Early in De laude Cestrie, Lucian casually remarks plerumque quod nec civis attendit, peregrinus appendit (‘often a stranger ponders what a citizen does not even consider’). And so it was with this visit. I was lucky enough to be showing a visitor round the city, and her fresh eyes discerned new questions.

Naturally my Lucian-lite tour took in the churches (St Peter’s, St Michael’s, St Werburgh’s, St John’s) and the walls. My obdurate visitor persisted in asking at every stage “so what was in the space between them?”. This is what I usually call a ‘difficult’ question (i. e. one I can’t answer), but the fact that I couldn’t answer it satisfactorily was itself revelatory. I’d become so attuned to Lucian’s ecclesiastical topography that I’d forgotten, to a certain extent, that Chester was not just a religious space, but also a commercial, residential and social environment.

A further surprise was how big the intra-mural area of Chester is. I wrote an article last summer that discussed a day Lucian describes in which he walked from St Werburgh’s to St Michael’s to hear mass,  to St John’s to pray, then on to the castle to conduct some abbey business. The factor I now recognise I neglected to consider is the time this would have taken Lucian; these locations are a significant distance apart. Lucian’s progress between them could have taken two or three hours, a rate of progress any nineteenth-century flâneur would regard with pride.

My experience, and Lucian’s remark, contain a broader lesson, I think; the lesson that we, as academic citizens, must look to share our work with anyone interested. Strangers can pose and answer important questions which are all to easy to neglect. Those hostile to the idea of ‘impact’ would do well to ask not what they can do for the public, but what the public can do for them.

Fecunde unum debriat quod alteri de facili profluebat (‘What readily flows forth from one, completely intoxicates another’). So Lucian remarks just before the words I have been discussing here. This remark seems just as true, and for that reason I must thank all the peregrini who came to the Festival last August, and particularly the peregrina who accompanied me on Friday. I am ‘completely intoxicated’ (or as we would now say, extremely grateful).

We’re currently working with the Grosvenor Museum Chester, and other partners in Chester itself, to look at ways in which we could share our project research with the local community and visitors to the city. We’re hoping to apply for funding to make this possible and have several meetings coming up to discuss ideas. Watch this space for news as our plans take shape!

On a separate note, we’ve just found out that the ‘Mapping Medieval Chester’ project will be featuring in an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) report for government and other stakeholders entitled ‘Changing the World: the impact of the arts and humanities’. We’re really pleased to be included in a report which shows the value that this kind of research can have both within and beyond academia. Who knows – perhaps Peter Mandelson will soon be reading about Lucian and Henry Bradshaw over his morning cup of coffee…

Fancy a taste of medieval festive fun? Then Chester Cathedral is definitely the place to be on Saturday, 5 December.

The Cathedral’s Chapter House will offer a choice of Christmas fayre, herbs and spices, that figured on menus of the Middle Ages against the background of carols. Musical accompaniment will be played on instruments of the period like the gemshorn, rauschpfeife and timbrell. Visitors will also have the chance to revel in the Yuletide atmosphere of past centuries by joining in the dancing, Mummers’ Plays and story-telling. There will also be a chance make beeswax candles – once brought as offerings to the shrine of  St Werburgh, or examine the false religious relics being offered by the  Pardoner - a medieval figure purporting to sell papal pardons or indulgences.

A Medieval Christmas – an opportunity to meet and discover some of the contemporary characters and traditions of the period from 10.30am to 4pm.

Admission is free. The event has been organised jointly by Chester Cathedral and the Cheshire West Museums Service.

One topic which came up repeatedly in our discussion was the idea that Chester needs to do more to celebrate and promote its medieval heritage – in comparison with the huge emphasis it currently places on its Roman history.  As various members of our project team have commented in the past: every time we’re in Chester we bump into a Roman centurion! It would be great if the wonderful, rich medieval heritage of the city had more of a visible presence in the city’s culture and tourism programmes. It was certainly very encouraging to hear the enthusiasm of those present at the lecture for all things medieval Chester!

I (shamelessly) used my lecture as another opportunity to urge people to take photos of medieval locations in Chester today for our website. It’s very easy – you can find full details below in the post ‘Mapping Medieval Chester needs you!’. If you have a look at our maps, they’ll give you an idea of some of the sites you could photograph (including St Werburgh’s, St John’s, the walls and gates, the Rows etc etc) and we’re very keen to have several different perspectives on each location. After all, our project seeks to explore how different people represent the urban space around them differently.

Thank you to the Chester Archaeological Society for the invitation to speak, and to everyone who came along on Wednesday.

One of the real surprises of the literary tour for me was to learn that the local pronunciation of the ‘Cestrian’ is ‘Sestrian’. Lucian calls the locals ‘Cestrenses’. My wonderful Welsh Latin teacher, the inimitable DBE, so hammered into my mind that Latin [c] is always hard, that I had never considered the possibility that it would be pronounced anything other than ‘Cestrian’. Nonetheless, the OED gives the pronunciation ‘Sestrian’. During the launch of the website in the Grosvenor Museum, we had a very interesting question which again picked up my pronunciation and suggested that the word is pronounced ‘Sestrian’ on analogy with places like Leicester and Worcester. The second element in these place names is Old English ‘ceaster’ which would have been pronounced with a ‘ch’, hence ‘cheaster’ (and whence the modern name ‘Chester’). We don’t know a great deal about medieval Latin pronunctiation, but it seems likely ‘Cestrenses’ was actually pronounced ‘Chestrenses’… Please do comment if you know why it’s pronounced ‘Sestrian’!

I’d like to close by thanking Sue Hughes of the Grosvenor Museum for all her work in organising the day and making it such a success, as well as all the Cestrians / Sestians / Chestrians who turned out and showed such enthusiasm for our project. Thank you!

The medieval city tour in progress

I’m now back in Swansea after a fantastic weekend in Chester for the Mapping Medieval Chester Festival, organised in partnership with the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. It was a wonderful event, with activities across the city, all inspired by our project research. Our project team enjoyed taking part in various aspects of the day, and meeting local people from Chester and the surrounding area, many of whom had their own particular knowledge of the city and its history to share with us.

Saturday’s Festival included a wide variety of activities and events: displays and special interactive exhibitions at the Grosvenor Museum, Living History at St John’s Church, medieval tours of the cathedral and special access to the medieval Water Tower, a literary tour of the city based on medieval texts, calligraphy workshops for adults and children, a presentation on the project website and opportunities to look at local history resources in the library. We’re hugely grateful to the Grosvenor Museum (and Sue Hughes especially) for organising the whole day, and to St John’s Church, Chester Cathedral, Chester Library and the Chester Archives for hosting and contributing to events. Please read on for a report on the day and some photos…

Mark reads some Lucian in the medieval marketplace

For the Mapping Medieval Chester project team, our day began with the ‘Literary Tour’ of Chester. We led a group of over 20 people through the centre of the city, stopping to read excerpts from the medieval texts edited as part of our research project. It was great to experience the texts in the locations which they described: for example, Lucian’s account of the marketplace at the centre of the city, Bradshaw’s story of Werburgh’s intervention against attackers at the Northgate, and (outside a local pub), a slightly less flattering Welsh perspective on Chester beer… Helen very bravely read Lewys Glyn Cothi’s ‘Satire on the Men of Chester’ – a rather defamatory and pretty colourful piece – but I’m pleased to say there was no retaliation from the locals! My favourite moment of the tours was up on the wall above the Northgate, when, in response to a request, Mark read a section of the Lucian in the original language. Several other walkers passed our group – all looking very impressed. We must have looked like the most learned tour group in Chester – hearing all about the city in medieval Latin…! It was such a pleasure to talk to the visitors in our tour group, who contributed to some very lively discussion about the textual sources and our knowledge of the medieval city.

Helen bravely reads the 'Satire on the Men of Chester'

 After the literary tours, we headed to St John’s Church to see meet the ‘medieval pilgrims’ who were busy talking to visitors there. Rev David Chesters had made a super model of the medieval reliquary which supposedly housed part of the true cross (an important feature in the Welsh poems), which was in pride of place on the altar. As we left, a couple of visitors were trying their best to get a noise out of Tom’s medieval bagpipes…

Helen, Mark and Catherine meet medieval pilgrims at St John's

Back at the Grosvenor Museum, all of us (Helen, Mark, Keith and Catherine, introduced by Liz Royles, the Keeper of Early History) joined together to give a presentation in the lecture theatre on the project digital resources and the research which led to them. We had a great audience of nearly fifty people, and our talk was followed by a really interesting question and answer session. Again, many people present clearly had a lot of expertise of their own, as well as those who were discovering medieval Chester for the first time. Several people remarked on how under-represented and under-sold the medieval heritage of Chester is, in comparison with all the emphasis on its Roman history. We definitely agree, and hope that we’ll be able to do more in the future to promote the amazingly rich medieval heritage of the city.

Presentation at the Grosvenor Museum: Mark, Helen, Keith and Catherine

 Before leaving for an end-of-project meeting, our team stopped by the museum galleries, where there was a great ‘hands on’ exhibition of medieval artefacts, as well as some wonderful documents loaned by the Chester Archives (with experts on hand to explain them). The gallery was really bustling and everyone, like us, was clearly enjoying the opportunity to handle original medieval objects.

Project displays at the Grosvenor Museum

Today, looking at our Mapping Medieval Chester group on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/1204980@N21/) I can see that some of Saturday’s visitors have already uploaded their photos of medieval sites in Chester today. They’re fantastic and just what we hoped for. Our project focuses on subjective ‘mappings’ – and these photos show really well how every perspective on the city is different and reflects our own interests and experiences. Please do add your own!

The medieval literary tour team on the walls at Northgate

More photos of the Festival will be arriving later this week, from the professional photographer booked by the museum. I’ll post some more images here then. We’re delighted that so many people were involved in the event, and we had a great time. Thanks again to everyone who was involved.

Be part of our website – add your photos to the map!

The interactive digital map at www.medievalchester.ac.uk will soon include a layer of photos of medieval locations in Chester today. We need your help to do this!

How to help:

1. Take digital photos of medieval locations in Chester which are on our map (e.g. St Werburgh’s, St John’s, the city walls, the gates etc.)
2. Upload them on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1204980@N21/ (Mapping Medieval Chester Group)
3. Remember to add a tag for each photo, identifying the subject – this is important
4. We’ll do the rest – your photos will be added to the map in the near future and we’ll let you know!

 Your photos will provide an integral dimension to the map, allowing our users all over the world to see Chester sites for themselves, and enabling you to include your own perspectives on the city. Thank you!

Minstrel’s Court Event

A successful Minstrels’ Court helped celebrate medieval Chester and publicise the Mapping Medieval Chester Festival on 29 August 2009.  ‘Medieval’ Musicians were presented with their licences to play by Reverend Chesters and are now safe from being arrested as vagabonds for another year.

Musician Richard York demonstrated a wide variety of Medieval instruments and allowed the public to have a go.  The 1265 group from the Midlands had volunteered to help with the day and gave a fantastic demonstration of arming a knight, whilst the women demonstrated textile and braid making and there was even a Medieval leper!  Tom Hughes did some Cheshire story-telling about the dragon of Moston and St Werburgh.  There were also displays about pilgrimage, relics and the church.

The Minstrels were joined by local musicians in a Medieval ‘jamming’ session and even the local Morris dancers got wind that there was something going on and joined in as well.

The Minstrels’ Court will be re-created again in June 2010, when we will discover how many of the musicians are granted licences this time!