This blog (which is fifteen years old) has been neglected for quite a while, primarily as I have been busy doing lots of other things. It is my intention to leave it that way and no longer continue to blog here. I find the WordPress format increasingly clunky, less than satisfactory, and user-friendly and from […]

Earlier this week someone who had watched one of my church tour videos on YouTube asked me how I am able to go into a church, take one look at an medieval image of a saint and know who that saint is – even when the saint’s name is not present and whether I would […]

I have recently launched a new Youtube site, with videos on all the same things that I write about on this blog. Do pop along and have a look. Share this: Twitter Facebook More LinkedIn Reddit Tumblr Pinterest Pocket Telegram WhatsApp Skype Email Like this: Like Loading… Related

One of my great passions is early printing and bookbinding and in this post I am going to indulge that passion as I digress again into the wonderful world of Renaissance bibliography and take a look at the frontispiece of this splendid early printed book.   Subscribe to get access Read more of this content […]

In my last post I wrote a little about the origin and genius of Caxton’s English translation of the Golden Legend, with its woodcuts by Wynkyn de Worde. The article was illustrated with woodcuts in the copy of this work in the library of the University of Wales Trinity St David in Lampeter. In this […]

William Caxton was a London merchant who in his middle age decided to invest in new technology and diversify his business.  Having lived and worked on the continent in the 1450s and 60s, he had seen first-hand the products that were coming off the newly establishing printing presses and with an entrepreneurs eye he saw […]

The village of Deerhurst on the banks of the river Severn in Gloucestershire is one of the most instructive places to study Anglo-Saxon church architecture. The fabric of the parish church, dedicated to the Mother of God, is in large part that of a Saxon ‘minster’ church built on an important royal vill in the […]

In 1515 Sir Thomas More left England was sent as part of an embassy to the court of the future Emperor Charles V. For over twenty years the tax imposed on English exports to the Spanish Netherlands was growing year on year and the embassy was sent to negotiate a new trade agreement with the […]

The ideology and iconoclasm of the Reformation did a very thorough job of destroying the cult of saints and the shrines and relics associated with them from medieval Britain. There are now only a couple of places in England and Wales where there is an untouched medieval shrine, complete with the relics of the medieval […]

Sitting above the town of Glastonbury and presiding over the Somerset levels, is a large hill of clay and blue Lias called Glastonbury Tor. It is surreal vision to see this hill appearing in the flatlands and it is no surprise that throughout history it has been a place of both real and mythical importance. […]

At the peak of it’s power and prestige the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia stretched from the Humber to the Thames and from the Trent to the border of Wales. The kingdom was converted to Christianity in the second half of the seventh century after King Peada was baptised by Finan of Lindisfarne at Repton, one […]

My son and I have recently been on a week long pilgrimage across Britain to a number shrines and holy places. The purpose of the journey was pretty straightforward. Although ordained as an Anglican priest for over a decade, for much of that time I have suffered periods of ill health as I have tried […]