church. Although Harrow had been
written up by Dr Cameron in his 'Brasses of Middlesex', more research had
added to our knowledge of the brasses. Derrick had brought plenty of copies
of both antiquarian drawings and rubbings of lost pieces with him, which he
proceeded to lay next to their respective brasses to illustrate their
earlier states. The priest in academical dress was identified as William
Fenton, died 1469, and the inscription for Katherine Clerke, died 1613,
belongs to the large early seventeenth century figures, even though her late
husband had his own brass at Hayes. There was also a fragment of an early
incised slab set as the sill of the door to the room over the porch. All in
all a very interesting day.
The brass of John Byrkhede at Harrow was the
brass of the month for August 2007:
Brass of the
month August 2007
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| Derrick Chivers illustrates a point using a
rubbing |
Missing portions and palimpsests |
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12 May 2007: Ipswich, Study Day
| A good number of members assembled at the church
of St Nicholas at Ipswich for the start of the study day. After hearing
about the disappearance and reappearance of the brasses from the church and
admiring the Anglo-Saxon carvings set into the wall, we were led by Dr John
Blatchly of a walking tour of some of the town's churches. St Peter's had
just closed for renovation but was en route to St Mary at Quay, with a
replica of the Pownder brass and the Tooley tomb competing with the fine
hammerbeam roof of the nave for attention. We diverted to the Jewish
cemetery, a small walled enclosure en route for St Clement's, which had a
band practice in progress. At the remains of the Blackfriars' church, Dr
Blatchly told us of the discovery of a one-handed skeleton and the
identification of it as that of Richard de Holbrook, who had lost a hand in
an assault. At St Margaret's there was a chance to see an indent that had
newly emerged from beneath choir stalls and the roof panels painted at just
the time that William & Mary became just William III. Right: William Style
and wife, St Nicholas |
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At St Mary le Tower every use was made of the
opportunity to examine the brasses normally concealed by a carpet in the
chancel with their duplication of husbands and wives between three of them.
The afternoon was spent in Ipswich Museum where many of the brasses no
longer in the churches were produced for us. Dr Blatchly explained how Emme
Pownder, shown on her brass with rosary beads, became a Protestant and
consequently experienced difficulties during Mary's reign. She evidently
continued her husband's business and died as late as 1564, leaving two
wills, one dictated by her grandson Henry leaving almost everything to him,
and a later one leaving him very little. Both wills were proved, each in a
different court, but a later judgement dismissed Henry's. |
Above: Dr Blatchly makes a point at the Blackfriars
Jon Bayliss then talked about the making of the tomb and brass of Henry
Tooley and his wife Alice, another Protestant lady. Although Tooley was very
wealthy during his lifetime as a largely as a result of his overseas trade in
various goods, it was what he did with that wealth in his will that caused him
to be remembered as Great Tooley. Following Alice's death in 1565, Tooley's
charity paid for designs for a tomb, the second one by a Nicholas Brame, and
then for a tomb made by Allen Gamon of London, known as a marbler from other
sources. The brasses are not very diagnostic of Gamon's style, which Dr Blatchly
suggested was because the design was by Brame, an Ipswich man. Martin Stuchfield
then concluded the day with a presentation on Ipswich brasses which became an
interactive discussion as to the identities of the less obvious items. The most
interesting of these, which Dr Blatchly had featured in his weekly column in the
East Anglian Daily Times that very day, which was given to all participants, was
the identification of the palimpsest brass to Steven, son of George Copping,
1602, now in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology, as coming from one of the
churches we had not visited, St Lawrence. It was a fitting conclusion to an
excellent day.
About 90 members of the MBS, Church Monuments
Society and Medieval Dress and Textiles Society crowded into the Tower of London
Education Centre lecture room for a fascinating joint study day on medieval
civilian dress on brasses and effigies c1300-1550. After an introduction by Dr
Claude Blair, Chrys Plumley set the scene by surveying different types of
civilian dress and commenting on how they are shown on monuments, particularly
those which display original or restored paint and surface decoration. Of
particular interest was his comparisons as to how the gauzy headdresses worn by
ladies in the second half of the 15th century (notably the ‘butterfly
headdress’) is more effectively represented on brasses than on carved effigies,
on which it was hard to convey the translucency of the fabric.
Next, Dr Sophie Oosterwijk read out a fascinating
paper discussing problems with dating and interpreting the costume as depicted
on monuments, which had been prepared by Dr Margaret Scott, who was absent
through illness. She emphasised that costume shown on monuments, like armour,
was a simplified representation of real garments. What mattered to those
commissioning monuments was, not the realism of the costume shown, but how it
conveyed hierarchical distinctions in status. Sometimes specific costume was
chosen to emphasise high status: for example, the surcote ouverte (commonly but
incorrectly termed the sideless coat hardie), which was superseded by the
houppelande in the late 14th century, continued in use as court dress well into
the 16th century, albeit in combination with a succession of fashionable
headdresses. On the 1419 Camoys brass at Trotton it was shown to underline that
Elizabeth was a peeress. Another trap for the unwary is monuments which show
outmoded costume, for example palimpsests by appropriation.
After lunch, Sarah Thursfield gave an absorbing
presentation on the construction of the wimple and kerchief headdress commonly
seen on monuments in the first half of the 14th century and its successor, the
so-called nebulé headdress. Her experimental reconstructions have shown that
often what is seen on monuments is a simplified representation of costume to
give an elegant but idealised impression. Frequently the
wimple appears to mould the neck closely, as on Joan Cobham’s brass of c. 1405
at Cobham, but this is not a technically convincing representation. The cloth
would actually form many folds, as shown on Margaret de Camoys’s brass, engraved
before 1319, at Trotton.
Next, Professor Cinzia Maria Sicca (Professor of
Art History, University of Pisa) gave a paper on fashion on 16th-century funeral
effigies in Tuscany. One interesting aspect was how the type of monument allowed
depended on the social status of the person commemorated, just as
rigorously-applied sumptuary laws placed restrictions on the type of costume
that could be depicted. It is evident how few women were shown on the tombs; but
when they were depicted, it was as part of the dynastic discourse.
After a group visit to the church of St Peter ad
Vincula, Professor Sir John Baker gave an informative talk on legal costume on
monumental brasses. After a brief overview of the organisation of the medieval
legal profession, he concentrated on the dress of members of the Order of the
Coif. Sergeants-at-law wore a party-coloured cassock, a hood which extended over
the shoulders, and the coif; although from the 14th century the presence of the
colobium worn over the cassock is betrayed by two protruding lappets or labels.
An early example, at Cople, Bedfordshire, may be a posthumous commemoration of
the only Nicole Rolond to appear in the records, who was an apprentice c. 1300.
Judges wore essentially the same dress, but without the colobium, and the
cassock was single coloured, as shown at Narborough, where Judge John Spelham’s
figure has red and white enamel inlay to replicate judicial robes.
The last speaker of the day was Nicholas Rogers,
who gave a widely-sourced paper on civic dress, a topic previously almost
entirely overlooked by students of church monuments. Aldermen and mayor wore
essentially the same livery, the most distinctive garment of which is the
fur-lined mantle fastened on the right shoulder. The earliest surviving brass to
one of the London elite is to be found at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire,
commemorating Alderman William Chichele. The mayors and aldermen of the Staple
of Calais were also shown on brasses in this dress, as at Wymington,
Bedfordshire to John Curteys mayor of the Staple of Calais (d. 1391). Mayors and
aldermen in other municipalities did not always necessarily have official robes,
as implied by the brass at Winchester College of John Bedell, mayor of
Winchester, who is shown in normal civilian costume. Depictions of late medieval
Norwich civic dignitaries on brasses from Norwich workshops show a different cut
of garment.
Finally, Dr Phillip Lindley, who had chaired the
day’s proceedings, led a discussion on the outcome of the conference. All agreed
that it had been a most enjoyable and educative day. Gratitude was expressed to
Peter Heseltine, Sophie Oosterwijk and Jane Bridgeman who had organised the
event on behalf of the three societies.
Sally Badham's talk was entitled
'Beautiful remains of antiquity': the medieval monuments of the former
Trinitarian priory church at Ingham, Norfolk. The reason for the 'remains' of
the title was soon established. When John Sell Cotman turned up at Ingham in
1813, he was expecting to find the best collection of brasses in Norfolk. He was
too late. The brasses were lost c1800. Some years later, the chancel roof fell,
damaging the indents so that most were then thrown out. Cotman was able to
include the Ingham brasses in his book on Norfolk Brasses because TS Talbot had
rubbed them in 1793-4 and passed the rubbings to Cotman.
Sir Oliver de Ingham, a founder member
of the Order of the Garter, rebuilt the church at Ingham. His daughter Joan
married Sir Miles Stapleton. They founded a Trinitarian priory at Ingham. Their
brass was probably laid down by Sir Miles in the early 1360s after the death of
his wife. It showed them holding hands, which was almost unprecedented and was
the first time a brass had been put down by either family. Only the bottom half
of the brass of Joan Plays their daughter, who died in 1385, was recorded, but
it can be identified as a London B product. The second Sir Miles had his brass
recorded by Craven Ord in 1785, already in fragmentary condition, and the top
half of a widow appears to belong with it. This brass was made by the Fens 1
workshop. A further figure of a widow from the same workshop presents a problem
unless Ela, daughter of the first Sir Miles was commemorated long before her
death. The brass of Sir Brian Stapleton, died 1432, and his wife, was a standard
London B product except for the dog at his feet labelled 'Jakke'. His brother
Edmund also had a brass but it was never rubbed. The last of Ingham Stapletons,
the third Sir Miles, died in 1466, and was commemorated by an elaborate brass
which included a genealogical inscription that recorded one too many
generations. It was not laid down until ten years after his death and came from
the Norwich 1 workshop.
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Sir Miles and Joan Stapleton, 1364
Sir Miles Stapleton, 1418, and widow (reconstruction)
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Sir Oliver de Ingham's tomb is on the
north side of the chancel. He died in 1344 and his effigy retains polychromy on
the side protected by the wall. The angels holding his helm had slots for metals
wings and the underside of the canopy, now gone, had metal stars against a
painted red sky. A painted scene on the back wall was of unclear significance
unless it represented St. Giles. |
The church also contains a tomb to Sir
Roger de Boys and his wife. There were once brasses to the family. The tomb was
made before his death in 1395 and has unusual weepers holding chalices and
books. There is a resurrection at the west end and a trinity at the east. The
effigies have cloaks with Trinitarian crosses and the motto AL IN ON (all in
one). A gild of the Holy Trinity was established at Ingham in 1370 and members
had white mantles, so it is gild robes that the effigies are depicted as
wearing. The effigies still retain much decoration in gesso and paint.
2006 meetings
12 January 2006: Westminster Abbey
1 April 2006: London, Art Workers Guild
13 May 2006: Excursion
15 July 2006: London, St Martin Ludgate Hill and the Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral
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September 2006: Study Day at Northleach, Gloucestershire
| A greyer day than expected did nothing to dampen the
enthusiasm of members attending the study day at Northleach. Selena Ballance
(pictured right)
explained that Northleach was a town, not a village, and that the church was
built from 1400 onwards, starting with the tower. The very impressive porch
was where the business of the town's merchants would have been conducted. A
reordering of the church in the 1950s meant that the brass of John Fortey
was no longer at the east end of the nave he built.
Once ensconced in the parish room, Derek Hurst, an archaeologist with an
interest in sheep, quoted a Flemish weavers' song that proclaims Cotswold
wool as the finest in Europe. He explained that sheep were kept in very
large flocks, that there was only two pounds weight of wool on a medieval
sheep, and that Italian merchants came to the Cotswolds to buy the following
year's wool, giving a fascinating picture both of the history of the wool
industry and its physical remains. Sally Badham then spoke about the
identification of the impressive large early fifteenth century figures of a
wool merchant and his wife (below). He was almost certainly Thomas Adynet, the most
important merchant in Northleach at the time of his death. He died in
November 1409.
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Professor Nigel Saul's contribution was typically incisive.
Brasses to wool merchants arrive with a bang around 1390-1400 following a
revolution in the wool trade caused by the putting of land out to lease
after the Black Death and the financial failure of the Italian merchants.
Edward III's tax on wool exports led to the production of more cloth, with
the wool merchants also being cloth merchants. The brasses were all London
made because the merchants exported through London. Their will revealed them
as largely leaving no bequests to monks or friars, nor creating chantries,
but they were members of fraternities and gilds. Jane Houghton then stood in
for the somewhat indisposed Janet Whitham to explain merchant marks, used to
identify their goods and later as a type of bourgeois heraldry, often
combined with company arms and sometimes removed by the heralds when on
displayed on shields. Peter Heseltine rounded the day off with what he
termed 'A beastly collection', animals on brass. Animals were an intimate
part of medieval man's world, and, in the context of the day, by no means
the least were the sheep that appear on several Northleach brasses. |
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Thomas Adynet and his wife |
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John Taylour's device of a sheep on a
woolsack with his merchant mark |
Northleach church from the east |
| On a perfect summer day, over 50 MBS members and friends
gathered for the latest in our popular series of visits to London city
churches. Our first stop was St Martin's Ludgate Hill, rebuilt by Wren in
1677-84, following the destruction of the old church in the Great Fire. As
usual we were all presented on an illustrated booklet on the two churches.
Our first speaker was Stephen Freeth, whose talk centred on the brass (below
left) to Thomas Beri, moved here in 1886 from the demolished church of St
Mary Magdalen, Fish Street. Above the figure on the left hand side of the
brass is the date 1586, but this does not relate to his date of death, which
was c. 1608/9. Instead it marks the probable date of the establishment
of his charity through which he gave ' xii penie loves to xii poore
foulkes, geve everie sabothe day for aye'. His brass hangs above a bread
rack from St Mary Magdalen; although about 70 years later than the
benefaction, these were the shelves on which his loaves were placed. Beri
also established a similar charity in Liverpool, arranged through his
cousin, although the identical brass once in St Mary, Walton-on--the-Hill is now
lost. |
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Our second speaker was Philip Whittemore, who gave a paper
accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation on 'Old St Paul's: Fabric, Fire and
Funerary Monuments'. Old St Paul's was, of course, also a casualty of the Great
Fire, although the remains of a few monuments, mostly of sixteenth-century date
survived the fire and are preserved in the crypt. This does not include any of
the medieval brasses, however, the most well known source for which is Hollar's
engravings in Dugdale's book, History of St Paul's Cathedral. These
plates give the impression that the brasses were in most cases totally
unmutilated before the fire, but this was almost certainly not the case. Hollar
was not the only one to draw some of the monuments in the 1650, another being
Thomas Dingley. Below are their drawings of the brass to Thomas Braybrook,
Bishop of London, d. 1404. Hollar's drawing on the left, which may have in part
been taken from the drawings made for Sir Willliam Dugdale in the 1640s before
the Civil War, shows it as perfect, while Dingley's drawing on the right shows
only the marginal inscription, head and one shield surviving.
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After time to look round St Martin's church, the party divided
in two, one group been led round the triforium of St Pauls. The rest went to the
crypt, where our President, the Rev. Canon David Meara, gave an introduction to
the monuments, particularly the extensive collection of Victorian and modern
brasses. After time to explore, we had tea at St Paul's Cathedral school and a
small group attended evensong at St Paul's. Altogether it was an afternoon
packed with good things.
| A group of MBS members and friends set off from Winchester
station for a tour by coach of north Hampshire churches to view the cream of
the local brasses, led by Rear-Admiral Michael Harris. The first stop was
King's Sombourne to view the very fine London B brass of c. 1385 to two
unknown civilians, perhaps brothers or father and son. The church also
boasts a 13th century low relief effigy of a priest under a pointed,
trefoiled canopy. Next stop was West Tythersley, a treat for the
connoisseur of late Georgian church architecture, to see the delightful
brass of 1480 commemorating Anne Whitehede. The final stop of the morning
was Nether Wallop, where there is a brass to Dame Mary Gore, prioress of
Amesbury, who died in 1436 and who is depicted in kirtle, veil headdress,
barbe and mantle. |
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After lunch, the party set off once more, to Kimpton, where
the small Purbeck marble tombchest on the back wall of which is the 1522
brass with kneeling effigies of Robert Thirnborough and his two wives
(right) attracted much attention. A most unusual feature is the cross with
five wounds in the top corner. On to Thruxton to see the magnificent
triple canopied brass to Sir John Lysle, Lord of Wodyngton in the Isle of
Wight. The details of the armour indicate that the brass was made by the
London D workshop some 20 years after Sir John's death in 1407. Other
monuments in the church include a mid 13th century low relief Purbeck marble
effigy of a knight; a knight and lady of the early 16th century; and
an oak effigy of an Elizabethan lady. |
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After tea at Whitchurch, where there are brasses of 1593 and
1603, the last stop was Stoke Charity. The church looks of little interest from outside,
but is packed with monuments, including two brasses. That to Thomas Wayte,
d. 1482, includes a beautiful representation of Our Lord of Pity, rising
from his tomb (left). The very similar brass to Thomas Hampton, d. 1483,
with figures of him in armour with his wife and children with a Trinity
above, all on a fine tombchest with restored arms was also the focus of much
attention (right). |
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| A group of MBS members and friends gathered to hear Lida
Lopes Cardozo Kindersley, the celebrated letter cutter, give a talk on the
work of the talk on the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge. The
workshop follows the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement which passed,
though Eric Gill, to David Kindersley. David started the workshop in 1946
and, since his death in 1995, his widow Lida has continued to run the
workshop.
In 1934 David Kindersley was apprenticed to Eric Gill in his workshop at
'Piggots' near High Wycombe, but in 1945 set up his own workshop in
Cambridge. Following training at the Royal Academy of The Hague, Lida joined
the workshop as an apprentice in 1976 when David's career was at its height.
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Lida treated us to a gallery of slides showing the work by
both David and herself. They ranged from major commissions in cathedrals,
including St. Paul's and Canterbury to more apparently modest, but still
beautifully executed, items including an ashtray and a sundial. The majority
of their work has been in stone, but some work was carried out in brass. The
most prestigious metal commission she and David undertook was the design of
the bronze gateway to the new British Library (left), which complements the
stone lintel they carved. Perhaps their most interesting artefacts, however,
were the grave stones the workshop makes for relatively ordinary people.
In a lively question session, Lida explained the commissioning process
and how the stone used and the design of lettering and other carving was
chosen to suit the location, her views why such work should remain unsigned;
and how the workshop's apprenticeship scheme works. |
| Following the very successful study day held in 2004 at
Westminster Abbey, our President, Rev. Canon David Meara arranged a return
visit with a different programme of events, including an opportunity to
examine the monuments at greater leisure. Numbers were limited, but
some 40 members gathered mid-afternoon in the Cheynegates centre, which had
been adorned by rubbings and other visual material by our member, Derrick
Chivers. |
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Our Vice-President, Professor Nigel Saul, introduced
proceedings with an absorbing talk, which, like Caesar's Gaul, was divided
into three parts. First, he explained how the Abbey, particularly the
Confessor's chapel, was established as a royal mausoleum in the late 13th
century. Next he gave and overview of the surviving brasses and finally, a
brief account of the lost brasses. After tea, members assembled to attend
choral evensong in the abbey. This was most spiritually uplifting,
particularly as it took part in the choir against the atmospheric background
of a dimly lit abbey and darkness outside. |
| The highspot of the visit was an opportunity to explore the
abbey after it had closed to the public. Although photography is no longer
permitted (all such photographs in this report were taken before the ban),
members greatly enjoyed studying the remarkable collection of brasses and
other monuments. We lingered a particularly long time in the Confessor's
chapel, where the copper-alloy effigies, such as that to Edward III (right),
attracted much attention. Although the chapel is newly carpeted, hiding once
more the 1395 brass to John of Waltham (detail of drawing below left) and
the indent of Thomas of Woodstock's lost brass of 1397 (drawing from
Sandford below middle), the Purbeck marble coffin lid with brass and Cosmati
marble inlay (below right) to John de Valance, d. 1277, remained open to
view. |
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Amongst other brasses we viewed was that to Woodstock's widow,
Eleanor de Bohun, d. 1399, (below left) which boasts a particularly fine canopy,
the design of which might have been influenced by other monuments in the abbey.
Others commemorated in brass included victims of the struggle between the
Yorkists and Lancastrians in the fifteenth century, including the mostly lost
brass (below middle) to Sir Humphrey Bourchier, who was killed at the battle of
Barnet, and Sir Thomas Vaughan (below right), who was executed at Pontefract in
1483.
| Westminster Abbey is renowned not only for its medieval
brasses, but also contains some fine Victorian examples, including that to
the eminent architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott, who died in 1878.
The visit concluded with a very welcome wine and nibbles reception in the
Cheynegates lecture room. All present agreed it was a really excellent
meeting and gratitude was expressed to the authorities at Westminster Abbey
who had permitted the Society this very privileged and greatly appreciated
access. |
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April 2005: Birmingham
May 2005: Tattershall, Lincolnshire
June 2005: St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney and the Royal Foundation of St. Katherine,
London
19-21 August
2005 Hereford Conference
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The 2005 Conference was based at the Green Dragon Hotel, a
few minutes walk from Hereford Cathedral. On the Friday
afternoon, delegates who arrived early enjoyed a guided tour of the City.
The event was marked by the launch of the copiously illustrated book by
conference organisers Peter Heseltine and Martin Stuchfield. Entitled The
Monumental Brasses of Hereford Cathedral, it is available from the MBS
Bookstall for £15 (plus P&P). |
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In a departure from the norm, the Saturday was divided into two
alternating half-day sessions, which gave the opportunity for smaller groups
to examine the monuments at close quarters. One tour comprised a
guided tour of Hereford Cathedral including the chained library and Mappa
Mundi exhibition. The tour was led by Cathedral guides but with Society
members - Sally Badham with one group and Moira and Brian Gittos with
the other - talking about the rich and varied collection of brasses and
other monuments. |
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The second session was an excursion round four Herefordshire
churches with interesting monuments. One group was led by Peter Heseltine
and the other by Martin Stuchfield.
At Burghill we saw an effigial brass to John Awbrey (1616), but of
perhaps greater interest was the 1619 brass to Robert Masters who 'travelled
... aboute the globe of the whole world', which features a very rare
instance on a brass of a terrestial globe. Marden also offered a unique brass - that to Dame Margaret Welford, who
died in 1614. She is shown with a most remarkable hairstyle (see October
2005 brass of the month on this website for more about this brass). .
Clehonger boasts the most splendid of the county's 15th
century brasses outside Hereford cathedral: the 1474 brass probably
commemorating Sir John Barre, who founded a chantry here in 1471, and his
first wife Eden Hotoft. Much attention was also attracted by two relief
effigies, one of an armoured figure to Sir Richard Pembrugge, who founded a
chantry in 1341 and the other a miniature effigy to an unknown lady or girl
resting her feet on a goose. Allensmore contains no brasses, but members
expressed considerable interest in the rare survival of an inlaid slab to
Sir Andrew Herley (1392) and his wife
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Sunday was spent enjoying a series of lectures in a
conference room hung with rubbings of brasses from the Cathedral.
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Peter Heseltine surveyed the brasses of the county, including a number of
lost examples known only from antiquarian sources. Sally Badham talked
about the inlaid and incised slabs in the county, how they were made
and why this unusual monumental type was developed in Herefordshire. Brian
and Moira Gittos focussed on two of the carved monuments in the cathedral -
an elaborately sculptured cross slab, which they suggested might have been
Thomas de Cantilupe's original monument, and Peter de Grandison's tomb.
Janet Whitham showed us the saints as represented on brasses in the
cathedral and told us of their lives. Nicholas Rogers demonstrated parallels
for the annunciation on the brass of William Porter and explained the likely
reasons for the choice of saints which had adorned the sideshafts of his
canopy. |
The day concluded with a lively and varied Members Forum. Derrick Chivers
explained how part of the crozier from the 1556 brass to Bishop Bell at
Clerkenwell had found its way to Hereford cathedral, but been restored to
Clerkenwell in 1994. Jane Houghton demonstrated her detection skills by
identifying the indent at Lowestoft from which a merchant's mark with the
letters N H in Hereford Cathedral had originated. Jonathan Moor gave a
presentation on William Foxe of Ludlow and his brass of 1552 at Ludford. Les
Smith exhibited brasses from a Kent church currently undergoing conservation.
Finally, Dick Visser told us of his work on the analysis of metals in
archaeological artefacts using a neutron scattering technique and the
preliminary results he has obtained on some on the brasses in Martin Stuchfield's collection. This exciting development, in which the whole plate is
scanned, is non-destructive and will give more accurate and fully representative
results than metal analysis of samples hitherto employed for brasses.
Back to top
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For our 2005 city churches meeting, we went just
beyond the eastern City boundary to see two fascinating churches. The event
attracted over 50 members from far and wide, including one from Cheshire who
has been an MBS member since 1934. All those attending were presented with
an illustrated booklet on the two churches. St Dunstan's in Saxon in origin, but
reconstructed in the thirteenth century. A fire in the organ loft in 1901
caused extensive damage, as did a V1 flying bomb which exploded in the
churchyard in January 1945, but what survives is largely a 15th century
church of great interest. This twentieth century incident in its history is
reflected in the east window by Hugh Easton which shows in two lights
a figure of Christ triumphant above graphic image of bombed out East London.
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 Amongst the treasures are a 10th century stone rood, now on
the east wall, and a 13th century Annunciation, now on the north wall of the
chancel.
The only figure brass in the church is a modern one, designed in 1975 by
John Hutton, and commemorating the Rev. Reginald French, a former rector who
died in 1945, and his wife Gertrude. |
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From there we walked to the Royal Foundation of St.
Katherine. It was originally founded in 1147 by Queen Eleanor as an
almshouse. It has always remained under the patronage of the queens of
England, thus escaping the dissolution of the monasteries. The chapel was
erected on the site of St James's Radcliffe, bombed in 1940. Although
modern, it has been described as 'one of the most exciting churches in
London'. |
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The one remaining brass commemorates a sixteenth century
benefactor: William Cuttinge (d. 1599) who according to the inscription was
also a benefactor to Caius College, Cambridge; the Goldsmiths and Merchant
Taylors Companies; East Dereham; and Norton Fitzwarren.
After tea we heard talks by Stephen Freeth on
The Brasses and Monuments and by Derrick Chivers and Martin Stuchfield on The Conservation of the Cuttinge brass.
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master's House, complete with contemporary wall paintings,
led by Bernard Nurse, we were afforded the privilege of viewing of the chapel (not
normally open to the public). Most of the furnishings are pre-Reformation and
include contemporary statues of Edward III and Queen Philippa of Hainault.
The twelve chapter stall (containing a series of brass stall plates) have
fine misericords. which attracted much interest among those present. |
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We started the day in the church where Dave Mullinger gave
us an introductory talk on the collegiate foundation and Holy Trinity
church, drawing attention to its furnishings including the remains
of a sumptuous glazing scheme.
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Members then had the opportunity to view the church and the brasses, most
of which are now in the north transept. These include (below left) the brass
to Joan, Lady Cromwell (d. 1479) and (below right) that to John Gygur (d.
1504) the 3rd warden of Tattershall College who worked with Lord Cromwell's
executor, William Wayneflete, to complete the College after Lord Cromwell's
death.
| The rest of the day was spent at the village hall,
which Jane Houghton and Janet Whitham had adorned with a splendid
display of rubbings of the brasses and indents of Tattershall church.
The MBS bookstall was also present and did a brisk trade. |
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This section of the day was devoted to a series of lectures.
Simon Payling set the scene with his talk on the Cromwell family,
concentrating on Ralph, 3rd Baron Cromwell, the founder of the College, but
also dealing with his co-heiresses, his nieces, Maud and Joan who were
buried alongside him in front of the high altar at Tattershall. This was
followed up by Powerpoint presentations on the brasses; by Sally Badham on
the patronage of brasses by the Cromwells and their kin and by Janet Whitham
on the saints on the Tattershall brasses. Fr. Jerome Bertram then gave an
overview of colleges throughout Europe and showed examples of brasses to
officials of various collegiate foundations. Martin Stuchfield finished the
day with a brief presentation on the fascinating series of indents at Tattershall, many of which are now covered by fixed carpet. |
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This meeting took place in two venues in Birmingham. In the
morning, we visited St. Mary's College, Oscott, a fascinating place near the edge
of the city, which was the spiritual cradle of much learning and activity
amongst newly-emancipated Catholics in the 19th century. Augustus Welby Pugin,
the renowned Victorian creative genius and designer, was Professor of
Ecclesiastical Antiquities here and made it a centre for his early experiments
in ecclesiastical furnishings.
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Dr Judith Champ of Oscott College provided an overview of
Oscott chapel. While the fabric is the work of Joseph Potter of Lichfield,
the lavish Gothic revival interior is pure Pugin.
The walls, ceilings and chancel arch are completely covered with patterns
he designed. Pugin was
also responsible for the designs of the stained glass at the east end, the
stalls, pulpit and reredos. The latter is a complicated structure of wood
designed to hold several different works of art that Pugin and Lord
Shrewsbury collected on a continental tour in 1841. |
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As our President, Rev. Canon David Meara, explained, Pugin
was also an important designer of brasses, being a key figure in the
Victorian revival of the art. Oscott has an important collection of
Victorian brasses. The most impressive is the figure brass to John Milner
(1752-1826), designed by Pugin in the style of the brass to Bishop John
Trilleck (d. 1360) in Hereford cathedral. Many other brasses
line the walls. |
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We were also given the opportunity to view the museum at
Oscott, which holds some of the material Pugin used to illustrate his
lectures. It also boasts an exceptionally fine collection of medieval and
Renaissance metalwork. After lunch, we moved on from Oscott to the Special
Collections Library at Birmingham University to see the progress that has
been made with the on-going cataloguing of the multitude of rubbings and
other material that now forms the MBS Malcolm Norris Research Centre. |
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