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December
2005: The original site of the grave of King Edward
the Confessor in Westminster Abbey has been found. For
more information ,visit the official Abbey's site by
clicking here.
Monuments
on the Move Piloti (Gavin Stamp) reported in Private
Eye recently that the magnificent gilt-bronze effigy
of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (ob 1439) was
moved from St Mary's Church, Warwick to the Gothic:
Art for England exhibition in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, London. This is one of only two such
medieval effigies remaining outside of London.
Dr John Physics reports that wooden effigy (c. 1250)
of Robert, Duke of Normandy (ob 1134), son of William
the Conqueror, was removed from Gloucester Cathedral
in 1987 to the Royal Academy; when it was returned,
it was replaced not in front of the altar but
side-lined into the south ambulatory. Flaxman's monument
to George Steevens (c 1800) was removed from St
Matthias, Poplar in 1979 for exhibition at the Royal
Academy; this time it did not go back into the church
but was hawked around looking for a home. Such movement
of monuments is a cause for concern.
February
2006 Archaeologists discover St Chad's Burial Place
and Shrine in excavations at Lichfield Cathedral. Chad
became the fifth bishop of the Mercians in 669 and moved
his see to Lichfield, Staffordshire. He died 672 and
Bede reports that he was buried 'close by' the church
of St Mary but his body was later translated to the
new church of St Peter. Both of these churches have
now been located below the present cathedral. Three
adjoining fragments of a panel - one the 'Lichfield
Angel' - have been found which are thought to be part
of a shrine which contained the bones of St Chad. The
fragments are of painted limestone and in an excellent
state of preservation. They will be on display until
the end of March and then removed for further research. For
further information and a photograph of the Lichfield
Angel, click here,
here
or here.
For the cathedral site with photograph, click
here.
April
2006 Peter Yeoman FSA, Senior Archaeologist of Historic
Scotland, writes to inform Fellows that the Whitehorn
collection of early medieval sculptured stones has been
given a makeover. The pride of the collection is the
country's earliest surviving Christian memorial, the
Latinus Stone, carved some time around AD 450 to mark
the grave of a man called Latinus and his unnamed four
year old daughter. That stone is one of sixty early
grave markers and crosses in the new display, the majority
of which were created in the decades around 1000 during
the heyday of the Whithorn School, when local carvers
established a distinctive style of ring-headed crosses
with interlaced decorated shafts.
Historic Scotland
felt that the cultural significance of the collection
was not matched by the quality of the old display, and
indeed had become overshadowed by the new archaeological
displays created next door by the Whithorn Trust, hence
the decision to create something more fitting. The new
display, partly funded with a grant from the Heritage
Lottery Fund, restores something of the sense of winder
medieval pilgrims would have felt for the crosses when
visiting St Ninian's shrine.
Special visits can be
arranged to the newly displayed museum by contacting
Peter Yeoman - Peter.Yeoman@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
April
2006 The Sunday Express included an article
about former BBC journalist Graham Phillips who
claims that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford,
East London. He also claims that the only evidence linking
the Bard to Stratford-upon-Avon is the monument overlooking
his (sic) grave but this was not erected until 1748
although an illustration of the original monument exists
in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire, which
shows another Shakespeare altogether with his hands
on a sack, indicating he was a grain merchant. Professor
Wells of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust believes Mr
Phillips's theories are rubbish. April 1st did not fall
on a Sunday this year!
June
2006 The Salisbury Journal of 1st June reports:
'A bronze statue valued at more than £30 000 has
been stolen from the church-yard of St Leonard's Church
at Semley - for the second time.
The 5ft-high statue
of a first world war soldier on horseback was previously
stolen in April 2000, then mysteriously returned.
It
is the work of Henry A Peagram and celebrate the life
of Lieutenant George Delaware Irving Armstrong of the
Sherwood Foresters, who spent the later years of his
life in Semley.
Cutting equipment was used to remove
the statue from its plinth on Saturday night or the
early hours of Sunday.
Anyone with information is
asked to contact Tisbury police on 0845 408 7000 or
Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
Information from
Revd Ben Elliott, Society Member
December
2006 The Guardian Newspaper of December 15th
reports the thefts last months of six bronze busts -
including that of Georges Bizet (1838-1875), the composer
of Carmen - from Père-Lachaise Cemetery
in Paris. The busts date from the second half of the
19th century and were made by well known artists of
that time. These thefts are considered to be the work
of an expert and probably carried out to order by a
collector. It is also reported that there is a thriving
black market for items from French graveyards.
Père-Lachaise,
the oldest cemetery in Paris, is a major tourist
attraction with over two million visitors per year.
It contains the graves - among others - of Oscar Wilde,
Molière, Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf, Maria Callas,
Chopin and Jim Morrison. It is difficult to police as
there are five gates open to the public and easy for
a potential thief to hind. Other monuments have been
vandalised in the past.
10.1.07
The Guardian In the G2 section there is a
photograph of the newly erected headstone in Edinburgh's
Grange Cemetery marking the grave of politician
Robin Cook who died in 2005. This is a simple rectangular
stone with a curved top. The lettering is bold and simple
and gives his dates and names his family. The epitaph
reads: "I may not have succeeded in halting the
war but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide
on war." This was chosen from the former Foreign
Secretary's memoirs by his family. The words are much
criticized by the writer of the article. (Stephen Moss)
21.3.07
The Guardian In the G2 section is the photograph
of a tomb stone in St Lawrence Church, Oxhill, Near
Stratford-upon-Avon which reads: 'Here Lyeth the Body
of Myrtilla Negro Slave to Mr Tho Beauchamp of Nevis.'
She died in 1705. In this 200th anniversary of the abolition
of the transatlantic slave trade, Barbara Willis-Brown
is researching the life of Myrtilla, why she should
have been brought from the small Caribbean island of
Nevis, where Thomas Beauchamp was thought to have owned
a sugar plantation, and why she should have been
buried with a memorial just outside the church door. If
anyone has any information, Ms Willis-Brown may be contacted
at bwillisbrown@hotmail.com
12.04.07
The Independent,Compiled by Ian Irvine
'12 April 1948.
James Lees-Milne,working for the National Trust,writes in his
diary:"After breakfast I motored Eddy to Salisbury and then,parting with him
regretfully,continued up to Wilton.Picked up Mrs Esdaile and drove her to
Stourhead. Never have I been in closer contact with a more unkempt female;yet
she is an old pet.Her stockings hang in folds,covered with stains;her face and
fingers are yellow with cigarettes. She is rather vague now and walks with
difficulty. Yet at Stourhead she plodded gallantly round the house and told us
what she knew about each sculpture,which was everything.[She]kept prattling
about a monument she wished to see in a church three miles from Stourton.'A
stunner',she called it. It was by Van Nost,she assured me of a Windham.We took a
look at it. I admit it was a splendid affair,dated 1684,full-blooded Charles II
Baroque,standing in the face of the open door'.
supplied by member Michael
Fitzgerald
24.07.07
The Guardian Meav Kennedy reports that BBC
History Magazine has launched a search for the nations's
most curious, touching or enigmatic gravestone epitaph,
inspired by the concern of Richard Smart, director of
the National Archive of Memorial Inscriptions, that
many will be lost for ever. The public are invited to
send to the magazine - www.bbchistorymagazine.com
- their favourite magazine by September 1st, including
a photograph, location and transcription
September
07 BBC History Magazine There are two separate
articles in the September edition both relating to Westminster
Abbey.
In the News Section (page 8): Secrets
of Westminster Abbey's Mosaic by David Keys recounts
how new research suggests that mosaics - made in the
1260's - were almost certainly made from stones looted
from ancient buildings in Rome. Although this article
concentrates on the mosaic pavement positioned
before the high altar, it is also relevant to stones
used for several late C13th monuments in the Abbey.
In
the Footsteps Section (page 98); Britain's
Crowning Glory by Megan Palmer also refers to Westminster
Abbey. There is a good photograph of 'Poet's Corner'
but the short account of the exhumation of Oliver Cromwell's
remains is sanitized and inaccurate. His body was indeed
removed from the Cromwell Vault (still marked) in the
Abbey but several others bodies were also removed,
not only those who had taken part in the
opposition to Charles I or the republican governments
but also family members such as Elizabeth Cromwell,
the Protector's mother. A large floor slab in their
memory was set by Dean Stanley in the 19th century but
this is now covered by a carpet. Most of the remains were
buried in a common grave nearby and there is a modern
plaque on the outside wall of St Margaret's, Westminster
listing their names as well as a brass inside the church
in memory of General-at-Sea Robert Blake. However
such disgraceful treatment of the dead was clearly not
good enough for Charles II and his government when it
came to the treatment of Oliver Cromwell himself,
John Bradshaw, the trial judge, and Cromwell's son-in-law
Henry Ireton, arguably the architect of the republic.
Their remains were hanged from the gallows at Tyburn
(now Marble Arch),
and then beheaded (hardly 'executed' as the article
says!), their bodies buried at Tyburn (not at Westminster
as again the article states) and their heads set on
Westminster Hall. Cromwell's head blew down in a gale,
possibly in 1703, and was allegedly sold by a sentry
for a shilling to a passer-by. After various
changes of hand, it became a family heirloom until
it was eventually
buried in Sidney Sussex College Cambridge in 1960, where
Cromwell had been a student; a modern wall plaque on
the wall of the vestibule to the chapel recounts this
event. For further details click here.
There is also an article about Katherine Swynford, mistress
and third wife of John of Gaunt, with a reproduction
of a drawing of the brass that was formerly on her tomb
and a photograph of her tomb in Lincpln Cathedral (pp
49, 51) although it is not indicated which of the two
tombs photographed belongs to her.
October
07 BBC History Magazine .There is an article
about King Henry III - The King, The Saint &
Parliament which includes a photograph of his tomb
in Westminster Abbey (with Edward the Confessor's shrine
in the foreground) and a separate photograph of the
head of his monument.
The results of the tombstone
competition, which was mentioned in an earlier reference, are
announced in Mysterious Memorials Unveiled. The
article describes the winner - which is in the
Old Rectory Museum, Loughborough - and the four runners
up in some detail.
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