Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday, 14 May 2020

Medieval Vestments in Lincolnshire


Allan Barton has an interesting contribution from two years ago on the Liturgical Arts Journal site about some medieval orphreys that, mounted on modern vestments, are still in use at the Catholic church at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. They are associated with the recusant centre at Sixhills, the site of a medieval Gilbertine priory, and with the long established Lincolnshire family the Heneages of Hainton.

This caught my interest for several reasons. Not only are they rare survivals still in use of late medieval embroidery, but they are associated with that survival of Catholic life through the recusant era and the fidelity of a gentry family. Furthermore my maternal ancestry has strong links to Lincolnshire, and indeed my grandparents first married home was in Market Rasen. The history and landscape of this surprisingly little known county, and its marvellous wealth of medieval churches, is one of my abiding enthusiasms.

The article, illustrated with photographs by the excellent Rev Gordon Plumb can be seen at The Pre-Reformation Vestments of Sixhills

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)