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.


Wednesday 27 January 2021

The Lost Garden of Coleshill Manor


As the appalling HS2 project continues to ravage its way across the southern Midlands destroying whatever lies in the path of this vainglorious behemoth, designed at a still far from clear cost to shave a few minutes off train journeys from Birmingham and further north to London, its advance guard does reveal evidence of a less hurried and more sedate age. 

The Mail Online - which is frequently an informative source for archaeological discoveries - has a report about the excavation of the site of Coleshill Manor and, probably more importantly, its garden. The site is just to the east of Birmingham. What has been revealed is a hitherto unknown garden plan from about 1600 which adjoined the house on its octagonal moated site. 




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