Becket at Colchester: Transactions n.s. Volume 15 Part 2

J H Round wrote about Thomas Becket's connection with Colchester in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society in 1919.

Three Unknown Gentlemen - probably former members of the Essex Archaeological Society

We are currently sorting through our archives and have discovered three photographs on gentlemen unknown.  Can any member of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History, or anyone else, identify them?

Unknown gentleman #1

Unknown gentleman #2

Unknown gentleman #3

Richard III at Witham: Saturday 6 July

I am organising a talk entitled  Richard The Third - A Bloody Tyrant?  by Dr Phil Stone, Chairman of the Richard III Society, which may be of interest to you and the members of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.

 

It will be at St Nicholas Church, Chipping Hill, Witham on Saturday 6th July at 7.30 pm.

 

I attach full details, and hope that you may be able to come along.

 

Yours sincerely

Christine Newmarch

Book Sale in Blackmore

If the weather is fine, there will be a book sale in Blackmore, as it is Village Fayre Weekend, on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (25 to 27 May). Surplus books of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History will be available.

Littlebury Church is our next Society Visit

On Saturday 15 June, members of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History will be visiting Littlebury Church, near Saffron Walden.  After the Annual General Meeting (papers to follow) there will be a talk followed by a cream tea.

Harlow Festival. Thursday 23 May to Sunday 30 June 2013

Harlow Festival runs for just over a month beginning this Thursday (23 May).

One of the historical highlights is a free morning of talks to be held on Saturday 25 May at St Paul's Church in the town centre. 

'Festival Morning: Stanley Spencer and John Piper'

"Join us to learn about John Piper (1903-1992) and Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) in this Grade II listed building with its imposing John Piper Emmaus Road mosaic on the east wall. 

"Free refreshments and cake from 10am.

10.30am.  Bishop Steven Cottrell (Bishop of Chelmsford) speaking on Stanley Spencer's paintings. 'Christ in the Wilderness'. He will be signing copies of his book. Spencer was an early modernist painter. 

11.45am. Mark Lewis on John Piper (with the backdrop of the Piper mosaic).  John Piper was a close friend of John Betjeman, was an official war artist during World War II.  He is perhaps most famous for the splendid stained-glass window in Coventry Cathedral. He also designed the windows for Robinson College Cambridge. His skills extended across a wide range of arts. 

12.30pm.  Questions for both speakers.

www.stpaulsharlow.org.uk

Archaeological Notes (1919): Transactions n.s. Volume 15 Part 2

Archaeological Notes are shorter pieces published in the Transactions of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History (in 1919 named the Essex Archaeological Society). These pages cover Wooden Effigies in Little Horkesley Church and Pleshey Castle in 1588-89.

Pleshey Castle

Pleshey Castle: the topic of today's excursion by the Essex Society for Archaeology and History.  Photographs taken in September 2008 on a previous visit.

Pleshey in 1985

Holy Trinity Church, Pleshey

White Horse, Pleshey (1985)

Former village shop, The Street (1985)

The Street, Pleshey

Photographs on Pleshey taken in August 1985.

The Essex Society for Archaeology and History visit Pleshey Castle 

on 18 May 2013.

Pleshey

Mendham Collection To Go Under The Hammer

Subject: Mendham Collection update

The Sotheby's catalogue is now available online at http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2013/the-mendham-collection-l13409/overview.html

The Law Society of England and Wales is pressing ahead with plans to dismember the Mendham Collection, an important resource (of antiquarian books and some manuscripts) for both Protestant and Catholic history, and which has been on deposit at Canterbury Cathedral Library, and thereby accessible to scholars, since 1984.

Sotheby's have now announced a 'Highlights from the Mendham Collection'

auction, to be held in London at 10 am on 5 June 2013. The sale catalogue is available online. The following overview is on the Sotheby's site:

The Mendham Collection was assembled by the Anglican clergyman Joseph Mendham (1769-1856) and contains mostly fifteenth and sixteenth century books relating to the dawn of the Reformation, particularly relating to England.

There are early Bible printings (including Greek and polyglot versions), rare liturgical texts, the first publications of the Church of England, and a substantial collection of the Catholic Church's notorious Index of Prohibited Books. Also included are some early pilgrim's guides to Rome, the 'Mirabilia Romae' and a group of early sixteenth-century English bindings, one of which (Duranti's 'Rationale') was originally in the library of St Cuthbert's Cathedral Priory, Durham."

The items being sold are presumably drawn from the 300 or so volumes removed from the 5,000 item Collection by Sotheby's last summer with a view to their valuation and subsequent sale (the latter then thought likely some time from November 2012).

The auction is proceeding notwithstanding:

a) A strong public campaign and petition against the sale mounted last summer and co-ordinated by the University of Kent

b) Private interventions with the Law Society by a number of expert groups, including the Religious Archives Group (RAG)

c) Doubts expressed as to whether the Law Society has unfettered legal title to sell the Collection

d) The condition attached to a cataloguing grant awarded to the Collection by the British Library that it should not subsequently be dispersed

Following the public campaign, matters went quiet for some time, during which (it is understood) negotiations took place between the Law Society and the University of Kent to keep the Collection at Canterbury Cathedral Library. These were unsuccessful, as - evidently - has been the more recent attempt by the Society to interest major UK universities in buying the Collection intact.

Confirmation of the impending sale and dispersal of the Mendham Collection is extremely disappointing, representing a serious potential loss to scholarship and to the country's religious patrimony. If it proceeds, it will reflect very badly on the Law Society. Hopefully, there is still time for an eleventh-hour solution which will prevent the break-up of this historic library, which Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch Kt, the distinguished church historian and member of RAG, publicly criticized last August as "an act of vandalism".

Dr Clive D. Field, OBE

 

Archaeological Notes (1919): Transactions n.s. Volume 15 Part 2

From the 'Archaeological Notes': Notes on The Petres, the discovery of more deneholes at Grays, Round-Naved Churches, and, a Seal found at Radwinter 

Archaeological Notes (1919): Transactions n.s. Volume 15 Part 2

Archaeological Notes were shorter items and correspondence published in the annual issue of Transactions. Mention is made here of the late Dr Laver, the parish chest in Feering Church and, The Dister Brass in Lavenham Church, Suffolk.

Stondon Massey and Its Chapelry: Transactions n.s. Volume 15 Part 2

A further piece by J H Round Esq., for the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society (1919).

The Probert Scrapbook (5): Gallery

Priory Church of St Laurence, Blackmore

St Germains, Bobbingworth

Chelmsford Church and Writtle Steeple
Fell down one day but killed no people

St Andrew's Church, Greensted

St Mary's Church, High Ongar

Stanford Rivers Church

Stapleford Tawney Church

Architecture and Local History: Transactions n.s. Volume 15 Part 2

From the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society (the forerunner of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History), a paper read at the Annual Meeting at Romford on 4th July 1918, with some additions, written by J H Round M.A., L.L.D., one of the greatest local historians of the twentieth century.

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