Here at Medievalists.net we are working towards bringing out a new look to the website, and many new sections. I hope that we will bring out the new site sometime later this month, along with several new articles and other resources.
We just finalized our Video Games section, that offers news and information about games set in the Middle Ages, or otherwise medieval-themed. We feature two new games - Assassin's Creed and Bladestorm.
You can find this page at www.medievalists.net/games/
Let us know if you like the site design, and any other suggestions you might have.
Thanks again for all your patience.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Medieval copy of Roman map unveiled
Ancient Roman road map linking Spain to India unveiled
29 November 2007
Asian News International
An ancient map which shows the network of main Roman roads from Spain to India has been unveiled at the Austrian National Library. This document is the only surviving copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire, and is normally never shown to the public.
Known as the Tabula Peutingeriana, this parchment scroll is almost seven meters long, is extremely fragile, and reacts badly to daylight. It has been estimated that the map probably dates from the late 12th or the early 13th century and was made in Southern Germany or Austria.
At the centre of the Tabula Peutingeriana is Rome. The city, represented by a crowned figure on a throne, has numerous roads leading to and from the metropolis. Some, such as the Via Appia and the Via Aurelia, still exist today.
The features of this map are different from other maps of the same time. For example, both the landmass and the seas have been stretched and flattened. The Mediterranean has been reduced to a thin strip of water, more like a river than a sea.
Another unique feature is that instead of being oriented from north to south, the map, which is only 34 centimetres wide, works from west to east.
But despite its unfamiliar appearance, Andreas Fingernagel, the director of the Department of Manuscripts, Autographs and Closed Collections at the Austrian National Library, says that it is an intensely practical document, more like a plan of the London Underground than a map.
"The red lines are the main roads. Every so often there is a little hook along the red lines which represents a rest stop - and the distance between hooks was one day's travel," BBC quoted Fingernagel as saying. "Every so often there is a pictogram of a building to show you that there was a hotel or a spa where you could stay," he added.
Some of the buildings have large courtyards - a sign of more luxurious accommodation. "It was meant for the civil servants of the late Roman Empire, for couriers and travellers," said Fingernagel.
But Fingernagel says it is very different from other medieval maps and is clearly a copy of a much earlier document, dating back to the 5th century.
"In maps from the 12th or 13th century, Jerusalem, not Rome, was in the centre," said Fingernagel. "The interests of map makers in the Middle Ages were quite different. They don't show roads or rest stations, instead they show the holy places of Christianity," he added.
The map contains other details which indicate the original probably dates back to the 5th century, including the city of Aquileia, which was destroyed in 452 by the Huns. "It's unique," said Fingernagel. "It's the only map of the ancient world - although it's a copy - that gives us an impression of how things used to be," he added.
29 November 2007
Asian News International
An ancient map which shows the network of main Roman roads from Spain to India has been unveiled at the Austrian National Library. This document is the only surviving copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire, and is normally never shown to the public.
Known as the Tabula Peutingeriana, this parchment scroll is almost seven meters long, is extremely fragile, and reacts badly to daylight. It has been estimated that the map probably dates from the late 12th or the early 13th century and was made in Southern Germany or Austria.
At the centre of the Tabula Peutingeriana is Rome. The city, represented by a crowned figure on a throne, has numerous roads leading to and from the metropolis. Some, such as the Via Appia and the Via Aurelia, still exist today.
The features of this map are different from other maps of the same time. For example, both the landmass and the seas have been stretched and flattened. The Mediterranean has been reduced to a thin strip of water, more like a river than a sea.
Another unique feature is that instead of being oriented from north to south, the map, which is only 34 centimetres wide, works from west to east.
But despite its unfamiliar appearance, Andreas Fingernagel, the director of the Department of Manuscripts, Autographs and Closed Collections at the Austrian National Library, says that it is an intensely practical document, more like a plan of the London Underground than a map.
"The red lines are the main roads. Every so often there is a little hook along the red lines which represents a rest stop - and the distance between hooks was one day's travel," BBC quoted Fingernagel as saying. "Every so often there is a pictogram of a building to show you that there was a hotel or a spa where you could stay," he added.
Some of the buildings have large courtyards - a sign of more luxurious accommodation. "It was meant for the civil servants of the late Roman Empire, for couriers and travellers," said Fingernagel.
But Fingernagel says it is very different from other medieval maps and is clearly a copy of a much earlier document, dating back to the 5th century.
"In maps from the 12th or 13th century, Jerusalem, not Rome, was in the centre," said Fingernagel. "The interests of map makers in the Middle Ages were quite different. They don't show roads or rest stations, instead they show the holy places of Christianity," he added.
The map contains other details which indicate the original probably dates back to the 5th century, including the city of Aquileia, which was destroyed in 452 by the Huns. "It's unique," said Fingernagel. "It's the only map of the ancient world - although it's a copy - that gives us an impression of how things used to be," he added.
Genghis Khan's burial place
Hot on the trail of Genghis Khan; Highland Park man thinks he knows where warrior is buried
Jennifer Saranow
23 November 2007
Chicago Sun-Times
With as many as 1,500 active satellites orbiting the Earth and the human population approaching seven billion, you'd think that everything of value on the planet would have been discovered by now.
But some of the world's most famous shipwrecks, tombs and other historical relics, from the Holy Grail of medieval lore, to the tomb of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, to the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane, remain unaccounted for.
A growing army of historians, archeologists and wealthy treasure- hunters has been raising huge sums and enlisting new technology in a bid to find these and other treasures. Among them is Maury Kravitz, a 75-year-old semiretired attorney and commodities trader from Highland Park. Kravitz has spent 15 years and $3 million to $4 million searching north-central Mongolia for the tomb of Genghis Khan -- so far without luck.
Nobody knows where Genghis Khan is buried. While historical sources describe the great warrior dying on a campaign in northwestern China in 1227, they don't reveal his final resting place. In 1237, a Chinese ambassador claimed to have seen the great conqueror's burial spot, and in 1370 a Chinese writer named the location as "Kirelgu." But the mystery remains.
After reading a book 55 years ago about the Mongol conqueror, Kravitz became obsessed. Fifteen years ago, he dreamed up the notion of finding the warrior's tomb. He assembled an expedition, raised $1.5 million, won the approval of the Mongolian government (anything found would go to Mongolia) and in 2001, started focusing on an area local legends had identified as Khan's burial spot. There, the team found a burial ground surrounded by a two-mile stone wall.
Over two summer expeditions at that spot, which were plagued by biting flies and snakes, Kravitz and his team dug up skeletons, carbon-dated a coffin to the Mongol period and found pottery dating from an earlier period. By 2003, further explorations were put on hold when money ran out and Kravitz started suffering health problems.
"My considered opinion is: Khan is buried there," says Kravitz, who is feeling better and hopes to raise $250,000 to be back by as early as next summer with some "sophisticated metal-detecting equipment."
One thing all historians agree on: it is unlikely that Khan was buried with any treasure. Some believe the Mongols were just beginning to adopt the practice of burial in 1227 and didn't believe the body needed material things after death.
Jennifer Saranow
23 November 2007
Chicago Sun-Times
With as many as 1,500 active satellites orbiting the Earth and the human population approaching seven billion, you'd think that everything of value on the planet would have been discovered by now.
But some of the world's most famous shipwrecks, tombs and other historical relics, from the Holy Grail of medieval lore, to the tomb of Egyptian queen Nefertiti, to the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane, remain unaccounted for.
A growing army of historians, archeologists and wealthy treasure- hunters has been raising huge sums and enlisting new technology in a bid to find these and other treasures. Among them is Maury Kravitz, a 75-year-old semiretired attorney and commodities trader from Highland Park. Kravitz has spent 15 years and $3 million to $4 million searching north-central Mongolia for the tomb of Genghis Khan -- so far without luck.
Nobody knows where Genghis Khan is buried. While historical sources describe the great warrior dying on a campaign in northwestern China in 1227, they don't reveal his final resting place. In 1237, a Chinese ambassador claimed to have seen the great conqueror's burial spot, and in 1370 a Chinese writer named the location as "Kirelgu." But the mystery remains.
After reading a book 55 years ago about the Mongol conqueror, Kravitz became obsessed. Fifteen years ago, he dreamed up the notion of finding the warrior's tomb. He assembled an expedition, raised $1.5 million, won the approval of the Mongolian government (anything found would go to Mongolia) and in 2001, started focusing on an area local legends had identified as Khan's burial spot. There, the team found a burial ground surrounded by a two-mile stone wall.
Over two summer expeditions at that spot, which were plagued by biting flies and snakes, Kravitz and his team dug up skeletons, carbon-dated a coffin to the Mongol period and found pottery dating from an earlier period. By 2003, further explorations were put on hold when money ran out and Kravitz started suffering health problems.
"My considered opinion is: Khan is buried there," says Kravitz, who is feeling better and hopes to raise $250,000 to be back by as early as next summer with some "sophisticated metal-detecting equipment."
One thing all historians agree on: it is unlikely that Khan was buried with any treasure. Some believe the Mongols were just beginning to adopt the practice of burial in 1227 and didn't believe the body needed material things after death.
Wakefield Cathedral announces restoration plan
Cathedral unveils restoration plan
30 November 2007
Yorkshire Post
WAKEFIELD Cathedral has unveiled multi-million pound plans to restore its former glory and make it more welcoming.
Pews are to be removed from inside the medieval building - which has the tallest spire in Yorkshire (247ft) - and the font moved in a bid to create more space, according to the draft proposals.
A glass atrium will be built to connect the cathedral to the nearby Treacy Hall, which will be refurbished to provide new meeting rooms and a café.
The lighting and audio system will be modernised so the cathedral can become a high class venue for concerts and other public gatherings.
The draft plans are going on show in the cathedral tomorrow and members of the planning team will be on hand to discuss their ideas.
Jonathan Greener, the former Archdeacon of Pontefract, who will be installed as the new dean of the cathedral next week, said: "We want to restore this beautiful and historic building to its former glory as befits the mother church in this diocese and while we realise we are a long way from Barnsley, Halifax or Todmorden, our hope is to recreate a building that is beautiful, inspiring and relevant for all the people across the region.
"We want it to become suitable for today's needs; to be able to provide a space where people of faith or no faith can come: for worship, to meet, to be helped and to be healed."
30 November 2007
Yorkshire Post
WAKEFIELD Cathedral has unveiled multi-million pound plans to restore its former glory and make it more welcoming.
Pews are to be removed from inside the medieval building - which has the tallest spire in Yorkshire (247ft) - and the font moved in a bid to create more space, according to the draft proposals.
A glass atrium will be built to connect the cathedral to the nearby Treacy Hall, which will be refurbished to provide new meeting rooms and a café.
The lighting and audio system will be modernised so the cathedral can become a high class venue for concerts and other public gatherings.
The draft plans are going on show in the cathedral tomorrow and members of the planning team will be on hand to discuss their ideas.
Jonathan Greener, the former Archdeacon of Pontefract, who will be installed as the new dean of the cathedral next week, said: "We want to restore this beautiful and historic building to its former glory as befits the mother church in this diocese and while we realise we are a long way from Barnsley, Halifax or Todmorden, our hope is to recreate a building that is beautiful, inspiring and relevant for all the people across the region.
"We want it to become suitable for today's needs; to be able to provide a space where people of faith or no faith can come: for worship, to meet, to be helped and to be healed."
Medieval silver brooch found near Stroud
Medieval brooch is treasure
30 November 2007
The Citizen
A Mediaeval silver brooch unearthed near Stroud, has officially been declared as treasure by the county coroner. The 14th Century silver-gilt brooch, was found by metal detecting enthusiast Robin Marsland in Bisley, and inspected by the British Museum.
Coroner's officer Paul Boak told an inquest at Cirencester Magistrates' Court that Mr Marsland, of Bussage found the brooch 1in below the surface by a horse-track or footpath.
"It is a silver gilt mediaeval brooch with four flowers, dating from the 13th or 14th Century."
It has been certified by British Museum experts.
30 November 2007
The Citizen
A Mediaeval silver brooch unearthed near Stroud, has officially been declared as treasure by the county coroner. The 14th Century silver-gilt brooch, was found by metal detecting enthusiast Robin Marsland in Bisley, and inspected by the British Museum.
Coroner's officer Paul Boak told an inquest at Cirencester Magistrates' Court that Mr Marsland, of Bussage found the brooch 1in below the surface by a horse-track or footpath.
"It is a silver gilt mediaeval brooch with four flowers, dating from the 13th or 14th Century."
It has been certified by British Museum experts.
Review of Gentlemen Of The Road, by Michael Chabon
A swashbuckling, medieval tale of Jews with swords
Reviewed by Helen Greenwood
1 December 2007
The Sydney Morning Herald
Gentlemen Of The Road
By Michael Chabon
Sceptre, 204pp, $32.95
MICHAEL CHABON wanted to call his latest novel Jews With Swords. The New York Times Magazine, which ran it as a 15-part serial at the beginning of this year, wouldn't have a bar of that idea. So, Chabon's weekly instalment a rollicking elephants-and-turbans adventure, became Gentlemen Of The Road.
The road of his tale, now published as a surprisingly slim volume, is the famous trade route that linked the Mediterranean and parts of Africa to China through Asia Minor. It's also a reference to the journey on which every mythological hero embarks in search of self. Chabon's story is a compact odyssey in which character and temperament are put to the test and the edge of a knife.
We are transported to the 10th century, to a kingdom that is now a region of Azerbaijan. Chabon takes us there with gentle humour, elegant flourishes and exacting historical detail as he tells the tale of a couple of rogue adventurers.
Against their better judgment, Amran, the giant Ethiopian, who carries an axe he calls the Defiler Of Your Mother, and Zelikman, the mystical Frank, whose weapon goes by the name of Lancet, allow themselves to get caught up in the struggle to return a young claimant to the throne of the Khazars.
The existence of this Turkic tribe of wild, red-haired converts to Judaism is fact not fiction. The Khazars were a powerful fulcrum balancing the empires jousting for ascendancy.
Who knew "there was a medieval empire at war with the Vikings and Byzantium that lasted for more than four centuries, that was famous all over the world at the time, and everybody was Jewish!" as Chabon put it in an interview with The Washington Post.
(Chabon played another "who knew" card in his last book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union: who knew Alaska was mooted as a Jewish homeland?)
This time, Chabon imagines a world set in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and the Caspian seas. He fills our nostrils with the scent of horse flesh, herbal poultices and fear billowing from Viking sails. There are beautiful whores, bloody battles and people who are rarely what they seem.
Chabon's fascination with hidden lives will be familiar to readers of his other works, such as The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay. In Gentlemen Of The Road, this and other recurring themes - the difficult love between fathers and sons and the tender friendship between men - aren't overt, just friendly phantoms.
You can also discern faintly the outlines of questions of identity and allegiances (to nations? kings? religions?) that appear in Chabon's other books and here waft through his narrative like smoke from the fire that keeps our characters warm at night.
There's no escaping the faith of our reluctant heroes and Chabon toys with the allegory of the wandering Jew. At times he plays into stereotypes, with Zelikman more inclined to heal than kill.
And when melancholia, guilt and conscience strike Amran and Zelikman, a modern sensibility inserts itself into the action. Try to ignore the contemporary aptness when Zelikman says, "I want nothing to do with soldiers, armies, chains of command. All the evil in the world derives from the actions of men, acting in a mass against other masses of men."
Yet, despite its tendency to introspection now and then, the book remains old-fashioned fun. Chabon loves language. He twists and turns his prose even more than the plot. His words are sumptuous. The literal reader might view using words such as "shatranj" or "sharab" or "javishgar" as self-indulgent. The more romantic will find his or her heart beating faster.
When you are not spellbound by Chabon's word play and the novel's sword play, you will remember the literary landmarks of this genre, the swashbuckling romance. For me, the towering efforts are Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers and Rider Haggard's She.
The charm of these male bodice rippers is that nothing is black and white. Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, the men and women who star in these novels are morally ambiguous. No one is above reproach. As the characters fight for a cause, they do so sometimes in the name of altruism and, more often and interestingly, because of a deep need or an immeasurable longing. In these books, revenge can be as admirable as righteousness.
You can hear Chabon's delight as he relives these tall tales in chapter titles such as "On The Observance Of The Fourth Commandment Among Horse Thieves" or "On The Substitution Of One Angel, And One Cause, For Another".
This joyous evocation of period-style drama is illustrated with period-style pen-and-ink drawings by Gary Gianni, who captures the sense of boys' own books.
My only gripe is that this "tale of adventure" is, unlike the Silk Road, too short.
Reviewed by Helen Greenwood
1 December 2007
The Sydney Morning Herald
Gentlemen Of The Road
By Michael Chabon
Sceptre, 204pp, $32.95
MICHAEL CHABON wanted to call his latest novel Jews With Swords. The New York Times Magazine, which ran it as a 15-part serial at the beginning of this year, wouldn't have a bar of that idea. So, Chabon's weekly instalment a rollicking elephants-and-turbans adventure, became Gentlemen Of The Road.
The road of his tale, now published as a surprisingly slim volume, is the famous trade route that linked the Mediterranean and parts of Africa to China through Asia Minor. It's also a reference to the journey on which every mythological hero embarks in search of self. Chabon's story is a compact odyssey in which character and temperament are put to the test and the edge of a knife.
We are transported to the 10th century, to a kingdom that is now a region of Azerbaijan. Chabon takes us there with gentle humour, elegant flourishes and exacting historical detail as he tells the tale of a couple of rogue adventurers.
Against their better judgment, Amran, the giant Ethiopian, who carries an axe he calls the Defiler Of Your Mother, and Zelikman, the mystical Frank, whose weapon goes by the name of Lancet, allow themselves to get caught up in the struggle to return a young claimant to the throne of the Khazars.
The existence of this Turkic tribe of wild, red-haired converts to Judaism is fact not fiction. The Khazars were a powerful fulcrum balancing the empires jousting for ascendancy.
Who knew "there was a medieval empire at war with the Vikings and Byzantium that lasted for more than four centuries, that was famous all over the world at the time, and everybody was Jewish!" as Chabon put it in an interview with The Washington Post.
(Chabon played another "who knew" card in his last book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union: who knew Alaska was mooted as a Jewish homeland?)
This time, Chabon imagines a world set in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and the Caspian seas. He fills our nostrils with the scent of horse flesh, herbal poultices and fear billowing from Viking sails. There are beautiful whores, bloody battles and people who are rarely what they seem.
Chabon's fascination with hidden lives will be familiar to readers of his other works, such as The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay. In Gentlemen Of The Road, this and other recurring themes - the difficult love between fathers and sons and the tender friendship between men - aren't overt, just friendly phantoms.
You can also discern faintly the outlines of questions of identity and allegiances (to nations? kings? religions?) that appear in Chabon's other books and here waft through his narrative like smoke from the fire that keeps our characters warm at night.
There's no escaping the faith of our reluctant heroes and Chabon toys with the allegory of the wandering Jew. At times he plays into stereotypes, with Zelikman more inclined to heal than kill.
And when melancholia, guilt and conscience strike Amran and Zelikman, a modern sensibility inserts itself into the action. Try to ignore the contemporary aptness when Zelikman says, "I want nothing to do with soldiers, armies, chains of command. All the evil in the world derives from the actions of men, acting in a mass against other masses of men."
Yet, despite its tendency to introspection now and then, the book remains old-fashioned fun. Chabon loves language. He twists and turns his prose even more than the plot. His words are sumptuous. The literal reader might view using words such as "shatranj" or "sharab" or "javishgar" as self-indulgent. The more romantic will find his or her heart beating faster.
When you are not spellbound by Chabon's word play and the novel's sword play, you will remember the literary landmarks of this genre, the swashbuckling romance. For me, the towering efforts are Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers and Rider Haggard's She.
The charm of these male bodice rippers is that nothing is black and white. Unlike their Hollywood counterparts, the men and women who star in these novels are morally ambiguous. No one is above reproach. As the characters fight for a cause, they do so sometimes in the name of altruism and, more often and interestingly, because of a deep need or an immeasurable longing. In these books, revenge can be as admirable as righteousness.
You can hear Chabon's delight as he relives these tall tales in chapter titles such as "On The Observance Of The Fourth Commandment Among Horse Thieves" or "On The Substitution Of One Angel, And One Cause, For Another".
This joyous evocation of period-style drama is illustrated with period-style pen-and-ink drawings by Gary Gianni, who captures the sense of boys' own books.
My only gripe is that this "tale of adventure" is, unlike the Silk Road, too short.
Skipton's Medieval Festival in jeopardy
Finance fears for medieval festival
Jenny Speak
30 November 2007
Craven Herald
Skipton's Medieval Festival may become too expensive to run in the future, it has been claimed. The festival, which will take place over the next two Sundays, has been held for the past 12 years. It is organised by the town's Chamber of Trade and Commerce to offset the dip in takings traders experience after Christmas.
Speaking at a Chamber of Trade meeting, president Joan Evans said the event cost £18,000 to stage and it was hard to know whether it would break even.
Vice-president Dave Parker said: "It's expensive to put on. We are in the second of a three- year period of sponsorship from Craven District Council. In future years this means we have to be careful we don't start losing money on it. A few years ago we debated whether it should actually take place at all due to the money and the workload."
Mrs Evans said plans were going well for this year's event, however, and it was shaping up to be the most popular festival yet. Just over 100 coaches are booked in to visit Skipton for the event.
The influx of coaches is dealt with using a tried and tested drop off and pick up' system in part of the Coach Street car park, with the coaches parked at Skipton auction mart while visitors enjoy the town's attractions.
Well over 10,000 people are expected to teem into the town, and the High Street will be closed to traffic on the two Sundays to make way for a programme of entertainment.
Skipton's market will be in full swing on both days, supplemented by an array of stalls and sideshows set up by charities and non-profit-making organisations from in and around Skipton. There is also a full programme of entertainment across the town, including regular performances in the High Street Arena'.
One of the most eagerly awaited features is the medieval fight re-enactments and, once again, the Sheffield-based Knights In Battle will be demonstrating how arguments were settled in medieval times. Other entertainment will include traditional dancing by the Flagcrackers Of Craven and music from Skipton and Barnoldswick brass bands and the Accrington Pipe Band.
For the first time, Craven's Penny Plain Theatre Company will be performing a specially-written seasonal play. Street entertainers, including stilt-walkers, and a Punch and Judy show will be performing at various locations around town.
The finale on each Sunday is the traditional children's lantern procession at 4pm, which parades up the High Street to Holy Trinity Church for carol singing in the church grounds.
Mr Parker said: "Our lantern-making workshop last weekend was so busy we had to turn some people away, sadly. We very much hope that everyone who made a lantern - including those who also made them at school during the previous week - will join us for the procession to round off each day."
Events on each of the two Sundays will start at around 10am and Skipton High Street will be closed to traffic from 7am until 5pm. Skipton Town Council is asking drivers not to leave their cars on the High Street overnight on Saturday. Mr Parker said: "It is essential that the High Street is clear of traffic so that market traders can set up their stalls and we can set up the main events arena. The road is closed to traffic from 7am, but we would ask that drivers coming into town on Saturday evening find alternative parking arrangements."
Reminder notices have been placed on the High Street all week. Free maps and event schedules for the Medieval Festival will be available on the day or can be picked up now from the Tourist Information office on Coach Street, the town hall or the Skipton Town Council offices on the High Street.
Jenny Speak
30 November 2007
Craven Herald
Skipton's Medieval Festival may become too expensive to run in the future, it has been claimed. The festival, which will take place over the next two Sundays, has been held for the past 12 years. It is organised by the town's Chamber of Trade and Commerce to offset the dip in takings traders experience after Christmas.
Speaking at a Chamber of Trade meeting, president Joan Evans said the event cost £18,000 to stage and it was hard to know whether it would break even.
Vice-president Dave Parker said: "It's expensive to put on. We are in the second of a three- year period of sponsorship from Craven District Council. In future years this means we have to be careful we don't start losing money on it. A few years ago we debated whether it should actually take place at all due to the money and the workload."
Mrs Evans said plans were going well for this year's event, however, and it was shaping up to be the most popular festival yet. Just over 100 coaches are booked in to visit Skipton for the event.
The influx of coaches is dealt with using a tried and tested drop off and pick up' system in part of the Coach Street car park, with the coaches parked at Skipton auction mart while visitors enjoy the town's attractions.
Well over 10,000 people are expected to teem into the town, and the High Street will be closed to traffic on the two Sundays to make way for a programme of entertainment.
Skipton's market will be in full swing on both days, supplemented by an array of stalls and sideshows set up by charities and non-profit-making organisations from in and around Skipton. There is also a full programme of entertainment across the town, including regular performances in the High Street Arena'.
One of the most eagerly awaited features is the medieval fight re-enactments and, once again, the Sheffield-based Knights In Battle will be demonstrating how arguments were settled in medieval times. Other entertainment will include traditional dancing by the Flagcrackers Of Craven and music from Skipton and Barnoldswick brass bands and the Accrington Pipe Band.
For the first time, Craven's Penny Plain Theatre Company will be performing a specially-written seasonal play. Street entertainers, including stilt-walkers, and a Punch and Judy show will be performing at various locations around town.
The finale on each Sunday is the traditional children's lantern procession at 4pm, which parades up the High Street to Holy Trinity Church for carol singing in the church grounds.
Mr Parker said: "Our lantern-making workshop last weekend was so busy we had to turn some people away, sadly. We very much hope that everyone who made a lantern - including those who also made them at school during the previous week - will join us for the procession to round off each day."
Events on each of the two Sundays will start at around 10am and Skipton High Street will be closed to traffic from 7am until 5pm. Skipton Town Council is asking drivers not to leave their cars on the High Street overnight on Saturday. Mr Parker said: "It is essential that the High Street is clear of traffic so that market traders can set up their stalls and we can set up the main events arena. The road is closed to traffic from 7am, but we would ask that drivers coming into town on Saturday evening find alternative parking arrangements."
Reminder notices have been placed on the High Street all week. Free maps and event schedules for the Medieval Festival will be available on the day or can be picked up now from the Tourist Information office on Coach Street, the town hall or the Skipton Town Council offices on the High Street.
Southampton's medieval walls to be illuminated
City’s medieval walls to be lit up
Peter Law
27 November 2007
Daily Echo
ONE of Southampton's best features - its medieval walls - is to be illuminated. In the latest bid to help give the city the elusive wow factor, more than £77,000 will be spent on lighting the 600-year-old walls near the waterfront. The 30-metre stretch of the walls along Western Esplanade and opposite the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel will be lit from March to late May next year.
If it proves popular, Southampton City Council hopes to expand the public art scheme to light up other historical sites within the Old Town. With a decision on a proposal to light up the Itchen Bridge due next month, Southampton could soon bill itself as a City of Lights to rival Paris.
Public arts officer Liz Smith said: "There has always been a view that we should bring the Old Town to light'. It's not just about lighting a structure, it's about engaging with it and enabling people to interact and learn about it.
"It won't simply be floodlighting, it will be far more sensitive than that and will illuminate architectural features of the wall."
Newcastle-based artist Simon Watkinson has been commissioned to create the lighting scheme. His influence can already be seen around Southampton at the Holyrood Church ruins, inside the 14th century Lankaster's Vault and at the new Telephone House flats development.
Survey work will begin this week, with the first artist's impressions to be revealed in the New Year. Funding for the scheme was approved by the Southampton Partnership - the same strategy group that earlier this year rejected plans for a £250,000 bronze replica Spitfire.
Instead, the unelected board chose to splash £120,000 on a controversial model of the city and £25,000 on 13 new welcome signs. However, the new lighting scheme will be one of the last projects the Partnership ever approves.
The Daily Echo has learned that as of next year the Partnership will no longer have the power to approve which projects receive Government funding from the regional development agency SEEDA.
The board has approved almost £2m of projects in the past three years, but SEEDA has now decided it will use local area agreements when deciding what schemes to invest in.
Councillor John Hannides, who led the campaign for a Spitfire memorial, said: "Clearly for Southampton we are very keen that where Government money is channelled to the area that we would prefer that it come direct to the local authority who can determine the priorities of the city."
The news comes days after a grand new vision for a tribute to the Spitfire was revealed by the Daily Echo. The Spitfire of the South has been hailed as the most ambitious landmark project ever proposed for Southampton.
It's hoped the structure would stand over 100 feet high, making it taller than the Angel of the North, and could cost between £1m and £2m when it includes a visitor centre and observation area.
Peter Law
27 November 2007
Daily Echo
ONE of Southampton's best features - its medieval walls - is to be illuminated. In the latest bid to help give the city the elusive wow factor, more than £77,000 will be spent on lighting the 600-year-old walls near the waterfront. The 30-metre stretch of the walls along Western Esplanade and opposite the De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel will be lit from March to late May next year.
If it proves popular, Southampton City Council hopes to expand the public art scheme to light up other historical sites within the Old Town. With a decision on a proposal to light up the Itchen Bridge due next month, Southampton could soon bill itself as a City of Lights to rival Paris.
Public arts officer Liz Smith said: "There has always been a view that we should bring the Old Town to light'. It's not just about lighting a structure, it's about engaging with it and enabling people to interact and learn about it.
"It won't simply be floodlighting, it will be far more sensitive than that and will illuminate architectural features of the wall."
Newcastle-based artist Simon Watkinson has been commissioned to create the lighting scheme. His influence can already be seen around Southampton at the Holyrood Church ruins, inside the 14th century Lankaster's Vault and at the new Telephone House flats development.
Survey work will begin this week, with the first artist's impressions to be revealed in the New Year. Funding for the scheme was approved by the Southampton Partnership - the same strategy group that earlier this year rejected plans for a £250,000 bronze replica Spitfire.
Instead, the unelected board chose to splash £120,000 on a controversial model of the city and £25,000 on 13 new welcome signs. However, the new lighting scheme will be one of the last projects the Partnership ever approves.
The Daily Echo has learned that as of next year the Partnership will no longer have the power to approve which projects receive Government funding from the regional development agency SEEDA.
The board has approved almost £2m of projects in the past three years, but SEEDA has now decided it will use local area agreements when deciding what schemes to invest in.
Councillor John Hannides, who led the campaign for a Spitfire memorial, said: "Clearly for Southampton we are very keen that where Government money is channelled to the area that we would prefer that it come direct to the local authority who can determine the priorities of the city."
The news comes days after a grand new vision for a tribute to the Spitfire was revealed by the Daily Echo. The Spitfire of the South has been hailed as the most ambitious landmark project ever proposed for Southampton.
It's hoped the structure would stand over 100 feet high, making it taller than the Angel of the North, and could cost between £1m and £2m when it includes a visitor centre and observation area.
Cambridge and Stanford Universities to place 538 manuscripts online
Stanford to make old texts available online
By Robert Toews
29 November 2007
The Stanford Daily
English
In collaboration with Cambridge University, Stanford University announced plans earlier this month to make 538 original medieval and Renaissance manuscripts available to the public in an online database.
The collection of manuscripts, which has been located in the Parker Library at Cambridge's Corpus Christi College since the 16th century, accounts for nearly a quarter of all existing Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. It consists of handwritten works written between the 6th and 16th centuries, including such famous texts as Matthew Paris' "Chronica Maiora" and works by 14th century English author Geoffrey Chaucer.
Stanford and Cambridge began negotiations in 2001. Since spring 2003, approximately two dozen part-time workers on both sides of the Atlantic have been working to digitize the manuscripts, upload them to the Web and design the website through which the documents will be made accessible to the public.
While Cambridge provided the books themselves, "what [Stanford] brought to the table was an understanding of the technological end, from the digitization process to making the Web site work in a convenient and effective way," said Director of Library Communications Andrew Herkovic.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided the bulk of the funding for the project, which is expected to cost over $5 million by the time it is finished in September 2009. A free beta version of the site is currently available online at parkerweb.stanford.edu, which features approximately 50 already-uploaded manuscripts.
Once the project is completed, however, a paid subscription -- of an amount yet to be determined -- will be required, although the site will remain free to those in the Stanford network.
"For scholars, the Parker Library has historically been notoriously difficult to gain access to," said English professor Jennifer Summit, a faculty consultant on the project. "Digitizing all the manuscripts will facilitate the academic world's interaction with the manuscripts tremendously, encouraging research and teaching, as well as basically ensuring their indestructibility for generations to come."
By Robert Toews
29 November 2007
The Stanford Daily
English
In collaboration with Cambridge University, Stanford University announced plans earlier this month to make 538 original medieval and Renaissance manuscripts available to the public in an online database.
The collection of manuscripts, which has been located in the Parker Library at Cambridge's Corpus Christi College since the 16th century, accounts for nearly a quarter of all existing Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. It consists of handwritten works written between the 6th and 16th centuries, including such famous texts as Matthew Paris' "Chronica Maiora" and works by 14th century English author Geoffrey Chaucer.
Stanford and Cambridge began negotiations in 2001. Since spring 2003, approximately two dozen part-time workers on both sides of the Atlantic have been working to digitize the manuscripts, upload them to the Web and design the website through which the documents will be made accessible to the public.
While Cambridge provided the books themselves, "what [Stanford] brought to the table was an understanding of the technological end, from the digitization process to making the Web site work in a convenient and effective way," said Director of Library Communications Andrew Herkovic.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided the bulk of the funding for the project, which is expected to cost over $5 million by the time it is finished in September 2009. A free beta version of the site is currently available online at parkerweb.stanford.edu, which features approximately 50 already-uploaded manuscripts.
Once the project is completed, however, a paid subscription -- of an amount yet to be determined -- will be required, although the site will remain free to those in the Stanford network.
"For scholars, the Parker Library has historically been notoriously difficult to gain access to," said English professor Jennifer Summit, a faculty consultant on the project. "Digitizing all the manuscripts will facilitate the academic world's interaction with the manuscripts tremendously, encouraging research and teaching, as well as basically ensuring their indestructibility for generations to come."
Provan Hall, Easterhouse
East End faces vote for Time Team dig at Hall
By VIVIENNE NICOLL
26 November 2007
Evening Times
VOTING opened today for a project which will allow Easterhouse residents to become Time Team detectives. Scots are being asked to nominate an archeological dig at the historic Provan Hall for GBP80,000 of Big Lottery People's Millions funding.
It is going head to head with a scheme to restore an impressive 1950s Barony 'A' frame engineering structure in Ayrshire. The project which gets the most votes wins the cash.
The Glasgow project will involve 200 people from Greater Easterhouse carefully searching land at Provan Hall to discover if it was the site of an ancient castle. School children, pensioners and community groups will undertake the nine month long project under the watchful eye of National Trust experts.
Neil Baxter, development director of Glasgow Building Preservation Trust is involved in setting up the project. Provan Hall dates from the early 15th century but Mr Baxter said the history of the site goes back to the 12th century.
He added: "The suspicion is Provan Hall was connected to another structure of significant scale such as a castle which could have been three or four storeys high. At the moment that is only conjecture but this project will allow us to find out the extent ofany foundations as well as artefacts and evidence. The work which will be done will be similar to Channel 4's Time Team where they dig trial trenches. What is planned is a detailed, serious archeological investigation."
Mr Baxter said if the project fails to get enough votes it will be shelved until cash becomes available in the future.
To vote for Provan Hall telephone 08702 436702.
By VIVIENNE NICOLL
26 November 2007
Evening Times
VOTING opened today for a project which will allow Easterhouse residents to become Time Team detectives. Scots are being asked to nominate an archeological dig at the historic Provan Hall for GBP80,000 of Big Lottery People's Millions funding.
It is going head to head with a scheme to restore an impressive 1950s Barony 'A' frame engineering structure in Ayrshire. The project which gets the most votes wins the cash.
The Glasgow project will involve 200 people from Greater Easterhouse carefully searching land at Provan Hall to discover if it was the site of an ancient castle. School children, pensioners and community groups will undertake the nine month long project under the watchful eye of National Trust experts.
Neil Baxter, development director of Glasgow Building Preservation Trust is involved in setting up the project. Provan Hall dates from the early 15th century but Mr Baxter said the history of the site goes back to the 12th century.
He added: "The suspicion is Provan Hall was connected to another structure of significant scale such as a castle which could have been three or four storeys high. At the moment that is only conjecture but this project will allow us to find out the extent ofany foundations as well as artefacts and evidence. The work which will be done will be similar to Channel 4's Time Team where they dig trial trenches. What is planned is a detailed, serious archeological investigation."
Mr Baxter said if the project fails to get enough votes it will be shelved until cash becomes available in the future.
To vote for Provan Hall telephone 08702 436702.
Review of Horrible Histories series (Children's non-fiction books)
The horror! The horror! Oh joy! Oh joy!
JOAN YOLLECK
24 November 2007
The Globe and Mail
HORRIBLE HISTORIES
Measly Middle Ages, Groovy Greeks, Vicious Vikings, Awesome Egyptians
By Terry Deary
Scholastic Canada, 140 pages and $6.99 each volume
A young boy, maybe 9 or 10, goes skulking off into a corner. He throws a sheet over himself, making a tent. Flicking on his flashlight, he begins to read. Nasty guffaws and howls of glee emanate from under his enclosure. It can mean only one thing. Little Tommy is reading one of the Horrible Histories, by Terry Deary.
The Horrible Histories are new to Canada, but bestselling favourites in Britain. Four are currently available here: Measly Middle Ages, Groovy Greeks, Vicious Vikings and Awesome Egyptians.
In these ingenious histories, Deary appeals to a youngster's delight in reading about the horrifying details of a gory murder, foul living conditions and underhanded power struggles.
The premise is golden. After all, these youngsters aren't that far away from Maurice Sendak's monsters or scary fantasies like Chris Van Allsburg's Jumanji. And while examining the warts, the Horrible Histories manage to impart a tremendous amount of factual information.
Deary does this by interweaving a variety of constantly changing kid-centric formats: cartoons, diaries, newspaper clippings, quizzes, recipes, jokes, activities, lots of short readable stories, and more. These give the histories a fast-paced tempo, but Deary's secret weapon is humour, awfully irreverent humour.
Each Horrible History begins with an orientation that will send shivers up the spines of politically correct authoritarians. Teachers are hardest hit. Here's an example from Vicious Vikings: “Teachers don't always tell you the whole truth! Honestly! And sometimes teachers don't tell you the whole truth because they don't know themselves! (That's right! Teachers do not know everything … just some teachers think they do!)”
Following the introduction is a timeline and then the contents, which include such subjects as legends and myths, important battles, medicine, poetry and forms of writing, women, children, food or what it was like on a typical day if you lived in the era in question. A consistent theme is the exploitation of the “working class.”
In Awesome Egyptians, Deary concentrates primarily on the construction, mathematical genius and magical powers of the pyramids, the mummies that lay within – pharaohs, servants, cats, treasures – and the subsequent pilfering of the tombs through the ages. Here are a few of the unusual facts: “So many mummies were dug up in the 1800s they became common and worthless. Some were burned as fuel for steam trains when coal and wood were in short supply.” And, “A display case with the hand or foot of a mummy became a very popular ornament for Victorian mantelpieces.”
Unconstrained by dates, Deary also pulls in interesting tidbits from other periods. In Awesome Egyptians, he tells the story of Napoleon's visit to the Pyramid of Cheops on Aug. 12, 1799: “The guide began to explain what he knew about [the pyramid's] history, but Napoleon silenced the man with a wave of his hand. ‘Leave me alone,' [Napoleon] said. … ‘As you wish, sir,' the guide muttered. … It seemed a long time before the great man came out … Napoleon was pale and shaking. Then suddenly he said in a harsh, dry voice, ‘Do not mention this matter again!' But later … he hinted – just hinted – that he had experienced incredible things while he was inside that pyramid. Perhaps, he suggested, he had even seen a vision of his own future.”
In Groovy Greeks, Deary tackles the Helen of Troy story, and does it magnificently by telling the tale from her sister's point of view in diary form: “Dear Diary [Clytemnestra writes], You'll never believe what my sister Helen has gone and done! She's run off with that nice young man, Paris! She's a sly one that Helen. … There'll be trouble, mark my words. My husband, Agamemnon, came storming in. ‘Have you heard what your Helen's gone and done now?' he snaps. ‘I've heard. Can't say I blame her …' I knew that would upset him. Turned redder than blood on a sacrificial altar.”
And about her own two children, Orestes and Electra, who eventually kill their mother, she writes: “Funny couple those two … [and further along, closer to the time of her murder] … Electra and Orestes, the funny people, have their heads together hatching some kind of plot.”
Measly Middle Ages and Vicious Vikings are equal treasure troves. Perhaps this is the way history should be taught? The Horrible Histories are engaging, entertaining and, best of all, memorable.
But what would little Tommy say, and how is he faring, hidden under his tent? As Tommy turns the pages of the Horrible Histories, his snorts of derision and cries of horror become louder, attracting his parents' attention. They ask to see what Tommy is reading.
“Disgusting,” his parents say. “The times were wicked back then.” Sighing, they leave Tommy to his reading and return to watching TV's nightly news reports about wars overseas, the homeless and a particularly grisly murder at the corner store.
Oh yes, Tommy. Deary tells it like it is – oops – like it was.
Joan Yolleck has written a children's fictional history that will be published in 2009. It's about a terribly wonderful time.
JOAN YOLLECK
24 November 2007
The Globe and Mail
HORRIBLE HISTORIES
Measly Middle Ages, Groovy Greeks, Vicious Vikings, Awesome Egyptians
By Terry Deary
Scholastic Canada, 140 pages and $6.99 each volume
A young boy, maybe 9 or 10, goes skulking off into a corner. He throws a sheet over himself, making a tent. Flicking on his flashlight, he begins to read. Nasty guffaws and howls of glee emanate from under his enclosure. It can mean only one thing. Little Tommy is reading one of the Horrible Histories, by Terry Deary.
The Horrible Histories are new to Canada, but bestselling favourites in Britain. Four are currently available here: Measly Middle Ages, Groovy Greeks, Vicious Vikings and Awesome Egyptians.
In these ingenious histories, Deary appeals to a youngster's delight in reading about the horrifying details of a gory murder, foul living conditions and underhanded power struggles.
The premise is golden. After all, these youngsters aren't that far away from Maurice Sendak's monsters or scary fantasies like Chris Van Allsburg's Jumanji. And while examining the warts, the Horrible Histories manage to impart a tremendous amount of factual information.
Deary does this by interweaving a variety of constantly changing kid-centric formats: cartoons, diaries, newspaper clippings, quizzes, recipes, jokes, activities, lots of short readable stories, and more. These give the histories a fast-paced tempo, but Deary's secret weapon is humour, awfully irreverent humour.
Each Horrible History begins with an orientation that will send shivers up the spines of politically correct authoritarians. Teachers are hardest hit. Here's an example from Vicious Vikings: “Teachers don't always tell you the whole truth! Honestly! And sometimes teachers don't tell you the whole truth because they don't know themselves! (That's right! Teachers do not know everything … just some teachers think they do!)”
Following the introduction is a timeline and then the contents, which include such subjects as legends and myths, important battles, medicine, poetry and forms of writing, women, children, food or what it was like on a typical day if you lived in the era in question. A consistent theme is the exploitation of the “working class.”
In Awesome Egyptians, Deary concentrates primarily on the construction, mathematical genius and magical powers of the pyramids, the mummies that lay within – pharaohs, servants, cats, treasures – and the subsequent pilfering of the tombs through the ages. Here are a few of the unusual facts: “So many mummies were dug up in the 1800s they became common and worthless. Some were burned as fuel for steam trains when coal and wood were in short supply.” And, “A display case with the hand or foot of a mummy became a very popular ornament for Victorian mantelpieces.”
Unconstrained by dates, Deary also pulls in interesting tidbits from other periods. In Awesome Egyptians, he tells the story of Napoleon's visit to the Pyramid of Cheops on Aug. 12, 1799: “The guide began to explain what he knew about [the pyramid's] history, but Napoleon silenced the man with a wave of his hand. ‘Leave me alone,' [Napoleon] said. … ‘As you wish, sir,' the guide muttered. … It seemed a long time before the great man came out … Napoleon was pale and shaking. Then suddenly he said in a harsh, dry voice, ‘Do not mention this matter again!' But later … he hinted – just hinted – that he had experienced incredible things while he was inside that pyramid. Perhaps, he suggested, he had even seen a vision of his own future.”
In Groovy Greeks, Deary tackles the Helen of Troy story, and does it magnificently by telling the tale from her sister's point of view in diary form: “Dear Diary [Clytemnestra writes], You'll never believe what my sister Helen has gone and done! She's run off with that nice young man, Paris! She's a sly one that Helen. … There'll be trouble, mark my words. My husband, Agamemnon, came storming in. ‘Have you heard what your Helen's gone and done now?' he snaps. ‘I've heard. Can't say I blame her …' I knew that would upset him. Turned redder than blood on a sacrificial altar.”
And about her own two children, Orestes and Electra, who eventually kill their mother, she writes: “Funny couple those two … [and further along, closer to the time of her murder] … Electra and Orestes, the funny people, have their heads together hatching some kind of plot.”
Measly Middle Ages and Vicious Vikings are equal treasure troves. Perhaps this is the way history should be taught? The Horrible Histories are engaging, entertaining and, best of all, memorable.
But what would little Tommy say, and how is he faring, hidden under his tent? As Tommy turns the pages of the Horrible Histories, his snorts of derision and cries of horror become louder, attracting his parents' attention. They ask to see what Tommy is reading.
“Disgusting,” his parents say. “The times were wicked back then.” Sighing, they leave Tommy to his reading and return to watching TV's nightly news reports about wars overseas, the homeless and a particularly grisly murder at the corner store.
Oh yes, Tommy. Deary tells it like it is – oops – like it was.
Joan Yolleck has written a children's fictional history that will be published in 2009. It's about a terribly wonderful time.
Ye Olde Black Bear Inn, Tewkesbury
National treasure
24 November 2007
Western Daily Press
It is a source of wonder to me that so many ancient pubs are still standing. How, for example, can this old place in Tewkesbury have survived so long that next year it celebrates its 700th year in business?
The Bear, so named after the heraldic device of the Beauchamp family, manorial lords of Tewkesbury in the Middle Ages, is a simply magnificent building. It occupies a site at the north end of the town beside the river Avon, where there has been a succession of bridges dating back to the Romans.
Prospering from centuries of road and river traffic, the pub has doubled as market house, toll booth and no doubt every other kind of function in its time, and the place breathes its history from its very fabric.
Pause to look at the front room to your right where you enter from the High Street. Now done out as a lounge with modern sofas, easy chairs and low tables, it has an astonishing ceiling. The plasterwork, probably worked on to leather rather than lathes, features Tudor roses and elaborate fish motifs that are quite plainly of the 16th century. In a National Trust property, you probably wouldn't even be allowed to walk under a ceiling like this. Here, you can sit in comfort with a pint and packet of crisps and contemplate this rare treasure to your heart's content.
And you get a very good choice of pints here. Curiously, the house ales are from Suffolk brewery Adnams, supported by Bombardier from Charles Wells in Bedford. On the day we popped in, the "guest" ale was from Yorkshire, Theakston's Old Peculiar. There were no local ales, nor any regional farmhouse ciders, which we found surprising. But my pint of Adnams Broadside was fresh, well-kept and well-served, so I couldn't complain. And they did have ginger beer for Mrs Halley.
If you're eating here, the system is that you find a table first, note the number on it and then supply said number when you place your order at the bar. So we now spent a considerable time wandering around this cavernous place in search of a table. It is an odd layout, because at some point in the last 699 years, some bright spark has had the idea of placing the serving bar in the middle of the space, like an island. You can walk in a complete circuit round it.
NOW while this might sound like fun, the effect has been to turn much of the public space in the Bear into little more than a series of corridors. Only three rooms, the beautiful lounge, a dinky enclosure with internal windows facing the serving counter and the atmospheric dining room at the other end of the pub, are really anything other than thoroughfares. My advice is, if you're coming here for lunch - and you must come here - arrive very early so you can bag one of the few prize tables.
We arrived too late to get a good seat and had to make do with a table in the rear room that gives on to the terrace that leads on to the lawned area at the river's edge. But even here, there's plenty to admire, from the antiquated flagstone floor to the big chalkboard on which is related a hair-raising story of the wounded and dying from Tewkesbury's battle during the Wars of the Roses, who were brought to the Bear on that terrible day.
That was in May 1471, but in July 2007 the pub had another fright. The river came up to the top step of the terrace and then, miraculously, retreated, the barmaid told us when we asked how the Bear had fared in Tewkesbury's disastrous floods. We went out on the terrace, which must have been 15 feet, maybe more, above the level of the water sliding innocently by in the river that day.
It gives you a salutary reminder of just what a hazardous thing it is to have a home or run a business by the water in the 21st century. Had this fabulous timber-framed, deep- cellared building been flooded, the damage can hardly be contemplated.
The menu is simple, and the food correspondingly so, service was just the right side of slow and our liver pate and "posh BLT" sandwich were OK. But 10 out of 10 for the building, despite internal arrangements, proliferation of games machines and piped pop music.
Ye Olde Black Bear Inn, 68 High Street, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. Tel 01684 292202.
24 November 2007
Western Daily Press
It is a source of wonder to me that so many ancient pubs are still standing. How, for example, can this old place in Tewkesbury have survived so long that next year it celebrates its 700th year in business?
The Bear, so named after the heraldic device of the Beauchamp family, manorial lords of Tewkesbury in the Middle Ages, is a simply magnificent building. It occupies a site at the north end of the town beside the river Avon, where there has been a succession of bridges dating back to the Romans.
Prospering from centuries of road and river traffic, the pub has doubled as market house, toll booth and no doubt every other kind of function in its time, and the place breathes its history from its very fabric.
Pause to look at the front room to your right where you enter from the High Street. Now done out as a lounge with modern sofas, easy chairs and low tables, it has an astonishing ceiling. The plasterwork, probably worked on to leather rather than lathes, features Tudor roses and elaborate fish motifs that are quite plainly of the 16th century. In a National Trust property, you probably wouldn't even be allowed to walk under a ceiling like this. Here, you can sit in comfort with a pint and packet of crisps and contemplate this rare treasure to your heart's content.
And you get a very good choice of pints here. Curiously, the house ales are from Suffolk brewery Adnams, supported by Bombardier from Charles Wells in Bedford. On the day we popped in, the "guest" ale was from Yorkshire, Theakston's Old Peculiar. There were no local ales, nor any regional farmhouse ciders, which we found surprising. But my pint of Adnams Broadside was fresh, well-kept and well-served, so I couldn't complain. And they did have ginger beer for Mrs Halley.
If you're eating here, the system is that you find a table first, note the number on it and then supply said number when you place your order at the bar. So we now spent a considerable time wandering around this cavernous place in search of a table. It is an odd layout, because at some point in the last 699 years, some bright spark has had the idea of placing the serving bar in the middle of the space, like an island. You can walk in a complete circuit round it.
NOW while this might sound like fun, the effect has been to turn much of the public space in the Bear into little more than a series of corridors. Only three rooms, the beautiful lounge, a dinky enclosure with internal windows facing the serving counter and the atmospheric dining room at the other end of the pub, are really anything other than thoroughfares. My advice is, if you're coming here for lunch - and you must come here - arrive very early so you can bag one of the few prize tables.
We arrived too late to get a good seat and had to make do with a table in the rear room that gives on to the terrace that leads on to the lawned area at the river's edge. But even here, there's plenty to admire, from the antiquated flagstone floor to the big chalkboard on which is related a hair-raising story of the wounded and dying from Tewkesbury's battle during the Wars of the Roses, who were brought to the Bear on that terrible day.
That was in May 1471, but in July 2007 the pub had another fright. The river came up to the top step of the terrace and then, miraculously, retreated, the barmaid told us when we asked how the Bear had fared in Tewkesbury's disastrous floods. We went out on the terrace, which must have been 15 feet, maybe more, above the level of the water sliding innocently by in the river that day.
It gives you a salutary reminder of just what a hazardous thing it is to have a home or run a business by the water in the 21st century. Had this fabulous timber-framed, deep- cellared building been flooded, the damage can hardly be contemplated.
The menu is simple, and the food correspondingly so, service was just the right side of slow and our liver pate and "posh BLT" sandwich were OK. But 10 out of 10 for the building, despite internal arrangements, proliferation of games machines and piped pop music.
Ye Olde Black Bear Inn, 68 High Street, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. Tel 01684 292202.
Interview with author Ken Follett
Follett strikes medieval gold
24 November 2007
Geelong Advertiser
SIMON TOWNLEY talks to author Ken Follett about World Without End and asks what inspires this master of different genres.
I spent three years writing it, I think I need a break from the Middle Ages
BEST-SELLING author Ken Follett s latest offering World Without End proves contemporary doesn t always cut it.
It s the long-awaited sequel to The Pillars of the Earth and the 18-year wait has been worth it. It jumped to number one on the New York best-seller list within a week and has become a monumental hit worldwide.
Stand aside, Dan Brown, there s gold in them there medieval hills.
Like its predecessor, it is a big read - more than 1000 pages - and like its predecessor it is set in Middle Ages England.
There might be a third but it won t be soon.
"The next book won t be the Middle Ages, I can tell you that," he said.
"I spent three years writing it, I think I need a break from the Middle Ages."
The book spans the years 1327-1361 and takes in the start of The Hundred Years War against the French and the Black Plague. These are spectacular backdrops and continue Follett s theme of interweaving historical fact into his plot-driven sagas.
Essentially, the book is about the never-ending battle between the haves and the have nots. In this case the villagers versus the church and the ruling class, sometimes individually and sometimes when they combine forces. The daily life of all stratas of society back in those days is beautifully interwoven into the plot.
In those days, of course, the church was a far more potent force and far more overt than today. The political struggles for power never change, though, and the behind-the-scenes skirmishes are fascinating.
World Without End is almost impossible to put down, despite its length (and weight). Follett has written 28 novels since The Big Needle in 1974 and has worldwide sales approaching 90 million.
So what can we expect next from Follett? He is a master of different genres, switching between political thrillers, World War II heroic dramas and the historical blockbuster with apparent ease.
He s not saying because he may change his mind.
"I get inspiration from history, I read about something like, for example, the bankruptcy of the Berring Bank back in 1990. I read an article about it and I thought it would be the worth looking at," he said.
"That ended up being the basis for A Dangerous Fortune. It often happens like that, I read something and then something happens from that."
If there is a genre he enjoys more than any other it is World War II. As he said, there are many heroes, there is historical fact to hang things from and it is recent enough to be able to research thoroughly.
"Basically, though, I go with what keeps my curiosity," he said.
"I have to be fascinated by what I am doing. World War II is the era I have been most comfortable with. I have written four novels set in that time and I am sure I ll write more. It s an exciting period to write about, the whole world felt involved in battle of good and evil."
Follett is prolific and there is rarely much of a break between projects, including the interminable round of book signings and interviews that have to be done.
"I go on couple of weeks holiday, certainly no longer than that. I have one real relaxation, I am in a blues band, I play bass guitar and we play every Monday night in a studio in London. It s great, no conscious thought, it s all very sensory. That s the truth."
World Without End
Ken Follett
Macmillan RRP: $49.95
24 November 2007
Geelong Advertiser
SIMON TOWNLEY talks to author Ken Follett about World Without End and asks what inspires this master of different genres.
I spent three years writing it, I think I need a break from the Middle Ages
BEST-SELLING author Ken Follett s latest offering World Without End proves contemporary doesn t always cut it.
It s the long-awaited sequel to The Pillars of the Earth and the 18-year wait has been worth it. It jumped to number one on the New York best-seller list within a week and has become a monumental hit worldwide.
Stand aside, Dan Brown, there s gold in them there medieval hills.
Like its predecessor, it is a big read - more than 1000 pages - and like its predecessor it is set in Middle Ages England.
There might be a third but it won t be soon.
"The next book won t be the Middle Ages, I can tell you that," he said.
"I spent three years writing it, I think I need a break from the Middle Ages."
The book spans the years 1327-1361 and takes in the start of The Hundred Years War against the French and the Black Plague. These are spectacular backdrops and continue Follett s theme of interweaving historical fact into his plot-driven sagas.
Essentially, the book is about the never-ending battle between the haves and the have nots. In this case the villagers versus the church and the ruling class, sometimes individually and sometimes when they combine forces. The daily life of all stratas of society back in those days is beautifully interwoven into the plot.
In those days, of course, the church was a far more potent force and far more overt than today. The political struggles for power never change, though, and the behind-the-scenes skirmishes are fascinating.
World Without End is almost impossible to put down, despite its length (and weight). Follett has written 28 novels since The Big Needle in 1974 and has worldwide sales approaching 90 million.
So what can we expect next from Follett? He is a master of different genres, switching between political thrillers, World War II heroic dramas and the historical blockbuster with apparent ease.
He s not saying because he may change his mind.
"I get inspiration from history, I read about something like, for example, the bankruptcy of the Berring Bank back in 1990. I read an article about it and I thought it would be the worth looking at," he said.
"That ended up being the basis for A Dangerous Fortune. It often happens like that, I read something and then something happens from that."
If there is a genre he enjoys more than any other it is World War II. As he said, there are many heroes, there is historical fact to hang things from and it is recent enough to be able to research thoroughly.
"Basically, though, I go with what keeps my curiosity," he said.
"I have to be fascinated by what I am doing. World War II is the era I have been most comfortable with. I have written four novels set in that time and I am sure I ll write more. It s an exciting period to write about, the whole world felt involved in battle of good and evil."
Follett is prolific and there is rarely much of a break between projects, including the interminable round of book signings and interviews that have to be done.
"I go on couple of weeks holiday, certainly no longer than that. I have one real relaxation, I am in a blues band, I play bass guitar and we play every Monday night in a studio in London. It s great, no conscious thought, it s all very sensory. That s the truth."
World Without End
Ken Follett
Macmillan RRP: $49.95
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