Just a very short post: today I received the total numbers for the people who participated in our Mapping Medieval Chester Festival in Chester at the end of August. The grand total is 1172 (very exact!). It’s brilliant news that so many people came along to the day’s events, and I think it really shows the level of local interest in Chester’s medieval heritage. Thanks to everyone for coming!
We’ve just received some more photos of the Mapping Medieval Chester Festival, taken by the professional photographer employed by the Grosvenor Museum. Some of my favourite pictures are those showing families enjoying the events and activities. For privacy / child protection reasons we can’t put those up here, but these new pictures give a glimpse into many different aspects of the day. It’s particularly nice for me to see what was going on at locations I didn’t manage to get to myself – there was just so much happening! Thanks again to the Grosvenor Museum and all those involved.
The project team handle medieval artefacts in the special exhibition at the Grosvenor Museum
It’s now a week since the Mapping Medieval Chester Festival, a week in which I’ve been reflecting on what I learned. It really was a fantastic event and I was very touched by how enthusiastic Cestrians were to hear about some of their forebears. (more…)
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.
As well as our academic colloquium on the theme of ‘Mapping the Medieval City’, we’ll also be holding a public event in Chester. The ‘Mapping Medieval Chester Festival’, organised in partnership with the Grosvenor Museum, will be held on Saturday 29 August 2009 (Bank Holiday weekend). The Festival will celebrate the launch of the project website, and will include a wide variety of interesting and fun activities designed to bring the medieval city to life. We’re hoping to involve lots of local people, as well as visitors to the city.
Come and join us and discover more about Chester in the medieval period! You can come along to a calligraphy workshop and learn to write Gothic script, meet medieval pilgrims at St John’s Church, take a medieval-focused tour of the cathedral, explore the medieval Water Tower, join a literary tour of the city with project researchers – and much more! Some activities require booking in advance.
You can find further information about the day here. We hope to see you there!
