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Speaker: Max Craven

In 2017 Max and Carole Craven undertook a Roman-themed voyage of discovery , taking in the more obscure but unjustifiably neglected sections of the southern and eastern coasts of England on which stand some of the most impressive vestiges of Roman Britain, interspersed with sections on basic facts, location, access and contact details of each, interspersed with enjoyable non-Roman interludes.

In the later third century AD, the outer reaches of the Roman empire were being threatened on all sides by hostile actors. Along the southern and eastern coasts of Britain, a series of ten, possibly twelve, vast fortified enclosures were built beside strategic harbours to defend against external threats, mainly from Germanic marauders and also to act as secure entrepôts for Britian supplied much of the Annona (edible supplies) for the Rhine army, any interruption of which would needless to say, be disastrous. Through sixteen centuries, impressive vestiges of most of them have survived, although three have vanished, virtually without trace. Several became the sites of Norman castles; others have associations with early Christianity; all have a story to tell.

Taking the story from the colossal surviving fort at Portchester in Hampshire to the empty, windswept site of Brancaster on the north Norfolk coast, Seeking the Saxon Shore is an introduction to exploring these ancient sites and for bringing them to life; acting as a practical guide to locate and access them. In describing the origins of the forts, their ancient settings, their functions and subsequent histories, this lecture will, we hope, enable those listening to travel through a modern landscape but well briefed to recognise and visualise the distant past.

Speaker: Ann Hughes

The title comes from evidence given in the church court at Lichfield against the Rector of Sudbury who was accused, amongst other things, of a sexual relationship with a married parishioner. In the early modern period, many crucial aspects of people’s lives were dealt with by church courts rather than secular bodies – for the people of Derbyshire this meant the Consistory Court of Lichfield Diocese, often known as the ‘bawdy court’ for much of the business included sexual transgressions, marital disputes and slander or ‘defamation’ which also often involved sexual accusations. The Court also dealt with behaviour in church, care for church buildings, clerical standards, and wills and heritance. A cataloguing project by Staffordshire Archives and Heritage has made the fascinating records of this court available more widely, and my talk will explore its workings with particular use of Derbyshire examples.

Professor Ann Hughes is retired from Keele University where she was Professor of Early Modern History for almost twenty years. She works mostly on the mid-seventeenth English political and religious upheavals and was academic advisor to the ‘Bawdy Courts of Lichfield’ project.