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...
Aug 23, 2023
The 18th-century Grand Tour must have been exciting time for young patricians seeking to discover the ancient world first hand in Rome. If they could put aside the temptations of pleasurable diversions, then serious learning and procuring a collection were attainable....
Apr 30, 2023
On a recent visit to Wells Cathedral, I noticed the tomb effigy of Giso of Lorraine in the north aisle. He had been Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1061 to 1088. His church would have been the Anglo-Saxon cathedral which stood before the current Gothic one. In 909, the...
Mar 29, 2023
The font at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Luppitt, East Devon The small parish of Luppitt, nestling in the Blackdown Hills, lies a few miles from Honiton. I came across Luppitt a few years ago when researching the very colourful Sir Peter Carew (d. 1575) of Mohuns Ottery...
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...
Jan 23, 2023
Last year (2022) I visited the excellent exhibition at the British Museum called ‘The World of Stonehenge’. It was less about Stonehenge and more about the world at the time of Stonehenge in Europe. It brought together objects from across Britain and...
