SIR THOMAS BURGH c.1430-1496 AND GAINSBOROUGH OLD HALL

Reblogged from A Medieval Potpourri @sparkypus.com Gainsborough Old Hall.  Photo thanks to Graham Oxford Photography Street. Sir Thomas Burgh was the builder  of Gainsborough Hall, as seen today,  after inheriting the original building in 1455 on the death of his mother Elizabeth Percy,  when he was 24 years old.  The building and enhancement, which took…

More news on King John’s treasure

Here is a report from the Newark Advertiser about the baggage train lost near The Wash at the end of the king‘s life. Raymond Kosschuk has now isolated a small area of Sutton Bridge and thinks that he has already found some small pieces of the treasure, as shown above. Using bespoke equipment to read…

There’s been another Murrrrdah…!

Maud Neville of Scotton, Lincolnshire, was the daughter and heiress of Sir Philip** Neville and Sarah (birth name unknown) and was born in about 1360. She married Sir William Cantilupe, a substantial landowner and member of a family which, historically, been of considerable importance in England. ** Some sources say Ralph. Take your pick. Allegedly,…

A medieval mystery in Stamford….

I love it when local historians delve into their area’s past and start unearthing curious things. This is what retired academic Linda Ball has done for the part of Stamford in which she grew up. St Paul’s Street, Stamford, was on the site of what was once either Greyfriars or Whitefriars. The medieval mystery of…

The Bacon family and the Quaplode boar….

As is natural, Ricardians are always interested in heraldry depicting boars. And one might expect a family named Bacon to sport a member of the family Suidae on its escutcheon. However, it seems the connection between Bacon and boars is not at the root of it:- “….You may think that the boar is a pun…

Gainsborough Old Hall was built in 1460…therefore it HAS to be Tudor….!

Well, if Richard III was entertained there, Gainsborough Old Hall can’t have always been Tudor! This article even says as much in a heading: “….Lincolnshire house, built in 1460, has been a theatre, preaching house, pub and masonic temple….” Excuse me, but 1460 was Plantagenet, not Tudor. Maybe it’s a Guardian error. (Perish the thought.)…

THE LOST CHAPEL OF THE PRINCE BISHOPS

Once upon a time, in the 13th century, in the grounds of Auckland Castle, there stood a mighty northern chapel that was almost as large as St George’s at Windsor and bigger than St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster. The Prince-Archbishop Antony Bek was its founder, a man so powerful it was said by some that…

‘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…

A HATPIN & A MYSTERY

Edward IV’S Hatpin?   A fabulous archaeological find has turned up in a Lincolnshire fields–a beautiful golden hatpin shaped like the Sun in Splendour and bearing an intact amethyst stone. An extremely high status object without a doubt and estimated at £15,000. But whose was it? Unfortunately the article accompanying the find is full of…

Richard’s Christmas Celebrations…and the Croyland Chronicle….

This article is about Richard, Christmas celebrations, and the Croyland Chronicle. I really enjoyed reading it.  It seems Richard’s lavish hospitality met with sour po-faced disapproval! No doubt, if he’d kept a sparse Christmas, he’d have been criticised for not giving himself up to the joy of Christ’s birth. https://meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/wars-of-the-roses-blog/christmas-1484-with-richard-iii