Aug 27, 2025
In Winchester Cathedral are six free-standing chantries dating from the mid-14th C to the mid-16th C. They provide an interesting comparison of Perpendicular micro-architecture over two hundred years, demonstrating the innovative and master accomplishment of medieval...
Mar 5, 2025
Medieval Winchester is still very much in evidence in the way it is laid out. The city’s grid system of streets developed from what was laid out in the late 9th C.[i] Although many buildings have disappeared and new ones built in subsequent periods, there those still...
Sep 9, 2024
The second of the Dorset churches on my August ‘church crawl’ (as John Betjeman would have called such a quest) is just over 3 miles east from Bere Regis in Dorset. A turning off the A31 leads to the settlement of Winterborne Tomson. In a field by a farm is the Church...
Jul 24, 2024
The subject for the dissertation for my master’s degree was on Late-Tudor & Early-Stuart Gatehouses in Central Southwest England. The study of them introduced me to the ‘shell-headed alcove’ or ‘niche’. Several of them have the feature built into them. They are at...
Apr 8, 2024
When I was researching Tudor and early-Stuart gatehouses in the central southwest of England, one of the common features that occurred was the shell-headed niche. The niche whether empty or filled by a statue becomes a significant architectural device in England from...
Feb 7, 2023
Walking around Bruton, particularly down by the riverside, one can get the feeling of medieval Somerset. The single-span bridge would have seen trains of packhorses and mules, laden with woolsacks, woollen cloth, and silken cloth making their way through Bruton and...
