The History of Southwark….

When it comes to medieval history, London and its environs always figure prominently. Well, it’s inevitable, since the king and Parliament were usually there. Not always, I grant you. Anyway, I have come upon a very interesting and informative site about Southwark. A little ramble around it will certainly unearth something of interest to you.…

The mythical animal with a deadly rear end. . .!

While composing the article entitled Wonderful wall paintings under the whitewash. . . I could not help but notice the reference to a mythical bull-like creature called the Bonnacon. It isn’t one of the beasts that we usual come across, such as gryphons, the phoenix, dragons and so on, but once you learn of its…

Latin inscriptions are a mystery to me….

  My mastery of Latin was gleaned at the age of 13, when for one dizzying year I was elevated to the “A” stream of King Edward VI’s Grammar School for Girls, Louth, Lincolnshire. Then they realized I wasn’t that bright, after all, and down I went! The result of this demotion is that I…

May something wonderful be discovered at the Scarborough Castle dig….!

“….English Civil War musket balls, Roman pottery and items from the 2nd Century AD are among objects unearthed during a rare dig at a Yorkshire landmark. [Scarborough Castle] “….Teams discovered the find during a six-week operation on land at Scarborough Castle, which was twice besieged in the 17th Century civil war. “….The last major excavations…

Warwick, the “Kingmaker” in Dartmouth….

  The following quote is an interesting glimpse of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the “Kingmaker”, in the spring of 1470, when it was prudent for him to leave England for a while. It is taken from Devon, its Moorlands, Streams & Coasts by Lady Rosalind Northcote, published 1908 by Chatto & Windus.. See here…

Has one of the Kingmaker’s pirate ships been found in Newport….?

Last night I watched (on PBS America) a BBC2 Timewatch episode entitled The Mysteries of the Medieval Ship. It concerned the discovery, in June 2002, of a foundered/scuttled medieval vessel of some size, buried in the oozing mud of the Severn Sea – well, the oozing mud of the River Usk, at Newport, to be…

THE HOLY HAND OF ST JAMES FROM READING ABBEY

A fascinating article  from the Royal Berkshire History site on the preserved hand of St James, which was discovered in 1796 walled up in the ruins of Reading Abbey and now resides in the Catholic Church in Marlow.  Recently,this medieval artefact has undergone scientific analysis with interesting results. Reading Abbey was a highly important place…

Have they or have they not discovered Amelia Earhart’s bones. . .?

Why does this article make me think of That Urn?  

13 of the biggest mysteries of the British monarchy….

Oh, dear. The fate of Edward V (if he ever was a king) tops the Reader’s Digest list of 13 of the ‘Biggest Mysteries Surrounding the British Royal Family’. Hm. As the following quoted paragraph is a sample of the article’s accuracy, I won’t be bothering to read the other twelve. “….In April 1483, King…

THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY NUN

Below is a rather amusing recently discovered account of a young nun in York called Joan of Leeds, who escaped her convent in the early 15th c by pretending to be dead and leaving a fake body in her  place. Many monks and nuns, especially those who had entered a monastic house at a very…