Tenth Warwick Symposium on Parish Research
25 –27 May 2012 (Friday evening to Sunday afternoon)
Scarman House, University of Warwick
Report by Dr Joanne Anderson, University of Warwick
There’s nothing like an anniversary celebration to bring a community together: to mark
achievements and share new developments. The Tenth Warwick Symposium on Parish
Research was charged with the ambitious task of assessing the state of the field across
Britain and Continental Europe from the late middle ages to the present day. Hosted by
the Warwick Network for Parish Research in association with the Centre for the Study of
Christianity and Culture (University of York) and the British Association for Local
History, the three-day Symposium rose to the challenge through an open call for parishrelated projects looking to exchange ideas and forge new networks. On a sunny May
weekend, over 120 delegates representing independent researchers, community groups,
local history societies, conservation bodies, source collections, archives, diocesan
initiatives, research students and academics gathered at Scarman House to discuss all
matters parish.
The opening address and four plenary lectures spoke to the key achievements, directions
and future challenges for parish studies: from recent scholarly approaches, enactment of
liturgy, reassessment of late medieval village community, conflict in urban France to
Welsh glass heritage initiatives. The plenaries framed a rich programme of parallel
sessions, including ‘Parishioners and the Built Environment’, ‘Images Painted and
Carved’, ‘Preaching and Pastoral Provision’ and ‘Diversity and Dissent.’ Over 80
presentations provided unique portals into parishes past and present: from explorations
of church atmosphere, lived religion and different source materials to hands-on guidance
for local researchers and communities. Digging in further, four workshops explored the
acoustic, visual, material and literary cultures in diverse parish environments. Twenty
stalls raised awareness of recent projects and publications in the field.
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More informally, our postgraduate students and early career academics led the way for
new themes and approaches in the evening round table, ‘Parish Studies Tomorrow.’ They
engaged delegates in a lively discussion that was both inspiring and provocative,
especially concerning the label of ‘parish scholar’. A concluding discussion on Sunday
yielded ideas for future initiatives, like on-site day schools with input from host parishes,
regional conferences and specific collaborations. We are encouraged by such positive
feedback.
Indeed, detailed pre and post-Symposium questionnaires indicate that the anniversary
initiative has increased awareness of the Network and its key aims. The new ‘MyParish
web platform, due to go live this summer, will further encourage this momentum by
offering individuals and groups with parish interests interactive space for promotion,
guidance and networking. Edited films and podcasts of the Symposium will also be
available from this website, reflecting our commitment to connecting communities,
propagating resources and sharing expertise.
The Symposium was over a year in the planning and the Warwick Network for Parish
Research gratefully acknowledges the efforts of co-organizers Joanne Anderson, Beat
Kümin and Don White; the support of Warwick’s Humanities Research Centre,
Humanities Research Fund and ‘Digital Age’ Global Priorities Programme; the key
contributions by conference administrator Susan Dibben, e-learning advisor Robert
O’Toole, symposium assistants Agata Gomolka, Matthew Jackson and Paula McBride
and film director Matthew Fuller. Finally, and most importantly, thanks are due to all the
chairs, presenters and delegates who travelled from near and afar to underline the
vibrancy of parish studies as an interdisciplinary field of research. A Parish Network is
nothing without its people and we are in good shape.
Humanities Research Fund
digital change
Realising the digital future
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Programme
Friday 25 May 2012
Opening address
Prof. Beat Kümin (Warwick University, History)
‘Parish Studies Today: Approaches, Interactions, Perspectives’
Evening plenary lecture
Prof. John Harper (Bangor University, School of Music)
‘Exploring the experience of worship in the late medieval parish church’
Workshop 1
Dr Jonathan Willis (University of Birmingham, History)
‘The Reformation of the Parishes – the Acoustic Dimension’
Saturday 26 May 2012
Morning sessions
Workshop 2: From household to parish: the materiality of daily life
Catherine Richardson (University of Kent, School of English) and Dr Tara Hamling
(University of Birmingham, History)
Session 1. Engaging with History; Chair: Dee Dyas
John Bland (Warwickshire Local History Society)
‘Warwickshire Local History Society’
Helen McGowan (Divine Inspiration)
‘Understanding and sharing the story of your parish church’
Warmington Heritage Group
‘Grove Farm Project – The house and its land’
Prof. John Wolffe (The Open University)
‘Building on History’
Session 2. Images Painted and Carved; Chair: Donald White
Dr Gillian Draper (British Association for Local History)
‘Harry the glasyer: making and replacing stained glass in churches on the Kent and
Sussex borders, c. 1470 to 1570’
Dr Miriam Gill (Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester)
‘Working on the Wallpaintings Interpretation Project of the Churches Conservation
Trust’
Hamilton Kerr Institute / Dr Spike Bucklow
‘The conservation of wooden polychromy in churches’
Anthony Fletcher (Chair of South Newington Parish Team)
‘South Newington Wall Paintings and Church Restoration’
Session 3. Preaching and Pastoral Provision; Chair: Heather Falvey
Revd Martin Gorick [NB: needs to leave at 10 am]
‘Stratford Sermon Series Project’
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Ian Brodie (Southam)
‘Bastard priest: The life of a Scottish-born 19thC vicar of Grandborough,
Warwickshire’
Prof. em. Claire Cross and Dr Judith A. Frost (The University of York, History)
‘A Prior and his Parish: Alvered Comyn and Wragby Church in the Reign of Henry
VIII’
Andrew Thomson (King’s College London, History)
‘17th-century Winchester clergy’
Midday plenary lecture; Chair: Katherine French
Prof. em. Chris Dyer (University of Leicester, Centre for English Local History)
‘Have historians been too sentimental about the village community, 1334-1540?’
Afternoon sessions
Workshop 3: In the books and on the walls: Parish life in late medieval Bolzano
Dr Joanne Anderson (University of Warwick, History of Art) and Dr Hannes
Obermair (Bolzano Regional Archives)
Session 4. Diversity and Dissent ; Chair: Claire Cross
Ruth Barbour (Local History, Leicester)
‘Catholics in the deanery of Warwick 1670 -1820: How many, where and who?’
Maureen Harris (University of Leicester, English Local History)
‘“A schismatical people”? The politics of religion in a post-Restoration “papist”
Warwickshire parish’
John Reeks (University of Bristol, History)
‘Pew Politics: The consequences of reorganising communion tables in Bath and
Wells, 1632-1640’
Sarah E. Thomas (University of Aberdeen, Centre for Scandinavian Studies)
‘Diversity of religious practices in late medieval Norwegian and Scottish parishes’
Session 5. The Making of a Fifteenth-Century Norfolk Parish Church: A study of
Fincham St Martin; chaired by co-organizers
Claire Daunton, Sandy Heslop, Helen Lunnon and Nick Trend (University of East
Anglia, Norwich)
The four speakers presented a joint session looking at a single late medieval parish
church, placing emphasis on the building as a primary source and also drawing on
historical, art historical and antiquarian evidence. The session covered a broad range
of issues including patronage, architecture and furnishing, and modes of construction,
and will place Fincham in the wider context of parish church building in late medieval
East Anglia.
Session 6. Archives as Evidence; Chair: Tara Hamling
Dr Heather Falvey (University of Oxford, Continuing Education Tutor)
‘Bells, books and the unexpected: discordant notes in early modern parish records’
Dr Valerie Hitchman and Dr Andrew Foster (University of Kent, History)
‘The Churchwardens’ Accounts Database Project’
Revd Peter Kettle
‘What’s in that top cupboard? Archival material from Holy Trinity with All Saints
South Kensington’
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Dr Sylvia Pinches (University of Leicester, English Local History)
‘A parish through the prism of an Easter book and tithe records: Ledbury,
Herefordshire, 1597-1607’
Evening plenary lecture; Chair: Peter Marshall
Dr Penny Roberts (University of Warwick, History)
‘Conflict and violence in the French urban parish in the age of the Reformation’
Evening roundtable
Warwick Network for Parish Research: Parish Studies Tomorrow
Participants: Dr Joanne Anderson (University of Warwick, History of Art), Kristi
Woodward Bain (Northwestern University, Religious Studies), Agata Gomolka
(University of Warwick, History of Art), Matthew D. Jackson (University of
Warwick, History), Susan Orlik (University of Birmingham, History), Dr Jonathan
Willis (University of Birmingham, History)
Sunday 27 May
Morning sessions
Session 7. Artworks, Agents and Interactions; Chair: Joanne Anderson
Dr Sandra Cardarelli (Aberdeen) [with contribution by Olivia Bruschettini (Grosseto)]
‘New research in the Diocese of Grosseto: Towards a systematic approach in parish
research’ / ‘Digitization of artworks in churches of the Diocese of Grosseto and
related research with historical sources’
Dr Donal Cooper (University of Warwick, Art History)
‘Ideal Poverty versus Real Poverty? Mendicant and Parish Churches in Late Medieval
and Renaissance Italy’
Don White (University of Warwick, History)
‘Invisible saints: The search for medieval wood sculpture in British parish life’
Session 8. Mentalities and Priorities; Chair: Liz Tingle
Gabriel Byng (Clare College, Cambridge)
‘How affordable were medieval parish churches?’
Dr John Hunt (University of Birmingham, History)
‘Lordship, community and the parish church: A window on medieval “mentalité”’
Bart Minnen (independent researcher)
‘The Church of St Martin in Wezemaal, an European centre of the devotion to St Job
in the 15th and 16th centuries’
Karsten Merrald Sørensen (Aarhus University/University of Flensburg)
‘Account books. A source for the church and community history in the duchy of
Schleswig in the 17th century’
Session 9. Parishes Divided? ; Chair: Roger Bowers
Kristi Woodward Bain (Northwestern University, Religious Studies)
‘Materializing conflict: How parish communities remember their turbulent medieval
pasts’
Mairi Macdonald (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
‘Church and Guild, a conflict for supremacy in 15th century Stratford-upon-Avon’
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Dr Nigel Ramsay (UCL, English Monastic Archives)
‘Monasteries and parish churches’
Session 10. Communities of the Living and the Dead; Chair: Hannes Obermair
Revd Mark Bratton and Jill Tompkins Bailey
‘Spirit of Berkswell Project’
Jennie Hawks (Diocese of Norwich)
‘The Churches Discovery Project’
Harold Mytum (Centre for Manx Studies/School of Archaeology, Liverpool)
‘Texts and More: Results of Graveyard Surveys in Britain and Ireland’
Session 11. Unlocking the Treasure Chest: new approaches, recent discoveries and
issues in interpreting parish churches; Chair: Miriam Gill
Sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Christianity & Culture, University of York
Dr Dee Dyas and Louise Hampson (Christianity and Culture, University of York)
‘Unlocking the treasure chest: but where are the keys? Interpreting parish churches
today’
Dr Kate Giles (The University of York, Archaeology)
'Digital models as research tools for churches: Stratford on Avon, a case study’
Anthony Masinton (The University of York, Archaeology)
‘3D modelling as a research tool’
Midday plenary lecture (1 hour + discussion); Chair: Beat Kümin
Martin Crampin (University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies)
‘Discovering the visual culture of Welsh parish churches in the modern age’
Afternoon sessions
Workshop 4: Graveyard Recording: Beyond Transcriptions
Harald Mytum (Centre for Manx Studies / School of Archaeology, Liverpool)
Session 12. Churches in Motion; Chair: Andrew Foster
Dr Jenny Alexander (University of Warwick, History of Art)
‘Nottingham St Mary’s church, ‘excellent, new and uniforme yn work’
Michal Bauwens (University of Ghent, Institute of Early Modern History)
‘Rebuilding the parish: The Saint James parish in Ghent (1566-1600)’
Dr Valerie Hitchman (University of Kent, History)
‘Destruction, desecration and neglect? The parish church in and around London
c1640-1660’
Session 13. Mercy to the Sick and Poor; Chair: Mark Hailwood
Jonathan Kewley (Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society)
‘Imagine No Overseers...: Some Georgian Parishes not subject to the Poor Law’
Paula McBride (University of Warwick, History),
‘Magic and healing in the early modern English parish’
Angela Nicholls (University of Warwick, History)
‘Warwickshire parish housing: Mapping provisions for the poor in the 17th century’
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Session 14. Parishioners and the Built Environment; Chair: Donal Cooper
Stephen Bates (University of Warwick, History)
‘Parochial encounters with the Virgin Mary in Reformation England’
Bridget and John Cherry
‘A condition survey of tombs in a north London churchyard [Hornsey, Haringay]’
Agata Gomolka (University of Warwick, History of Art)
‘The practicality of disease and deformity: the grotesque head as a protector of the
parish’
Session 15. Textual Communities; Chair: Nigel Ramsay
Mark Booth (former Senior Archivist, Warwickshire Record Office)
‘The Manorial Documents Register and the Historic Towns Project’
Dr Pamela Fisher (University of Leicestershire, School of Historical Studies)
‘Leicestershire VCH – A New Chapter’
Anne Kirby and Jeannette Oubridge (Bishop’s Tachbrook History Group)
‘Reflections on Bishop’s Tachbrook: Past and Present’
David Paterson (Former Head of History at King Edward VI College Nuneaton)
‘Parishioners and Pupils: An endowed Grammar School and its local parish in the 16th
Century’
Stalls / Table Displays
Avon Dassett Local History Group
Berkswell Parish
Bishop’s Tachbrook History Group
Archivio storico della città di Bolzano
British Association for Local History
Cardall Collection
Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, University of York
Churches Conservation Trust
‘Churchwardens’ Accounts Database Project’
Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society
Leicestershire Victoria County History
National Churches Trust
Ecclesiological Society
Grosseto Diocese
Hertfordshire Record Society
South Newington Parish
Victoria County History Herefordshire (Sylvia Pinches)
Warmington Heritage Group, ‘Grove Farm Project – The House and its Land’
Warwickshire Local History Society