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.


Monday 17 August 2020

Relics of recusant life at Oxburgh Hall


Restoration work at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk has revealed a fascinating yield of papers and cloth, and all manner of things hidden or mislaid below attic floorboards from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Whilst such funds are made during repairs of historic buildings what makes this collection of interest is its quantity and that it dates from the recusant era when the Bedingfield family, builders and owners of the Hall, were penalised for their fidelity to Catholicism. The finds include fragments of medieval prayer books and a copy of one of the works of St John Fisher.

The National Trust, who now own Oxburgh, have been publicising these discoveries and their are reports today from the MailOnline at Historic family's hidden Catholic papers found in National Trust home and from the Guardian at Restoration of Norfolk hall uncovers Tudor and Elizabethan finds


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