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.


Sunday 22 January 2023

The discovery of Coleshill Manor


The relentless progress of the appalling HS2 project - why do we not have politicians with the guts to cancel this wickedly expensive environmental disaster? - has one mitigating benefit in the excavation of archaeological sites which lie in its path. 

The latest discovery to be publicised is the site of Coleshill Manor, a medieval moated fortified house with both the remains of a handsome gatehouse and evidence of some of the earliest military action in the English Civil War.

The BBC News website reports about the excavation in an illustrated piece at Evidence of early Civil War fight found by HS2 dig

The Guardian has a useful report about the site at ‘Better than finding gold’: towers’ remains may rewrite history of English civil war and the Oxford Mail also has a shorter piece about it at HS2 archaeologists find scars of early Civil War skirmish



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