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Salon: Issue 400
6 February 2018
Next issue: 20 February
The Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter (Salon) is a fortnightly digest of heritage news. It focuses on the activities of the Society and the contributions that the Society's Fellows make to public life. A copy of Salon’s editorial policy can be found on the Society’s website.
Please send news, comment and feedback for publication to the Editor, Mike Pitts, at Salon Editor. Salon does not review books, but the Editor is pleased to receive details and front cover images of new titles written by Fellows. Scholarly publications are reviewed in The Antiquaries Journal: for details see Publications.
Fellows may occasionally find they do not receive email notification of a new Salon. There are suggestions for solving this here, but failing all else there is an online archive where new editions go live at the same time as the mailing. Every Salon lists the publication date of the next edition at the top.
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Inside this issue
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From the Desk of the General Secretary
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William Galloway and the Viking Boat-Burial at Kiloran Bay
On Thursday 1 February, we welcomed Professor James Graham-Campbell FSA to speak at our first Ordinary Meeting of 2018. Professor Graham-Campbell delved into the work and legacy of William Galloway, and his investigations into the Viking Boat-Burial at Kiloran Bay.
This lecture was accompanied by a display of watercolour drawings by Rosa Wallis, of the finds which Galloway had brought to London for display. If you weren't able to attend in person, take a look at the recording online.
We are delighted to announce that 10 new Fellows were elected at the 1 February Ordinary Meeting, including Lynda Mulvin, Jeremy Musson, Andrew Wareham, Malcolm Leonard Reid, Andrew Cochrane, Anne Johnson, James Gerrard, Simon Underdown, Dominic Selwood, and Graeme Warren. Many Fellows also joined us for the first Introductory Tour of the year, which took place on the same day.
The next tour will be held on Thursday 19 April. Whether you're a new Fellow or just haven't been to Burlington House, this is a great opportunity to learn more about your Society, your Fellowship benefits, and ways to get involved.
Reserve your place >
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From the Governance Officer
Online Balloting is now open
To vote online in our four upcoming Ballots, please login to the Fellows’ Area and go to the Ballots section. From here, you can read Blue Papers and cast your vote for all candidates.
Simply click on the ‘Details’ option to the right of a candidates’ name, and you will automatically be taken to the voting page.
Cast your votes >
Please note, online balloting closes at noon on the day of the vote. The next vote is taking place on Thursday 8 February but you may vote online at any time until noon on the day of the ballot.
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Portable Antiquities
If you see these beads, the police would like to know. They are among archaeological artefacts stolen from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust in late January.
Archive stores at the Trust were left in chaotic disarray after a series of burglaries. Andrew Richardson FSA, the Trust’s Outreach and Archive Manager, told Maev Kennedy FSA (Guardian 1 February) that he estimates some 1,500 artefacts were stolen, including Anglo-Saxon glass beads and coins from excavations, replicas from an educational loans collection, a bust of Queen Victoria and £1000-worth of tools. Thieves ‘smashed their way through an exterior wall which contains asbestos so we’re having to get a specialist company in to fix it’, said Richardson. ‘They also cut through water and electric pipes.’
Around the same time thieves broke into the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk, breaking wooden doors and padlocks, stealing lead roofing from the back wall of Abbot’s Hall, and causing damage to the roof and brickwork. Around 135 pieces were stolen from the collection, including historic signs, hats and ties and porcelain vases.
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Allenby at the Gates of Jerusalem
A remarkable exhibition about the Battle of Jerusalem, which celebrated the centenary of its conclusion on 30 December last year, is in the City until July this year. Julian Munby FSA (lender of the Key of the Post Office) sent Salon this interesting report from Jerusalem:
‘It had been hoped that Fellows attending the Christmas Party in London would have been given a centenary treat of being shown the keys of Jerusalem: they were taken from the city in December 1917 by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Allenby; one of the few success stories of that miserable year, and an event hailed by T E Lawrence as being for him “the supreme moment” of the war. But as it turned out, while noone in the UK seems to have thought this remarkable event to be worthy of celebration, the keys (and flags, swords and other memorabilia) went to Jerusalem for a fascinating exhibition, Allenby at the Gates of Jerusalem in the Tower of David Museum in the Citadel. The exhibition looks at the extraordinary range of material evidence for the British taking of Jerusalem (from keys to souvenirs and excavated relics), and especially the role of photography in reconstructing the bizarre story of the many attempts at surrender on 9 December 1917.
 ‘The Keys of the City came from Maidstone Museum, and I went to Jerusalem with Tim Tatton-Brown FSA to participate in the opening events. These included a battlefield tour to Megiddo and Jaffa, and a reconstruction of the events on 11 December when Allenby walked into the old city (with Lawrence in attendance) and made his historic declaration of intent on the future of the city.
‘In between, there was time to explore some of the early churches and the city walls, inspecting the Roman base of the Damascus Gate under the watchful eye of assembled news cameramen waiting for a riot, and seeking out the scattered remains of the Priory of the Holy Sepulchre at night after the souk had closed. In this we were aided by the essential guide in the form of the great coloured phase plan of the church and priory made by past President (Sir) Alfred William Clapham FSA (1883–1950) in 1918 when on military service in Palestine. The plan was published in 1921 in the first volume of the Antiquaries Journal (an interesting reminder of the British concern for antiquities and conservation in the early days of the Protectorate).
 ‘There was a miraculous absence of visitors at the Holy Sepulchre, the Mosque of the Ascension and the Tomb of the Virgin, allowing a close examination of the series of aedicules built to protect the sacred sites, and a study of the 12th-century masonry of St Mary’s lower church. At the Rockefeller Museum, the curator Fawzi Ibrahim showed us the remarkable collections established during the British Protectorate and housed in a fine building by Austen Harrison (1930–35) with carvings and sign lettering by Eric Gill. His current exhibition included a superb “time-line” of Near-Eastern pottery from ancient to Medieval, while the permanent collection includes the Romanesque lintels from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the extraordinary stucco decoration of the eighth century from Hisham’s Palace near Jericho.
 ‘After a visit to the Mount of Olives and its spectacular view of the old city, we followed the city walls round to Mount Zion, and made a point of finding the graves of Oscar Schindler in the Catholic Cemetery and that of Flinders Petrie in the Protestant Cemetery. The latter is kept in immaculate condition beside the grounds of the (American) Jerusalem University College under the auspices of a board including the Anglican Cathedral of St George. We were delighted to find a suitable votive offering of potsherds on Petrie’s grave, just as Schindler’s grave was found by the stones heaped upon it as a Righteous gentile. The “father of Egyptology”, Sir Flinders Petrie KBE FRS FBA (1853–1942), had retired to Jerusalem in 1933 and died there in July 1942 (visited on his death-bed by Col. Mortimer Wheeler FSA on leave from the Eighth Army in the desert). Famously he was buried headless, having donated his head to science, as a “specimen of typical British skull” which eventually found its way back to London after the war and reached the Royal College of Surgeons. Even more curiously still, he never became an FSA.’
Photos, from top: Plan of the church and priory in Jerusalem made by Alfred Clapham 1919–20, and published at the very beginning of the first Antiquaries Journal in 1921; Tatton-Brown and Lord Allenby at Megiddo, with Nazareth in the background; Munby beside the megalithic blocks of the Temple’s Herodian wall; Petrie's grave in Jerusalem.
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#MoiAussi, the Bayeux Tapestry and the Society's Copies
 Interest in the prospect of a loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to Britain continues. Lindy Grant FSA wrote about the embroidery on the Conversation (17 January), pointing out that a famous naked man in the border may have been more than a bawdy joke:
‘So many scenes focus on military preparations and the great battle of Hastings itself,’ she says, ‘and one scene clearly refers to a recent sexual scandal. An unnamed churchman reaches out to touch a woman named Aelfgiva. She appears to cringe, and his gesture seems aggressive rather than tender. In the margin below, a naked man with a huge erection points up towards the couple with meaning.’
In Bayeux, says Grant, the Tapestry is wound around a long drum so that one can see only half of it at a time. ‘Its size’, she adds, ‘will surely dictate where it can be displayed here – the British Museum or the British Library are strong possibilities.’
By showing books about the Tapestry in the last Salon written or contributed to by Fellows, I was sure I would be told of more. Nicola Coldstream FSA was first up, with The Bayeux Tapestry (1943, above), ‘an excellent King Penguin,’ she says, ‘Succinct and to the point.’
Brendan O´Connor FSA (writing from Palenque) notes that the book on the Tapestry by Carola Hicks FSA has just been reissued by the Folio Society, between the same covers as the official French guide book by Bayeux Museum Curator Sylvette Lemagnen (left).
Barbara English FSA has another one:
‘The late Marjorie Chibnall FSA, the late Valerie IJ Flint FSA, the late David H Hill FSA and Barbara English FSA contributed to a work edited by Pierre Bouet, Brian Levy and Francois Neveux, The Bayeux Tapestry: Embroidering the Facts of History (Proceedings of the 1999 Cerisy Colloquium, 2004). The co-operation on both sides of the Channel made it an unusual publication. There is a French volume, and a parallel English volume, heroically translated by the late Brian Levy, who managed to make page and footnote number correspond across the two editions, so that Franco and Anglo writers could quote one reference only – I never knew how Brian achieved this. It was reviewed by George Beech as an “Indispensable contribution to Tapestry studies”.’
‘We were assured in Caen and Bayeux during the 1999 Colloquium,’ adds English, ‘that the Tapestry having survived Napoleon and Hitler, could never leave Bayeux. Would that be the view of Fellows? The Society owns the early 19th-century copy by Stothard, displayed at the Hayward in 1966: perhaps it should now have another outing? Currently it seems that all the publicity for British versions is directed towards the Reading version, whereas ours is much more interesting and historically useful. Maybe we should boast about it?’
 Charles Stothard FSA, the Society’s historical draughtsman, was commissioned to draw the entire Tapestry in 1816, the 750th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. The drawings were engraved by James Basire, and Stothard returned to Normandy to hand colour them (left above). He took some plaster casts (right) to capture the embroidery’s texture, one of which is also in the Society’s collections. Brenda King, Chair of the Textile Society, gave a talk at the Society of Antiquaries in 2016 about Stothard’s copy, about a facsimile of the Tapestry produced in 1886 by Elizabeth Wardle, founder of the Leek Embroidery Society, and about William Morris FSA’s interest in the work. Her talk can be watched online, and Michael Lewis FSA wrote about Stothard’s project in the Antiquaries Journal 87 (2007, 400–06).
Robert Merrillees FSA is among Fellows impressed by the prospect of the loan to Britain:
‘The proposed loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the UK is an exceptional gesture by France, which says as much about Gallic pragmatism as diplomacy, especially in these Brexisterical times. Judging by the press reports I have seen, the Tapestry is most likely to make the journey across the Channel again, if it happens, in 2023 for about three to four months, in winter, when work on its new museum space is due to take place, so as not to spoil the summer tourist season on which Bayeux's economy depends. It also reflects the standing of President Macron who has been able to take this decision with the evident consent of the Bayeux Museum and Municipality and without the overt opposition, so far at least, of the chattering classes in France.
‘I am also aware of the attempted loan of a precious objet d'art in France which was approved by Macron's predecessor but sabotaged by the museum director concerned on the grounds that this object had never left the collections or country. And it still hasn't. On the other hand, in another remarkable deal, though more for pecuniary than political purposes, the Musée de Cluny in Paris is lending the sublime Lady and the Unicorn tapestries to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, for a one only venue display from 10 February to 24 June 2018. The Bayeux Tapestry, which is owned by the State but deposited with the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux, would not be the only work of its kind to have travelled, and not nearly so far.
‘It is also clear, as the Bayeux Museum has intimated in your quotation, that without an exhaustive study of the tapestry itself and the logistics for transporting it, with a view to determining the viability of the whole project, the loan may not go ahead. And already technical doubts are being raised on this score. I wonder therefore if the heading of your news item is a little premature, and in any case, at the risk of sounding pedantic, whether it should have been “Bienvenue à la Bayeux Tapestry” or perhaps, more appropriately, “Tapete Bagiarum salutamus”. Did Fellows notice that while President Macron speaks English, and is, courageously, willing to do so in public, unlike former President Chirac, Prime Minister May does not appear to know French?’
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Tancred Borenius FSA (1885–1948)
 Tom Beaumont James FSA has written a series of articles about Tancred Borenius FSA in the newsletter of the Friends of Clarendon Palace. Borenius was born in 1885 in Wiborg, writes James, in the Grand Duchy of Finland, then in the Russian Empire. He studied Northern Italian art, publishing a book on Renaissance art in Vicenza in 1909. He married Anne-Marie Runeberg, grand-daughter of Finland's national poet, and the couple settled in Bloomsbury.
Following Finnish independence in 1917 Borenius became Finnish chargé d'affaires in England, and in 1922 Professor of Art History at UCL (the first Chair in that subject in a British university). He was Fine Arts Adviser to Sotheby’s, wrote prolifically, and curated art exhibitions; he was a key person at the Burlington Magazine, and was involved in Apollo magazine.
In 1929, visiting his friend Morley Hewitt, excavator of a Roman villa at Rockbourne, Hampshire, the Boreniuses heard of a vacant cottage at Coombe Bissett: they bought it. Tancred’s interest in Medieval wall painting (he wrote Florentine Frescoes, 1930, and St Thomas Becket in Art, 1932) drew him to the nearby Clarendon Palace, and he proposed excavation to Mrs Sydney Christie-Miller, the owner. Work began in 1933 under his overall command, with John Charlton FSA, then a young graduate of Durham University, directing the dig. They stopped in September 1939.
 Last March Clarendon Palace Friends celebrated Borenius at 23 Kensington Gate, his former home. The Finnish Ambassador H E Ms Päivi Luostarinen unveiled a plaque. Among short talks given on the occasion, Tom James and Amanda Richardson FSA described Borenius’ love of Medieval English art and the role he played as director of excavations at Clarendon Palace. Contemporary photographs shown included a snap of Borenius at Garsington with Lady Ottoline Morrell and others.
‘Although he did not emerge unscathed from all the presentations by modern art historians,’ writes Elizabeth Eastlake, ‘there was also a paper which claimed he was among those who secured the defection of Rudolph Hess during the Second World War’.
In Medieval times Clarendon Park developed from a hunting box into the grandest Western royal residence in England. James is co-director with Chris Gerrard FSA of a project to examine Clarendon’s long archaeological and architectural history, from early prehistory through to the present. The project, they say, has ‘recovered more from the excavation spoil heaps than was catalogued by James and Robinson in 1988 for their account of the Borenius/Charlton years’.
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There was a Code-Breaker Called Cottle
 A lesser-known side of Basil Cottle FSA (1917–94) has come to light thanks to a new publication of his wartime diaries. V E Nash-Williams FSA, Keeper of the Department of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, encouraged Cottle to work in museums, but after studying English, Latin and Greek at the University of Wales, he trained as a schoolmaster.
After the war he became Reader in English at Bristol University, specialising in Anglo-Saxon literature. He was, Michael Liversidge FSA tells Salon, ‘an enormously erudite scholar of Anglo-Saxon and early Medieval art and architecture, an expert in heraldry, English place-names and English surnames, obscure early saints and their legends, and an accomplished composer of entirely fit-for-publication comic limericks which he frequently composed during departmental and faculty meetings.’
His obituary in the Independent included this:
‘There was a young lady of Yiewsley/She inspected the paintings of Fuseli/The subsequent night
Was all nausea and fright/And she woke up refusing her muesli.’
He kept a childhood interest in archaeology, and was a President of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.
Cottle was also a Bletchley Park code-breaker, and he wrote a diary. Hobnob Press has now published A Grand Gossip: The Bletchley Park Diary of Basil Cottle. Edited by James and Judie Hodsdon, who both had careers at the Government Communications Headquarters, the book reproduces many of Cottle’s drawings as well as his texts. He arrived at Bletchley Park in September 1943, after medical discharge from the Army, and worked on Enigma material. Aware of security rules, Cottle says less about the work than ‘his colleagues, landladies and anyone he bumps into on his days off. We’re left in no doubt who he gets on with,’ says the blurb, ‘and who is a pain.’
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Fellows (and Friends)
John Warren FSA, architectural historian, died in January.
Barbara Green FSA, archaeologist and museum curator, died in January.
Appreciations appear in Fellows Remembered below. The section also contains further notices on the late Cecil Western FSA, the late Roger Lockyer FSA, the late Pamela Tudor-Craig FSA, the late Mark Whittow FSA and the late Gavin Stamp FSA.
Michael (HJM) Green FSA, Inspector of Ancient Monuments at the Ministry of Works and English Heritage, has died. The funeral service will be held at the Parish Church of Holy Trinity, Clapham Common, on Friday 16 February at 1.45 pm. A reception will be held from 3.15 at the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham Old Town. No flowers, collection in aid of Royal Trinity Hospice. An appreciation will appear in the next Salon on 20 February.
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On 31 January Members of Parliament unexpectedly voted in favour of a full decant of the Palace of Westminster, to allow expensive repairs to proceed unhindered. The House of Commons had been asked to vote on two options, both of which had been criticised as offering no definitive decision on urgently required work. However an amendment from the Labour MP Meg Hillier demanding immediate action was approved by 236 to 220 votes. The House was divided between those who accepted recommendations from detailed studies showing the extent to which the historic buildings are endangered by decades of poor maintenance, and those who felt leaving the premises to be politically unacceptable. The cost of working around MPs has been estimated at billions of pounds. The proposals will now be voted on by the House of Lords.
 The Syrian Antiquities Ministry and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that more than half of an Iron Age temple at Ain Dara had been destroyed in a Turkish air strike on 29 January. Basalt lions and sphinxes were reduced to rubble, as local people accused Turkish forces of deliberately targeting archaeological sites, a practice denied by a Turkish official. Jonathan Tubb FSA, Keeper of the Middle East Department at the British Museum, told the Art Newspaper that he was ‘devastated’ by the damage: ‘the loss is as great as that suffered at Palmyra, a site of comparable importance’.
 Susan Powell FSA has written The Birgittines of Syon Abbey: Preaching and Print. The Birgittine Order of nuns, founded by St Birgitta, was first established at Vadstena in Sweden in 1384, six years after the order had received papal recognition and 11 years after the saint’s death. Its only house in Britain, founded by Henry V in 1415, was a significant one, peopled by daughters of the most influential English families, and some of the most learned and intellectual English priests (who formed the complementary brotherhood). This book considers the role of the Birgittines of Syon as producers and readers of texts through an analysis of late Medieval manuscripts and early printed books, the most fruitful period of Birgittine outreach, when the printing press had opened up new opportunities of mission and transmission.
Charlotte Higgins FSA has written a long profile of Mary Beard FSA for the Guardian (‘The cult of Mary Beard,’ 30 January). Higgins opens with memories of joint open days for the Oxford and Cambridge classics faculties, her own as a would-be student and Greg Woolf FSA’s as staff, seeing Beard in action and standing out from the assembled men. Today, writes Higgins, ‘Beard is a celebrity, a national treasure, and easily the world’s most famous classicist. Her latest book, Women and Power, about the long history of the silencing of female voices, was a Christmas bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. In the eight years since her debut TV documentary, Pompeii, she has conquered the small screen. She is one of a trio of presenters who will, in March, front Civilisations – a new, big-budget version of Kenneth Clark’s 1969 series Civilisation, the most revered cultural TV series in the BBC’s history.’ Beard and Higgins appear in conversation at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, on 16 March.
 SAVE Britain’s Heritage is objecting to plans for a 40-storey tower in central Manchester’s historic core. The tower, which, says SAVE, would rise next to the Town Hall and central library building, would have ‘a devastating impact on the harmony and splendour of Manchester’s townscape’. In a release Marcus Binney FSA, Executive President of SAVE, said, ‘Not since the Montparnasse Tower was built in Paris in 1973 has a single tower proposal been so damaging to a great European townscape. The revival of Manchester’s near dormant historic core … is an outstanding achievement. It has depended not on flashy iconic buildings but first class local architects.’
Monica M Jackson FSA, Research Associate, Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney, has written Hellenistic Gold Jewellery in the Benaki Museum, Athens, a museum Supplement. The book, says the blurb, is a complete presentation of the Benaki Museum’s Hellenistic jewellery. The jewellery’s typology and complex construction techniques are described, along with the historical context in which the goldsmiths worked. Seven pieces from the collection are dealt with in depth using rich comparative material.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the UK’s largest funder of heritage, has launched a public consultation about its priorities. Comments are invited on a proposed new approach including targeted funding campaigns, repayable loans and public involvement in decision-making, all of which could have a role over the next strategic funding framework (2019–2024) in ensuring the most effective use of National Lottery money. The consultation ends on 22 March 2018. • The HLF is facing a reduction in National Lottery income. For the year to March 2017 the National Lottery Distribution Fund’s total income, including investments, fell to £1.63bn, the lowest since the start of the decade.
 Fraser Hunter FSA, Principal Curator, Prehistoric & Roman Archaeology at National Museums Scotland, writes to say that until 25 February, Fellows can enjoy a free exhibition in Edinburgh. Scotland’s Early Silver explores the impact of the metal during the first millennium AD, says Hunter, looking at its use in Scotland from its arrival with the Roman army, through its use for diplomatic gifts and raw material, to the dawn of the Viking Age and new sources of silver. An attractive accompanying book, by Alice Blackwell, Martin Goldberg and Fraser Hunter, can be bought online, with a special discount for Fellows available until 31 March: enter the code Silver17.
 Bettany Hughes FSA has been on BBC Radio 4, talking about ‘the most influential ideas in the story of civilisation’. She has made five series of 15-minute programs under the heading The Ideas That Make Us, the first of which were broadcast in 2013, with themes such as Justice, Agony and Love (‘the influence of Eros through the ages’). Series 4 (including Technology, Harmony and Narcissism) was repeated in January, and the whole set can be heard online.
On 28 January The New York Times published a list of ‘The 10 coolest museums in the world’ in its Kids’ Section – ‘some designed just for kids, others intended for adults’. Six are in the US, one in Mexico and three in Europe. One of the latter is in Britain, the Horniman Museum and Gardens, soon to welcome Nick Merriman FSA as its new Chief Executive.
 The Roman Amphitheatre of Chester: Vol 1 The Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology, by Tony Wilmott FSA and Dan Garner FSA, reports on major excavations between 2004 and 2006 at a controversial site. The joint project between English Heritage and Chester City Council (now Cheshire West and Chester) revealed two Roman amphitheatres, both with stone outer walls. The first had timber seating. The second is the most elaborate in Roman Britain, and despite very poor preservation of the building, writes Wilmott, a convincing reconstruction has been possible from the archaeological evidence, and this is presented in CGI imagery by Julian Baum. Presumably unknown to them, the Roman audience were sitting over an intact Iron Age landscape, including remains of a cord-rig field system, a round house and a four post building. A second volume will deal with post-Roman archaeology.
Dora Thornton FSA writes to say that after 28 years as Curator of Renaissance Europe and Curator of the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum, she will move to be Curator of the Goldsmiths’ Company Collection at Goldsmiths’ Hall in March. Dan Pett FSA, who had been leading Digital Humanities at the BM, left on 2 February after taking voluntary redundancy.
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Fellows Remembered
John Warren FSA died on 19 January aged 86. He was elected a Fellow of the Society in May 1981. A conservation architect, architectural historian and Quaker, he was Chairman of the World Heritage Committee of ICOMOS UK.
According to a profile at the University of York, where he was an Associate at the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit, he trained as a mining engineer before reading architecture and then town planning at Kings College, Durham. In practice he worked first with Sir William Whitfield, in 1963 founding the Architectural and Planning Partnership, working as an architect/planner in new-build and building conservation and adaptive reuse, at projects such as West Dean College, West Sussex, and the Naval and Military Club, St James's Square, London.
 He was elected to the Society for his work on Byzantine and Early Islamic architecture. As an RIBA Rose Shipman Fellow (1961–62) he recorded 16th-century Ottoman architecture. In the early 1980s he worked in Baghdad, restoring buildings in devastated areas of the Medieval city and constructing appropriate infilling. He also undertook planning and conservation work in Saudi Arabia, Libya and the Gulf.
His books include Traditional Houses in Baghdad (1983, with Ihsan Fethi, right), Conservation of Brick (1998) and Conservation of Earth Structures (1999). He was Vice President of the ICOMOS Specialised Committee on Earthen Architecture.
He was also a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies in York, and a Chartered Member of the RIBA.
David Coke FSA writes that John Warren’s personal life ‘was very much focused on his family. He also spent much time during his later years painting and drawing – both landscape and figures, especially his memories of the mining industry.’
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 Barbara Green FSA died on 25 January aged 85. She was elected a Fellow of the Society in March 1972. Brian Ayers FSA has written this tribute to a well-known Norfolk archaeologist and museum curator:
‘Barbara Green was appointed Keeper of Archaeology at Norwich Castle Museum in 1963, having previously been the Assistant Keeper of Natural History. She held the Archaeology post for almost 30 years until 1992.
‘Born in Stretford, Manchester and brought up in Gloucestershire and Norfolk, at Caister-on-Sea, she was enthused by archaeology at an early age and worked closely in the 1950s and early 1960s with Rainbird Clarke FSA, the then-Curator of the Castle Museum. She took an early interest in the development of Norwich, working on Clarke’s investigative excavations at locations such as Quayside and St Martin-at-Palace Plain. This work in turn led to her curating, with Rachel Young, the formative exhibition Norwich: The Growth of a City staged at the Castle Museum in 1963. This ground-breaking show, one of the earliest to explore the development of a major urban settlement through archaeology as well as history, was congratulated by the journal Medieval Archaeology on producing a “splendid result … it is only to be hoped that other provincial cities will try to emulate this achievement”. The exhibition was accompanied by a publication which was itself republished in 1981 and remains a good short introduction to the city’s history.
‘Barbara was as interested in the rural environment as much as the urban one. She was particularly keen on research into early Anglo-Saxon Norfolk, and helped to initiate the great Spong Hill project as well as working on the Bergh Apton and Morningthorpe cemeteries. Most importantly, with J N L Myres FSA, she produced the major report on the cemeteries of Castor-by-Norwich and Markshall published by the Society of Antiquaries in 1973. Barbara provided the catalogues of the grave goods from both cemeteries, a significant undertaking when she was otherwise fully engaged with her role as Keeper.
‘By then Barbara was also a founder member of the Scole Committee, the archaeological body which was instrumental in creating the Norfolk and Suffolk Archaeological Units as well as, a year or so later, establishing the monograph series East Anglian Archaeology. The advent of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit meant that her important work in fostering a nascent County Sites and Monuments Record, started under her predecessor, Rainbird Clarke, could be transferred to that body, the card index that she curated becoming the foundation of the modern Historic Environment Record.
 ‘Barbara continued to work closely with other organisations as archaeology developed as a discipline in the 1970s and 1980s. The inter-disciplinary Norwich Survey, active from 1973 until 1982, was linked to the Castle Museum through a Field Officer based in Barbara’s department. Early liaison work between archaeologists and metal-detectorists was also fostered by Barbara and her staff. She co-authored a seminal paper on the matter with the late Tony Gregory for the Museums Journal in 1977, advocating a co-operative approach which was controversial at the time although standard practice now. She was President of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society between 1984 and 1986 and continued as a Vice-President thereafter.
‘The range of Barbara’s knowledge was considerable as evidenced by the variety of topics addressed in her publications. She wrote about petrological identification of stone implements for the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Iron Age bronze terrets for the Antiquaries Journal, imported Medieval pottery for Norfolk Archaeology, the Hockwold treasure for Apollo, bronze plaques for Medieval Archaeology, and a short history of Norwich Castle. As well as scholarly publication she wrote for a wide public audience, including collaborations with the illustrator Alan Sorrell who shaped the vision of the past for most mid-20th century British children. Barbara was a great champion of Norfolk, its history and archaeology.’
James Green, a nephew of Barbara, writes that she was ‘an intelligent, articulate, generous and formidable lady, who reached the top of her profession through hard work and merit. She was a great believer in personal responsibility, rigorous enquiry, debate and freedom of expression.
‘She was brought up in Upton St Leonards in Gloucestershire. Her father was Charles Green, an archaeologist notable for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship burial. She went to work on digs with him, developing her love of archaeology. She received a BSc from Bedford College.
‘In retirement, Barbara maintained her links with archaeology and academia, being a member of various groups and societies including the Museums Association, the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group, and the Norfolk Historic Buildings Group. She was a great lover of birds and wildlife, and never lost her attachment to the north of England, holidaying in the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Peak District. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of her family. She will be missed.’
The top photo is from A Life in Norfolk’s Archaeology 1950–2016, by Peter Wade-Martins FSA. The other shows a lull during excavations at Thornham, Norfolk, in the mid-1950s (Norfolk Museums Service).
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The website for Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire, published an obituary for Cecil Western FSA, who died in May last year.
‘For over 30 years’, writes Jill Brooks, ‘Cecil was involved with The Villager. The team got together to make up the magazine every two months. Cecil only missed a couple of issues. When she was going to be away she firmly but politely advised on who should replace her. About six years ago Cecil retired. A while later she asked if she might be reinstated, as she missed it and would like to keep going a little longer.
‘She also tried her hand at Keep Fit, when she was younger, in her 80s! She did the class with her stick. Health and safety issues and risk assessments were abandoned as she knew her limitations, and was just given plenty of room to swing her arms up to clap.
‘She moved into Holly Lodge (The Old Rectory) in Brightwell with her friend Nancy in 1957, and in 1982 they moved to Wongalee (named after the place in Queensland, Australia where Nancy was born). In 1955 Cecil and Nancy embarked on a road trip in a long wheelbase Land Rover from London through Europe and Asia including Afghanistan to the tip of India, then by ship to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Here they boarded another ship and continued their travels across Australia. Many in the village will have been told about her reminiscences of this epic journey, including how she nearly ended up in prison having knocked a camel off the road.’
Photo Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.
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Roger Lockyer FSA, who died in October, was the author of a ‘magisterial biography of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,’ says the Telegraph obituary (27 December); ‘his Tudor and Stuart Britain, first published in 1964, went into three editions and remains a standard textbook on the period.’
After graduating from Cambridge with a First, says the paper, ‘Lockyer spent a year in Paris teaching at the Lycée Louis-le-grand, followed by two more years as head of History at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, then as an editor of the Blue Guides, before being appointed head of History at Lancing College in 1954. In 1961 he was appointed a lecturer at Royal Holloway College, University of London, where he would spend the rest of his career, retiring as a Reader in History in 1984.’
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Pamela Tudor-Craig FSA, who died in December, ‘helped to change the way people looked at paintings, broadened the appeal of art history by presenting the innovative Secret Life of Paintings on the BBC, and uncovered evidence of how the Tudors had doctored paintings of Richard III to exaggerate his deformity’, says an obituary in the Times (13 December). ‘Many art historians – often conservative in nature and sometimes misogynistic – were put out by her unconventional methods in finding hidden meanings in the works of Old Masters.’
‘Paintings were never meant to be the captives of museums,’ she would assert in her television show, ‘before walking into one of the pictures with the help of video effects and then explaining the iconography of the scenery and the objects. When strangers started to approached her on the London Tube, she knew that she had succeeded in bringing medieval art to the masses.
‘Richard Foster, her producer on the series, likened her to “a Catherine wheel – with ideas flying out like sparks in all directions”. Having burnt herself out, she would insist on a 15-minute “power” nap, no matter where they were filming. On one occasion – in a library in Florence, wearing knickerbockers and a frock coat – she lay down for a quick sleep and woke up to find herself encircled by a crowd of Italian bystanders all wanting to have a look at “una pazza Inglese [a crazy Englishwoman]”.’
Writing in the Church Times (5 January), Gordon Marsden MP (a former editor of History Today) says that anyone who met Tudor-Craig ‘was unlikely to forget her in a hurry’. ‘Those spending time with her in hospital’, he adds, ‘were privileged with an outpouring of anecdotes. I heard one about playing tennis with “Ben” and later encounters with him and “Peter” (Britten and Pears) – reminders of her deep acquaintance with creative genius beyond the visual as at the end of [her final article for the Church Times], invoking the 15th-century paean to the Virgin “I sing of a maiden”.'
She could spring surprises, says Glyn Paflin, a deputy editor at the Church Times. Once ‘we met by chance in the crypt restaurant at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and she insisted on giving me a lift home and would brook no refusal. Though the journey on the 77A bus would have been quite straightforward, ours included reversing across a piece of waste ground next to the now departed gasholder near Battersea Power Station.’
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Mark Whittow FSA, who died in December, was a ‘Flamboyant Oxford scholar with a touch of Jeeves and a passion for Byzantine history who inspired a generation of students’, according to the headline of his Times obituary (26 January). He ‘always believed that past events had to be studied as much through landscapes and physical objects as through texts – of which few survived – at his desk. And so it was that he found himself in Sicily measuring the outside of a castle built on a “good defensive site”, or in other words hundreds of feet above a perilous drop.
‘He fell, turned a couple of somersaults, but was halted by a ledge. It was a near thing. Suffering from shock, Whittow took to his bed for 24 hours and was woken only when fire suddenly surrounded the isolated farmhouse in which he was staying. With typical gusto, he was soon pouring buckets of water on the flames as it was a case of all hands – literally – to the pump.’
‘An excellent cook, bon viveur and lover of good conversation – elements he believed were essential to a good undergraduate education – he gave legendary drinks parties in college and at his house in Holywell Street. But they were famous not because of the drinks or grilled mackerel, but because he had the capacity to bring together the most unlikely people: the least distinguished undergraduates mixing with the most remarkable scholars; Trotskyites discussing history with the highest of High Tories; and visitors from all of the world speaking every manner of language. His tutorials, accompanied by strong coffee (never Nescafé), hot milk, sticky iced buns and, occasionally, snuff – were always, in his words, “a hoot”.’
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James Stevens Curl FSA remembers Gavin Stamp FSA, who died in December:
‘I was privileged to know Gavin Stamp for many years, sharing with him a passion for cemeteries (especially those created after the 1914–18 war), disgust at the colossal waste and stupidity of the carnage of that war, and enthusiasm for the many and varied architectural achievements of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He possessed a refreshing independence of mind, enabling him to discard Received Opinion when necessary, and looked with his eyes rather than his ears. A generous colleague, he shared unstintingly his knowledge with like-minded scholars, and gave of his time without complaint. His untimely and cruel death has robbed us of a great writer, a perceptive critic, and a sound historian.’
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The Wisdom of Fellows
 In the last Salon I wrote about Brenda Swinbank FSA, who has been treated to a short biography. Jeremy Knight FSA walked with her along Hadrian's Wall, and also remembers a certain Richard Wainwright:
‘As a former student of Brenda Swinbank, may I say how delighted I was to read of the new book by her daughter in law – a very fitting tribute, which I much look forward to reading.
‘To clarify one minor point. “Mr Richard Wainwright” was not Geoff Wanwright FSA, but his elder brother Dick, whom I mentioned in my tribute to Geoff at his commemoration at Burlington House last year. Dick dug with Leslie Alcock FSA at Dinas Powys and with Brenda at Neath. He had a degree in Old Norse and could enliven work with anecdotes from the Norse sagas and impromptu verses and songs about members of the digging team and distinguished visitors. Dick was not a Cardiff schoolteacher by the way [as recorded in the Western Mail in 1958], but a lecturer in a teacher training college in Clacton.
‘If Brenda should read this, she may recall a five-day field trip along Hadrian's Wall – my first visit to Corbridge, which I later came to know well.’
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David Bird FSA wonders if any Fellow can identity a student known to the late David Williams FSA:
‘Not long before his death David asked the Surrey Archaeological Society Honorary Secretary, David Calow, to retrieve Roman-period finds made in Godstone, Surrey, from Guildford Museum so that a PhD student could look at them. These finds were mostly made over a number of years by a detectorist called David Hunt who has given them to the Society. Unfortunately, David W didn't tell David C the student's name or where they were based.
‘David Calow has a particular interest in the Godstone site (which also had a Time Team event), as it has similarities with the Roman settlement at Flexford which he has been excavating and is now writing up. He and I have tried asking various people who might be thought likely to be supervising such a student without success so I was hoping that a general request to the fellowship might produce the answer. Presumably the student is studying a particular group of finds or those from particular settlement types or areas.’
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I noted in the last Salon that Tim Knox FSA, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and before that Director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum and Head Curator at the National Trust, is to succeed Jonathan Marsden FSA as Director of the Royal Collection Trust. Knox has written to point out that he will be Director of the Royal Collection. Apologies.
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In December I described Tracing History Through Title Deeds: A Guide for Family and Local Historians by Nat Alcock FSA, adding that the deeds of my house had been destroyed when it was registered, despite my request to keep them. David Robinson FSA writes with encouraging news of the British Records Association:
‘I was delighted to read your notice of Nat Alcock's updated work on title deeds as historical evidence, and sorry to read your account of the destruction of the deeds of your own house. Title deeds are certainly a major historical source, and ever since local record offices were set up they have been active in the rescue, preservation and cataloguing of title deeds and making them available for historical research. Many deeds have come from property owners, others from firms of solicitors, with the support of the Law Society, and at times the Land Registry, when returning deeds, has drawn attention to the possibility of local deposit. Entrenching links of these kinds in enduring systems has proved more difficult.
‘Since the 1930s the British Records Association, through its Records Preservation Section, has been active in a variety of activities for the rescue and preservation of records. One of its longest-standing projects, dating back to its earliest years, has been to identify title deeds and other records held by central London firms of solicitors, sort them and transfer them to the appropriate record offices. Almost every county and borough record office, and also specialist repositories, have benefited from this work over eight decades. Although financial pressures have recently dictated the termination of this direct service, the Association has collaborated with the Law Society on a pilot project on records stored by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and it continues to work with TNA and other national parties to build effective collaborations for the preservation for local and private records, of which title deeds are an important element.’
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Forthcoming Events for Fellows
You can catch up on meetings you've missed by watching our lecture recordings (visit the events page and filter the results list by choosing 'past events').
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Ordinary Meetings of Fellows
Interested in proposing a lecture? Please download the Lecture Proposal Form, and email it to Amelia Carruthers, Communications Manager (acarruthers@sal.org.uk).
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Introductory Tours for Fellows
If you've never visited Burlington House or had an introduction to the Library and Collections, please join an introductory tour. You'll meet the Society's professional staff, learn about your Fellowship benefits, and discover more from the collections at Burlington House.
19 April: Tours are free, but booking is required >
28 June: Tours are free, but booking is required >
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Forthcoming Public Events
Conferences and Seminars
Public Lectures
Public Lectures are held from 13.00 to 14.00 on Tuesdays, with advance booking advised to be sure of a place.
Click here for more information on our public lectures. We also run public tours of the building (£10) preceding the lectures above.
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Regional Fellows Groups
South West Fellows
8 March: 'Feeding Anglo-Saxon England,' (an Out of London Ordinary Meeting of Fellows, held in Exeter). Find out more online.
Want to join the South West Regional Fellows Group? If you would like to receive email updates about forthcoming meetings, you can subscribe online at: http://eepurl.com/MvHUr
Welsh Fellows
22 March: 'The Legionary Fortress at Caerleon,' (an Out of London Ordinary Meeting of Fellows, held in Cardiff). Find out more online.
Want to join the Welsh Regional Fellows Group? If you would like to receive email updates about forthcoming meetings, email Bob Child at bob.child@ntlworld.com.
York Fellows
20 February: Join us at Bar Convent (Nunnery Lane, York YO23 1AA) to hear from David Jennings FSA, the Chief Executive of York Archaeological Trust, on the challenges and opportunities of the Jorvik Viking Centre re-development project. Refreshments at 18.00, lecture at 18.30. Contact Ailsa Mainman FSA for reservations or questions.
Want to join the York Regional Fellows Group? If you would like to receive email updates about forthcoming meetings in York, you can subscribe online at: http://eepurl.com/8nvxL
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Other Forthcoming Heritage Events
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6 February: Henry VIII and Luther: A Reappraisal (London)
David Starkey FSA, author of books on Henry VIII and the Tudor court and well known as a regular contributor to radio and television, will talk at the Lambeth Palace Library in association with the University of London seminar on the Religious History of Britain 1500–1800. Details online, or email juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org.
7 February: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Manuel Arias (Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid) talks about Alonso Berruguete, ‘the son of Laocoon’, and his assimilation of classical sources, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
8 February: The Classical Villa (London)
Richard Hewlings, Georgian Group, will give a lecture on architectural heritage as part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, at Europe House, 32 Smith Square. 6 pm for 6.30, refreshments provided. Free entry. RSVP: comm-lon-rsvp@ec.europa.eu.
14 February: Charles I: Art, Legacy, Memory (London)
To coincide with the Royal Academy’s exhibition Charles I: King and Collector, this meeting of the London Renaissance Seminar will explore the political and cultural legacies of Charles I’s reign and its art, following the lives of his living heirs as well as of the art works he collected, and examining the period’s art forms on the streets as well as in court. Speakers include Karen Hearn FSA (‘In ev’ry stroke you see the great Vandyck’: The impact and artistic legacy of Charles I’s Principal Painter). Details online.
15 February: Pugin’s House - A Home for all Europe? (London)
Tim Brittain-Catlin, University of Kent, will give a lecture on architectural heritage as part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, at Europe House, 32 Smith Square. 6 pm for 6.30, refreshments provided. Free entry. RSVP: comm-lon-rsvp@ec.europa.eu.
17 February: Norman Oxford (Oxford)
Before the development of the University, Oxford was one of the most important urban centres in England. This day school will examine recent work on the city from 1050 to 1200 and review the impact of the Norman Conquest on its architecture, topography and economy. Details online.
19 February: The Forests of Essex (London)
This day conference at Gilwell Park, held in memory of Oliver Rackham FSA, will explore the cultural and natural heritage of the forests of Essex, and issues of the understanding, management and future of trees, woods and forests in the county. The conference will include a keynote session by Tom Williamson and contributions from Charles Watkins FSA. Details online.
21 February: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Tessa Murdoch FSA (V&A) talks about Master and Apprentice: Transferring skills in the London Huguenot communities, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
24 February: New Thinking about Sixteenth-Century Furniture (London)
A Regional Furniture Society event at the V&A covering topics such as Gothic to Renaissance furniture, from carved oak to marquetry, the role of immigrant craftsmen, imported pieces and recycled fragments. this event will look at the latest research on this intriguing century, based on close study of surviving examples. Details online.
28 February: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Joris van Gastel (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome) talks about The Bernini Workshop (Re)visited, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
7 March: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Michelle O’Malley (Warburg Institute) talks about Botticelli, his assistants and the business of the workshop, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
7 March: St James’s and the Birth of the West End (London)
Simon Thurley FSA, Visiting Gresham Professor of the Built Environment at Gresham College, talks about London at the Museum of London. In the first of two lectures with the theme Buildings in the West End of London: Palace, Park and Square, he looks into the ingredients that went into making a court quarter there and the way it formed a blueprint for the new West End of London. Details online.
8 March: Law and the Historic Environment (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This provides an introduction for all who need to gain a broad understanding of the main legislative, regulatory and policy regimes for the historic environment, the ways in which those regimes are being applied at present, and the implications in practice for those working in the area. Details online.
10 March: Anglo-Saxon London (London)
The seventh London Anglo-Saxon Symposium (LASS) will be held in Senate House, University of London. Drawing on literary, archaeological and historical sources, we will consider how London was created as a physical and conceptual place in Anglo-Saxon England. We will then enjoy performances based on readings from Old English poems by students from Royal Holloway, University of London. We will end with a wine reception. Speakers include Susan Hirst FSA and Andrew Reynolds FSA. Details online.
17 March: Interpreting Medieval Monuments: Iconography and Meaning (London)
A Church Monuments Society conference in Senate House. The speakers will include Sally Badham FSA, Brian Gittos FSA, Moira Gittos FSA, Nicola Jennings FSA and Sophie Oosterwijk FSA. See online for details.
19–21 March: Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Chronological Analysis (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is aimed at researchers using radiocarbon and other techniques, including Quaternary geologists, palaeobiologists, archaeologists and marine geoscientists. The first two days will cover radiocarbon dating including sample selection, laboratory processes and Bayesian analyses. The third day will look at the construction of Bayesian chronologies more generally, including those that rely on other techniques, with a focus on environmental records. Course Director Christopher Ramsey FSA. Details online.
21 March: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Andy Murray (Open University) talks about The Socialisation and Specialisation of Workshop Labour at the Charterhouse of Champmol, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
27 March: Charles I: King and Collector (London)
Reuniting an illustrious royal art collection, the exhibition Charles I: King and Collector marks the Royal Academy of Arts 250th anniversary. In celebration of this landmark event, Martin Randall Travel, a specialist in cultural tours, is holding an exclusive Charles I study day with lectures at the Society of Antiquaries. Hear from Per Rumberg, Curator at the Royal Academy, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures, and historian Leanda de Lisle, author of the forthcoming book White King: Charles I – Traitor, Murderer, Martyr. The talks are followed by a two-course lunch at a nearby restaurant and an afternoon visit of the exhibition. Details online.
11 April: Starting in Post-Excavation (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This will introduce participants to post-excavation and the process that takes us from site record to completed report. The focus will be on report types common in professional practice and generated by development-led fieldwork. It will be ideal for archaeologists in, or moving into, supervisory roles that involve report preparation. Details online.
16–18 April: Condition Surveys of Historic Buildings (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This aims to give participants an understanding of traditional construction and its defects, and to provide the skills to carry out balanced and informed surveys of historic buildings. Course Director Henry Russell FSA, Reading University. Details online.
18 April: The Birth of Modern Theatreland: Covent Garden and the Two Theatres Royal (London)
Simon Thurley FSA, Visiting Gresham Professor of the Built Environment at Gresham College, talks about London at the Museum of London. In the second of two lectures with the theme Buildings in the West End of London: Palace, Park and Square, he looks at the significance and impact of theatres on the development of London. Details online.
19 April: Advanced Condition Surveys of Historic Buildings (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This builds on the knowledge and skills developed by an earlier course (16–19 April) and offers advanced additional guidance on a number of specialised topics such as non-destructive investigations, energy efficiency, mechanical and electrical services and wall paintings. Course Director Henry Russell FSA. Details online.
19 April: An Evening with Lambeth Palace Library Conservators (London)
An opportunity to view the Lambeth Palace Library conservation studio and discuss techniques and treatments with the Library’s conservation staff. Please note that the studio is reached by a Medieval spiral staircase. Numbers will be limited, please book in advance with juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org or phone 020 7898 1400.
28 April: The Lived Experience of Women in Roman Cumbria and Beyond (Maryport)
A day conference at the Senhouse Roman Museum, inspired by the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, will present and discuss the lives of women at the north-western edge of the Roman Empire. Speakers include Maureen Carroll FSA, Ursula Rothe, Alex Croom FSA, Elizabeth M Greene, Tatiana Ivleva and David Breeze FSA. The conference will be chaired by Maureen Fordham. Details online.
28 April: The Lived Experience of Women in Roman Cumbria and Beyond (Maryport)
A day conference at the Senhouse Roman Museum, inspired by the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, will discuss the lives of women at the edge of the Roman Empire. Speakers include Maureen Carroll FSA, Ursula Rothe, Alex Croom FSA and David Breeze FSA. The conference will be chaired by Maureen Fordham. Details from the museum on 01900 816168 or at senhousemuseum@aol.com.
28 April: Ancient to Modern: The Changing Landscape of Sussex (Lewes)
A day conference offering a broad overview of the changing relationship between the Sussex landscape and the people who lived there, from the earliest arrivals. The emphasis will be on how new ideas resulted in significant changes in the use of the Sussex landscape. Speakers, specialists in their periods, include Sue Berry FSA, John Manley FSA, David Martin FSA and Matt Pope FSA. Details online.
4 May: Stratigraphic Analysis in Archaeology (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is for those familiar with excavation and stratigraphic recording, looking to develop post-excavation skills in analysis, dating, interpretation and description. Details online.
8 May: ‘Mysteries’ Demystified: The Making and Meaning of the Lambeth Articles (1595) (London)
Nicholas Tyacke FSA, whose books include Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship 1547–c 1700, will talk at the Lambeth Palace Library in association with the University of London seminar on the Religious History of Britain 1500–1800. Details online, or email juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org.
9 May: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Adam Lowe (Factum Arte, Madrid) talks about Mediation and Transformation | Alchemy and New Technology: Factum Arte’s workshop practice in an age of 3D recording and printing, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects in the widest possible sense, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
9–10 May: The Setting of Heritage Assets and Places (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. In the context of official guidance and wide-ranging experience of practical casework, this explains why the setting of historic places matters, and the principles and practical skills of sound assessment and decision-making. Course Director George Lambrick FSA, with Stephen Carter, Ian Houlston, Richard Morrice FSA, Julian Munby FSA, Michael Pirie, Ken Smith FSA, Karin Taylor and David Woolley QC. Details online.
16 May: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Glyn Davis (Museum of London) talks about Order from Chaos? Trying to Make Sense of Medieval Art Workshops, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects in the widest possible sense, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
17 May: Project Management in Archaeology: an Introduction (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is designed for those new to project management and will draw on the extensive experience of the tutors in development-led archaeology. Details online.
5 June: New Perspectives on Seventeenth-Century Libraries (London)
This event at Lambeth Palace Library will showcase some recent research on library formation, public and private, in the 17th century. Three short talks, among them Jacqueline Glomski FSA on ‘Religion and Libraries in the Seventeenth Century’, will deal with patterns of book selection and acquisition as revealed by individual practice and in 17th-century theoretical writing on bibliography. The presentations will discuss the potential for research and the application of digital methods. In association with the University of London research seminar on the History of Libraries. Details online, or email juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org.
8 June: Delivering Public Benefit through Archaeology (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This looks at planning projects to deliver public benefit, how to communicate that benefit, and how to evaluate the impact. It is designed for those responsible for commissioning, specifying and/or delivering programmes of work that aim to deliver public benefit. Details online.
27 June: Re-opening the Workshop: Medieval to Early Modern (London)
Therese Martin FSA (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid) talks about Re-opening the Treasury: Meaning in Materials at San Isidoro de León, in a lecture series at the Warburg Institute organised by Joanne Anderson and Eckart Marchand. The overall aim is to speak to an interdisciplinary audience interested in issues such as agency and the commission, production and the use of art works and objects, as well as those attuned to the theoretical implications these issues have for visual and material culture of all ages. Details online.
6 July: Churches: History, Significance and Use (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This provides a firm foundation of the history of church architecture and furnishings, and provides skills to draft statements of significance, aimed particularly at those actively involved in management of church buildings. Details online.
15 September: Deerhurst, Pershore and Westminster Abbey (Deerhurst)
The 2018 Annual Deerhurst Lecture will take place at 7.30 pm in St Mary's Church, Deerhurst and will be given by Richard Mortimer FSA (former archivist to Westminster Abbey). Details online.
19–20 September: Photographing Historic Buildings (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is aimed at those who are not professional photographers but wish to photograph historic buildings for the record using a digital camera. By the end students will be expected to know how to choose viewpoint and lighting conditions, correctly set up cameras to capture suitable images and how to post-produce images in software ready for the archive. Details online.
26–28 September: Heritage Values and the Assessment of Significance (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This will introduce the process of significance, show what is involved in preparing significance assessments, teach you how to read and judge such assessments, and explore ways in which they can be used. Details online.
4 October: Post-Excavation Assessment in Practice (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This will introduce recent guidance, and review the essential components of assessment and updated project design. In the afternoon we will review examples from current practice and consider how far they meet their purpose and justify funding decisions. Details online.
24 October: Artefacts and Ecofacts in and out of the Field (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This will provide expert guidance on how key artefacts and ecofacts can contribute to interpretation of archaeological sites, and good practice in sampling and collection. The course is designed for supervisors, project officers and junior managers with responsibility for running excavations, and those new to specialist artefact and ecofact roles. Details online.
30 October: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessments (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This informs participants about the role of desk-based assessments in managing the cultural heritage resource and provides a practical guide to their production. It will also include guidance on the use of desk-based assessments to fulfil the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Details online.
15 November: Archaeological Writing for Publication (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This will introduce standard published reports produced by archaeologists, and how a report is planned. It will then focus on stratigraphic narrative and discussion, with a critical review of examples, to identify common mistakes and how to avoid them. We will also look at the special requirements of writing in a professional and academic context. Details online.
28–30 November: Public Inquiry Workshop (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is a practical workshop designed to improve the performance of anyone who might be called to participate in a Public Inquiry concerned with the historic environment. A mock Public Inquiry will be mounted using a genuine case study, with training for potential witnesses. Details online.
6 December: Commissioning Archaeology (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is designed for non-archaeologists who need to work with archaeology within the design and construction process, including architects, surveyors, engineers and other design professionals, planners, and project managers and developers. Details online.
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Call for Papers
14 July: Archaeology in Hertfordshire: Recent Research (Welwyn)
The Welwyn Archaeological Society and the Rhodes Museum, Bishops Stortford are pleased to announce the third recent research conference, to be held at the Museum. We are seeking 25-minute papers on all aspects of archaeology in Hertfordshire – very broadly defined – from prehistoric to post-Medieval, including updated work on older projects. If you would like to present at the conference, please send a short abstract to Kris Lockyear at noviodunum@hotmail.com. Indicate if you would be willing to present a poster should your paper not be one of ten chosen. Details online.
15 September: Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 43 (2019)
The DAS journal for 2019 will celebrate cross-cultural influences between British and Continental European designers and makers of decorative art, as well as exchange with designers further afield. The Society’s remit is 1850 to the present, and typical journal articles take an object-focussed approach. The journal audience is knowledgeable and well-informed, but not necessarily academic. Authors are invited to submit proposals of around 750–1,000 words by 15 September 2018, for articles between around 2,500–6,000 words, plus notes, illustrations and captions. Send proposals to the Editor, Megan Aldrich FSA, at meganbrewsteraldrich@gmail.com.
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Vacancies
 The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland (CRSBI) wishes to appoint a Chair of the Management Board to succeed Nigel Clubb FSA when he retires at the end of April. Deadline for applications 12 February.
The unsalaried post is a prestigious executive role which involves chairing at least four meetings of the Board per year, usually in central London, and reporting to at least two Trustees’ meetings annually. Extra attendances may be required during the year. The role provides a unique opportunity to help shape the direction of the project, including its future academic home and information supplier. Details online.
 The Diocese of Ely, with support from Historic England and the Cambridgeshire Historic Churches Trust, is seeking to appoint a full time Historic Church Buildings Support Officer to work with the diocese's historic churches in Cambridgeshire and West Norfolk. Deadline for applications noon 14 February 2018.
The role will focus on the challenges of maintaining and repairing historic church buildings, many of them listed at Grade I, in contexts ranging from urban and suburban Cambridge and Peterborough, through the diocese's diverse complement of market towns, to the sometimes remote churches of the Fens. Enthusiasm, commitment and excellent communication skills will be vital attributes for all candidates. Details online.
 The Mausolea & Monuments Trust is looking to obtain the services of a volunteer who can assist in its membership recruitment. The post will appeal to an individual who has some experience of membership management and an up-to-date knowledge of modern social media communication methods. Details online.
 The National Trust is looking for new members to join the Historic Environment Advisory Group.
The Historic Environment Group is one of four voluntary Advisory Groups in the Trust, which together cover areas where external volunteer advice is greatly valued. Group members are highly respected professionals who give their time, as individuals on site and at bi-annual meetings, to advise on practical, reputational and policy issues.
We are looking for colleagues who have a passion and extensive knowledge in these areas, who possess a curious mind, and a collegiate outlook. Experience producing or working with academic research would be beneficial but is not essential. The role requires a commitment of up to 15 days a year, and is for an initial term of three years with potential for renewal. Details online.
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Propose a Lecture or Seminar
Please download and complete the Lecture Proposal Form, and email it to Amelia Carruthers (acarruthers@sal.org.uk), the Society's Communications Manager, if you are interested in giving a lecture at one of the Society's Ordinary Meetings (Thursday evenings at 17.00) or as part of our Public Lecture series (occasional Tuesday afternoons at 13.00). We welcome papers based on new research or themes related to the Society's field of interest: the study of the material past. You can view our current lecture programme in the Events section of our website.
Fellows are also encouraged to propose topics or themes for conferences or seminars that bring scholars and professionals from a variety of disciplines together to explain, discuss and debate our material culture. Please download and complete the Conference Proposal Form, and email it to Amelia Carruthers (acarruthers@sal.org.uk), if you are interested in helping us organise such an event.
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