Torquay and Torre Abbey

Thanks to our friends at the Legendary Ten Seconds, I had heard of Torre Abbey but didn’t realise that it was open to visit, as convenient or spectacular as it is. Half of the original building remains, on three floors including an art exhibition, whilst the other half (including the church) is a ruin, complete…

Are murder pennies exactly what their name says….?

  Does anyone know what a “murder penny or pennies” is/was? I have come upon the phrase in the Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II, 1383, and although I’ve looked around, I can’t find any hint of what these pennies might be. All I get are modern detective novels! Help? Here’s the relevant part of…

Book Review: How to Survive in Medieval England by Toni Mount

This useful guide is a vital accessory when you next visit the Middle Ages. How will you manage without your mobile phone, internet or social media? When transport means walking or, for the better off, horse-back, how will you know where you are or where to go? Where will you live and what should you…

The forensic genealogy that identified Richard III moves on apace

Almost six years ago now, it was confirmed that the remains identified under a car park in Leicester were those of Richard III. One of the principal components of this identification was that the remains shared the mtDNA of Michael Ibsen, a maternal line relative traced by John Ashdown-Hill, as was Wendy Duldig by the…

The Franchise Affair

Josephine Tey is renowned for writing contemporary novels that refer to older mysteries. The Daughter of Time was unquestionably about an injured police Inspector learning about Richard III and the “Princes” – a device borrowed by Colin Dexter. Brat Farrar was about a missing boy who seems to reappear but whose identity is doubted, for…

‘I saw something shining…’ Metal Detecting Finds..

The Staffordshire Hoard.  One of the biggest hoard of Anglo Saxon artefacts every discovered.  See more of this hoard below.. A story has broken of four ‘metal detectorists’ who have been convicted of stealing a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins and jewellery worth 3 million pounds, most of which is, tragically, still missing.  You can tell from the pictures of…

The Castle of Leicester and St Mary De Castro

Leicester Castle   Since 2015 going to Leicester is the equivalent of going to visit the tomb of the last Plantagenet King who died in battle: Richard III. Everything there speaks of him from the Visitor Centre named after him, to The Last Plantagenet Pub not to mention attractions and shops that display his portrait…

RAM RAIDERS REVEAL TUDOR/MEDIEVAL HOUSE

A group of ram-raiders in Dedham, Essex drove their vehicle into the facade of a plain, old Co-Op, causing considerable damage–and revealing behind the 1950’s front a timbered-framed merchant’s house built around 1520, with earlier medieval features such as a hearth and a large cauldron blocking the doorway, possibly as a talisman to ward off…

Murder and mayhem in medieval London…

UPDATED POST ON sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/05/22/murder-and-mayhem-in-medieval-london/ Here is a link to an interesting map and article on the murder hotspots of medieval London.  Click on a dot and details pop up of that particular murder. Most of the culprits either just simply disappeared pronto or skedaddled into sanctuary and  frustratingly the outcomes are…

Dick Turpin and his contemporaries

Inspired by this Kindred Spirits post, I began by reflecting on the fact that Richard (Dick) Turpin and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury and thus Richard III’s uncle, were both executed in York. Turpin had relatively few connections in the north, but many with Essex, from his education near Saffron Walden to his nefarious activities…