Howden Church

Shrewsbury's late sixteenth-century Old Market Hall—recently restored and returned to public use—is among the most prominent buildings in the town centre and, or so it would seem, a reminder of the town's pre-eminence as a marketing centre in the central Marches in the early modern period. Combining documentary evidence, archaeology, and the evidence of the building itself, this inter-disciplinary study sets out to examine the real reasons for the Hall's construction, how it was built, and the way in which it functioned. The paper also looks backwards to the growth of marketing in this part of Shrewsbury in the thirteenth century, and its promotion by considerable civic investment in the 1260s when a new market square was created from what was previously a wet wasteland. Looking forward, it tells the story of the Hall's use in the post- medieval period, and of past attempts to deal with inherent structural defects in the original design.     

Traces of History and Ethnology in the Local Names of Gloucestershire

Aspects of burial custom in Roman Britain which seem to be influenced by Roman ideas include burials found accompanied by coins, eggs, charcoal, phials, which once contained perfume, and ritual objects, such as jugs and pateras. The implications of these customs are considered together with the significance of symbolism displayed on tombstones. Discussion of funerary ritual, as it might have been practised in Roman Britain, includes the portrayal of the funerary banquets on tombstones. It is concluded, on the evidence available, that burial custom, like religious thought, was a matter of personal choice, partly because the Romans did not attempt to prescribe funerary practice, except in the law relating to the positioning of cemeteries, and partly because of the strong influence of Celtic religious belief surviving in Roman Britain.     

Traces of History and Ethnology in the Local Names in Gloucestershire

In the summer of 1996, excavations outside the Chapter House at Worcester Cathedral revealed a chamber filled with animal bones and a considerable quantity of artefacts. Analysis of this material suggests that this deposit constituted the remains of one or more high status meals, probably a feast, which were disposed of in the seventeenth century. These archaeological findings are supported and amplified by the extensive documentary evidence, which not only includes historical anecdotes but also primary source material. In combination, the historical and zooarchaeological evidence sheds light not only upon the feasting practice of the ecclesiastics at Worcester, but also on the condition of the Cathedral at the end of the seventeenth century in the aftermath of the Civil War.     

Le Décor Peint de la Maison Médiévale: Orner pour signifier en France avant 1350

Abstract

The remarkable survival of considerable elements of a large rose window at Elgin Cathedral allows an accurate reconstruction of its form. The design can be shown to be from the mainstream of rose window tracery patterns in northern Britain and can be related to the pre-1390 west front of the cathedral. When reconstructed the design of the front shows close affinities with the west front of Arbroath Abbey which also featured a large circular window. Certain elements of the tracery also show similarities with the eastern rose window reconstructed at Fountains Abbey and indicate strong links with sources in northern England.     

Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1998

Abstract

Historic Building Investigations and selective excavations carried out during recent conservation works have shed new light on St Mary's Guildhall, Boston (Lincolnshire), built by an internationally significant religious fraternity in one of the most important ports of medieval England. Dendrochronological dating of the guildhall indicates a construction date of c 1390. This is significantly earlier than had previously been supposed and suggests a close link between the construction of the guildhall and the grant of a royal licence of incorporation to the guild in 1392. It makes the guildhall one of the earliest securely dated brick buildings in Lincolnshire and is important evidence of investment during a period when Boston was experiencing severe economic decline. Multidisciplinary analysis of the archaeology of the building and some of the guild's surviving documentary records enables a reconstruction of the original form and function of the guildhall and its now-lost material culture. Comparative analysis of Boston with other surviving provincial guildhalls begins to shed light on the emergence of a distinctive type of public architecture in pre-modern England.