Latest news

Exhibition of Church Vestments, Oxford, 28-30 August 2010

There will be an Exhibition of Church Vestments at the Oxford Oratory (25 Woodstock Road) on Saturday 28 (10.30-5.30), Sunday 29 (12.30-5.30) and Monday 30 August (10.30-5.30). The exhibition features not only examples of actual vestments but rubbings of English and Continental brasses, including some of those made by Fr. Jerome Bertram in Poland in 1970-71. Admission free, catalogue £1.

MBS Bulletin online

The Society’s Bulletin is published three times a year and posted to members. It will now also appear on this site. See Bulletin 113 and 114 for January and May 2010 by clicking the appropriate month. In future there will be a separate page from which bulletins can be accessed.

Claude Blair, C.V.O., O.B.E., M.A., F.S.A.,(1922-2010): memorial fund

Our senior Vice President, Claude Blair, died on the morning of 21 February at the age of 87 in Epsom Hospital after a short illness. He had recently finished his book on Greenwich armour (to be published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) thus achieving an ambition he had held for 50 years.

Claude was a founder-member of the Church Monuments Society and a fund has been set up with a view to conserving one or more monuments in his memory: click to see the details.

Church Monuments Society events 2010

This year’s Church Monuments Society programme consists of a Study Day at Much Marcle (Herefordshire) on 12 June, a tour of Hertfordshire Churches on 26 June 2010, an excursion in West Yorkshire on 31 July and an excursion in South Cambridgeshire 9th October. The Society’s Symposium this year is on the subject Making Monuments and willb e held at Winchester on 10-12 September.

Details of the study days and excursuions can be found here.

Details of the symposium and a booking form can be found here.

Featured website

Every few months, we will be featuring on the Links page a particular site from those links. The one currently featured is the site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) that includes many of the Gaignières drawings of French monuments, including brasses, in colour . Click on Links to discover more.

New Shire book on Brasses

Shire Books has published a new book on monumental brasses.

It has been written on behalf of the MBS by Sally Badham and

is profusely illustrated by photographs taken by Martin Stuchfield

especially for the book, which is of 64 pages and costs just £5.99.

It was launched at last year’s MBS City Churches Day on 25 July.

Theft of a monumental brass

Have you seen this brass?

Stolen from St Benet's church in Cambridge, May 2008

Please contact either the Hon. Conservation Officer

Martin Stuchfield,

Lowe Hill House,

Stratford St. Mary,

Suffolk, CO7 6JX

(tel 01206 337239)

or e-mail

martinstuchfield@btconnect.com

or Crime Stoppers (tel 0800 555111).

Booklet on the care of brasses

Our Conservation Officer, Martin Stuchfield, has produced a downloadable short booklet with guidelines to assist parishes on the care of brasses. It is accessible via the Conservation page or click here.

Gift subscription scheme

Why not give a subscription to the MBS as a gift? It is great value for money.

Click here for further details.

Click here for application form

Thefts of monumental brasses

Have you seen these brasses?

STOLEN

in July 2002

from Lacock, Wilts

RETURNED

(and left in the church)

in October 2004

STOLEN

in July 2002

from Langridge, Somt

STOLEN

in July 2002

from Swainswick, Somt

STOLEN

in August 2002

from Fairford, Glouc

STOLEN

in August 2002

from Beckington, Somt

STOLEN

in May 2004

from Dauntsey, Wilts

In the course a few months in 2002, there was an extremely worrying spate of thefts of monumental brasses, mostly from West Country churches. The pattern of locations targeted and the common modus operandi for removing the brasses suggests that the thefts are probably the work of one person (probably with an accomplice to act as watch-out). A further brass was stolen from the same area in May 2004.

Over two years later, the Lacock figures were returned anonymously, being left in the the church. This may give hope that the other figures stolen at the same time will also be returned anonymously. In the meantime, if anyone sees the other brasses offered for sale, either in the UK or abroad (stolen brasses may pass quickly through a succession of dealers before being offered for open sale), please alert the MBS, who are in touch with the parishes from which these brasses came. Anyone with information regarding these thefts is asked to contact urgently either:

the Hon. Conservation Officer

Martin Stuchfield,

Lowe Hill House,

Stratford St. Mary,

Suffolk, CO7 6JX

(tel 01206 337239)

or e-mail

martinstuchfield@btconnect.com

or Crime Stoppers (tel 0800 555111).

If you have something you would like to contribute to our website e-mail:

jon.bayliss@btinternet.com

Page last updated 29 August 2010

Credits

Index to MBS Bulletin 1-100

To mark the issue of Bulletin 100, William Lack has compiled a complete index to Bulletins 1-100. This index comprises three sections:

1. A topographic list of references and illustrations, with all but the most trivial references to churches which contain, or have contained, brasses, incised slabs and allied monuments. Original references to the name of the person commemorated have been converted into references to the church concerned.

2. A general index which is not intended to be comprehensive but to list major papers, lecture reports, conference reports, etc.

3. An alphabetic index of books and important papers reviewed or described in the Notes on Books and Articles.

The link to the index is on the Publications index page, reached via the navigation bars on the top or side of this webpage.