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, 19 January 2026

Revealing Roman Bedford


The BBC News website recently reported on a long- running excavation in Bedford, which has revealed the remains of what was clearly a very substantial Roman villa. Hitherto, there had been little evidence of Roman occupation in the region and the discoveries are helping to rewrite the history of what is now Bedford.


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