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Church Monuments Society Church Monument Guide Book
Church Monuments Society Events
Claude Blair: C.V.O., O.B.E., M.A., F.S.A. (1922-
Booklet on the care of brasses
Church Monuments Society Church Monument Guide Book
In 2012 the Church Monuments Society will award a prize of £500 for the church guide
book or leaflet which provides the best guide to that church’s funerary and other
monuments. It would not be a competition for the best church guide as such: the treatment
of the monuments would be the criterion -
For details, click here. It would be good to see a guide that deals with brasses at least make the shortlist.
John Page-
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/coal-
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/out-
Church Monuments Society events 2012
Thie forthcoming Church Monuments Society programme consists of an excursion in West
Oxfordshire on 14 April 2012, an excursion in South Yorkshire on 23 June 2012 and
a symposium in Cardiff on 17-
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. Bulletins 113, 114, 115 and 116 are now on a separate page f rom which they can be downloaded: MBS Bulletin
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-
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.
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-
martinstuchfield@btconnect.com
or Crime Stoppers (tel 0800 555111).
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.
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
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-
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-
martinstuchfield@btconnect.com
or Crime Stoppers (tel 0800 555111).
If you have something you would like to contribute to our website please e-
jon.bayliss AT talktalk.net
To mark the issue of Bulletin 100, William Lack has compiled a complete index to
Bulletins 1-
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.
