What’s On
CHAUCER AND PILGRIMAGE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
By Diana Webb
23 November 2013 at 10.30am
KAS Library, Maidstone Museum
Everyone has heard of The Canterbury Tales, even if they have only read bits of it at school, and many people know that it consists of character-sketches of a party of pilgrims to Canterbury in the late fourteenth century, followed by the stories they are imagined as telling one another on the road. Chaucer wrote for an audience that already knew all about pilgrimage – it was a part of contemporary life – but for us this is no longer true. So what does he tell us about pilgrimage, and does what he tells agree with what we learn from other sources? For example, all his pilgrims are on horseback – shouldn’t they have been on foot? And among them is a little group of nuns, headed by their Prioress – but should nuns have been out on pilgrimage? Indeed, should the Wife of Bath have been there either? And was it really dangerous to travel through Blean Forest on the approach to Canterbury? This talk will try to shed light on questions like these, drawing where possible on evidence from medieval Kent.
Diana Webb’s background is described below:
- Diana Webb has lived in Maidstone since 1971. Until her retirement in 2006, she was senior lecturer in history at Kings College London, specialising in the later middle ages and especially in religious and Italian history. She is the author of six books, including three on pilgrimage, and contributed the article on Pilgrimage to the Historical Atlas of Kent. She has recently been collaborating with her husband on a study of British residents in Tuscany in the mid-nineteenth century; there are numerous Kentish connections among them. She has been actively researching the history of her own family and her husband’s, discovering ancestors in the Isle of Thanet between the seventeenth and nineteenth century (as well as in Suffolk, North-East Scotland and Wales). Diana admits to being a beginner where Kentish history and its sources are concerned, but the basic principles of historical research are the same whether you’re working on Siena or Sittingbourne, Faversham or Florence...
There is no fee for attending a session, but a small donation per person is requested to cover costs and help the Society further its work (all cheques payable to The Kent Archaeological Society).
IMPORTANT: Please book in advance supplying your name, phone number and email address and brief details of what you would like to discuss by emailing librarian@kentarchaeology.org.uk
NEW! HISTORICAL RESEARCH DROP IN SESSIONS
With Diana Webb in the KAS Library
Stuck on a Latin phrase? Puzzled by palaeography? Just starting out and feeling in need of a bit of friendly advice?
Help is at hand! We have persuaded experienced academic Diana Webb to hold some drop in sessions in the Kent Archaeological Society Library.
Saturday 15 February 2014
10.30am - 12.00 noon
Saturday 31 May 2014
10.30am - 12.00 noon
Saturday 27 September 2014
10.30am - 12.00 noon
KENT: IMMIGRATION AND EMIGRATION
One Day Conference
7 December, 9.30am – 4pm
Grimond Building, University of Kent, Canterbury
The Kent Archaeological Society, with the support of the School of History, University of Kent.
The conference will focus on the role of population movements, immigrants and emigrants to and from Kent from the settlement of very early migrants crossing the Channel to Kent to the modern movements since the 16th century.
- 9.30 - 10.00 Registration & Welcome
- 10.00 - 11.00 Lecture: Medieval Hythe & civic uses of sacred space (Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh)
- 11.00 - 11.20 Coffee
- 11.20 - 11.55 Lecture: Church spaces & uses – the upper room (Dr Toby Huitson)
- 11.55 - 12.30 Lecture: Church decoration – Hythe’s carved stones (Heather Newton)
- 12.30 - 13.30 Lunch
- 13.30 - 14.00 Workshop 1 [church documents & church building – see ticket]
- 14.40 - 15.00 Workshop 2 [church building & church documents – see ticket]
- 15.00 - 16.00 Workshop 3 [church building & church documents – see ticket]
£15.00 including lunch, tea and coffee. For booking form go to www.kentarchaeology.org.uk or buy post from (include SAE) Mrs J. Davidson, 7 Chatsworth Rd, Gillingham ME7 5DS, 01634 324004 (home) jackie.davidson@canterbury-cathedral.org
SECRETS OF THE FIELDS
Exhibition of Archaeology from South Ashford
16 November 2013, 10am - 4pm
Singleton Environment Centre, Singleton, Ashford TN23 5LW
Recent discoveries made by archaeological units, from Iron Age sanctuary, Roman town and fortlet to WWII sites.
Further information: Wendy Rogers 01622 221540 or wendy.rogers@kent.gov.uk
TUITION IN PALAEOGRAPHY AND LATIN
English and Latin palaeography and Latin language (medieval or classical) classes.
Six sessions at Canterbury Cathedral Archives in November and December 2013.
Tutor - Dr David Wright, London-trained classicist and palaeographer.
Classes will comprise friendly workshops with much practical experience, using material from about 1500 to 1700. There will also be a one-day introduction to palaeography at the Medway Archives on Wednesday 30 October. Please contact Dr David Wright for more information: davidestkent@gmail.com. More details about the classes at www.drdavidwright.co.uk
EXPLORING KENT TOWNS AND CITIES
Five-week course starting on 28 January 2014
Canterbury Christ Church University
Tutor - Dr Gill Draper.
Details by email: canterbury.ac.uk/community-arts-education/short-courses/spring-2014 or from April Boyle, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, CT1 1QU; telephone 01227 863451 (9.30-2.30).