Mapping Medieval Chester

We’ve received some enquiries via our Mailing List about the future of this project and ways in which people can get involved. We’re really grateful for your continued interest and hope to keep in touch via the Blog about news, developments and future activities.

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…

If you’re in Chester this weekend, there’s a great event at the Cathedral, involving our friends from the Grosvenor Museum. I’ve copied the notice here. It sounds really festive and fun – I wish I could go!

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.

This week I was in Chester at the invitation of the Chester Archaeological Society, to give a presentation on our project research. I spoke in the beautiful environment of the Grosvenor Museum lecture theatre, and there was a really strong audience present to hear about our work on mapping the medieval city. It was particularly good to have so many interesting and thoughtful questions, both in the formal Q&A after my talk and whilst chatting over tea and biscuits afterwards.

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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…

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Sue Hughes at the Grosvenor Museum has just sent us the following report on the recent ‘Minstrels’ Court’ event – it sounds like great fun. If living history and interactive events capture your imagination, then please do come and join us at the forthcoming ‘Mapping Medieval Chester Festival’ (Saturday 29th August). For further information see the earlier blog post or contact the Grosvenor Museum.

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.

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Sue Hughes at the Grosvenor Museum has sent us this information about an exciting event in Chester. It sounds like a great opportunity to experience a bit of medieval popular culture! The event will include living history, music, storytelling and dance, and plenty of opportunities to join in. (more…)

An important dimension of the Mapping Medieval Chester project is our partnership with the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. Sue Hughes, the Museum and Education Manager, is one of the members of our project Advisory Committee, and we’re benefiting from the museum’s enormous store of resources and expertise relating to Chester local history. We’re hoping that our project will help to develop and extend our understanding of the medieval city and the ways in which its different cultural communities imagined and represented the urban landscape around them. We’ll be working together with the Grosvenor Museum to run our public workshop in Chester in summer 2009, and are already planning lots of exciting activities (for confirmation of the date and full details, please join our mailing list and/or keep an eye on this blog!).

In the meantime, if you’re local to Chester or visiting the area, please take a look at the ‘Mapping Medieval Chester’ display, put together by Sue Hughes and her team, in the Grosvenor Museum. We hope this will give you a small taster of the project and the historical period we’re exploring.