Newsletter Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library Seeing Round Corners
n 2015 a team from the Turner Contemporary in Margate visited the Cathedral to explore ways in which the two organisations could work together. This has proved to be a fruitful relationship I resulting in the loan of three historic books from the Library collections as part of the international gallery’s summer show, Seeing Round Corners, which ran from May to September 2016. The exhibition was curated by artists David Ward and Jonathan Parsons with the Turner Contemporary. The displays explored how artists have responded to the phenomenon of the circle, the disc or the sphere.
The three items were two Books of Hours and our copy of the Nuremburg Chronicle. The Books of Hours are part of a 19th-century gift from Benjamin Harrison, residentiary canon at the Cathedral. Both books are written in French and have parchment pages. The 1450 Book of Hours is a high- status manuscript, written by a scribe and illustrated by an artist. The illustrations and the text are enhanced with gold leaf. The text of the 1516 Book of Hours is printed on parchment with illustrations painted by an artist. The gold used in this book is coloured paint rather than gold leaf. The illustrations exhibited show circles being used to illustrate the status of saints. The copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle is a first edition, printed in 1493 in Nuremberg. The paper is of a very high quality and was probably made in the paper mill at Nuremberg. The book is a history of the Christian world told in chronological order starting with the creation of the world and is extensively illustrated throughout. The illustration chosen for the exhibition depicts the creation of the world through a series of concentric circles. If you would like to read more about the Nuremburg Chronicle follow this link: http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/2016/05/09/in-the-beginning-there-were-spheres- of-angels/
ther items which have been recently on loan from the Cathedral’s collections include items from the OHubert Walter vestments, as well as items from the Black Prince’s Achievements. These were lent to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for its exhibition ‘Opus Anglicanum: masterpieces of English medieval embroidery’, which finished in early February 2017.
For more information see: http://www.canterbury- cathedral.org/2016/05/19/cathedral-collection-captures- the-publics-imagination/
Newsletter 4956 | | Spring Summer 2017 2011 Shakespeare 400 celebrations
2016 marked the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death; he died on 23rd April 1616 at the age of 52. The Archives and Library worked closely with The Canterbury Journey and external partners on a programme of events to support the Shakespeare anniversary. We are fortunate that the Cathedral Archives and Library is home to a wide range of items dating back to the period during which Shakespeare was writing and performing. During the anniversary year, the Library hosted a high number of visits to see displays featuring some of these items, which include The Complete Works of Shakespeare, also known as the ‘Second Folio’ (the second edition), printed in 1632; an early edition of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (a much revered author of the time); and Holinshed’s Chronicle, from which Shakespeare took many of the plots for his history plays. Included in the Archives holding are the accounts for Fordwich showing payments to the King’s Players in the early 17th century. These were featured in the BBC’s Countryfile series, with Judy Dench, in an episode devoted to Shakespeare. Several local schools came along to participate in a Shakespeare-themed workshop organised and hosted by the Schools Department. During the visit the children made their own version of an ‘herbal’ (a book of herbs), which they illustrated with copies of woodcuts used in original books and some relevant Shakespearean quotations. The children also visited the Library to see the ‘real’ herbals and other books printed during Shakespeare’s lifetime as well as visiting the Cathedral herb garden to touch and smell the living herbs. John Shirland, one of our Cathedral Guides, ran a series of linked lectures and visits which included a Shakespeare-themed tour around the Cathedral followed by a visit to the Library with Karen Brayshaw. The series was originally intended to be for the guides and volunteers who support the Cathedral’s Visits and Schools Departments, but was then extended to Friends Open Day and the Youth Forum. The tours and talks given by John were called ‘Shakespeare’s Fathers and Sons’ and included visiting the tombs of the Black Prince and Henry IV, both of whom feature in Shakespeare’s history plays. In the Library the groups were able to see books from Shakespeare’s lifetime as well as books which were printed as a result of Shakespeare’s works. John was particularly interested in the second edition of Holinshed’s Chronicle, which contains one of the earliest occasions of Edward, Prince of Wales, being referred to as ‘The Black Prince’. For further information please see the following links: http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/2016/04/06/celebrating-shakespeare-400-faces-and-folios/ http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/2016/04/19/john-shares-his-shakespeare-cathedral-tour/
2 RNIB Sensing Culture project
Mixed media and textile workshops for adults with sight loss
ocal blind and partially sighted adults, Cathedral volunteers and staff have been taking part in creative workshops in the Archives and Library, inspired by Canterbury Cathedral and its collections.
LLed by mixed media artist Wendy Daws and textile artist Claire Buckley, the workshops form part of the wider HLF funded RNIB Sensing Culture project, which aims to increase accessibility and activities for this important audience at heritage venues across the South East. Partners include the RNIB, Oxford Museums, Brighton Museums, Lewes Castle and Anne of Cleves House, and the Conan Doyle Collection in Portsmouth - as well as the Beaney, the Kent Association for the Blind and the Canterbury Macular Society here in Canterbury. Participants have enjoyed finding out about the Cathedral, taking part in audio described ‘touch tours’ and object investigation sessions, and making a creative response in a range of different media. So far the group has investigated replica items from the Bargrave Cabinet of Curiosities (including a rhino tooth and mummified Frenchman’s finger); explored wooden carvings of dragons and pelicans on the stalls and misericords in the Quire; and taken part in a touch tour of the tomb of Archbishop Randall Davidson in the Trinity Chapel. Participants have responded in a range of media including craft foil, one metre long charcoal pencils and decorative wire! Workshops have been inclusive with blind and partially sighted participants, Sensing Culture volunteers, and Archives and Library staff and volunteers learning and creating art together. The sessions have been great fun; new friendships have been made; and everyone has visibly grown in confidence week by week - including some who are engaging in art for the first time in many years. Artwork from the project also featured in an exhibition in the Beaney Front Room in December 2016.
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 3 Festival of Ideas
ur collections featured in a number of projects showcased during the ‘Festival of Ideas: Questions of Space’, held on 20th-21st June 2016. This Festival was the result of a collaboration between the Cathedral and the University of Kent. A number of academics Opresented their work over the two days, with exhibitions, tours and talks. The ‘Unlocking Canterbury’ project presented by Catherine Richardson, Danielle van den Heuvel and Avril Leach featured a 17th- century map from the archive collection of Canterbury City. The map was presented in the Chapter House as a greatly enlarged copy which visitors could walk on. On the map were ‘listening posts’ with recordings read from contemporary written records held in the archive; these brought the map to life, and afforded fascinating insights into the city at this time.
Another project, ‘Bird’s Eye View’, also in the Chapter House, centred on a printed map made by Dr Christopher Packe in the 18th century. The Cathedral once owned a copy of this, but it no longer survives; the copy displayed was lent by Canterbury Museums. On display in the reading room were some items from our collections, including printed and manuscript maps and Packe’s marriage and burial entries. For a video, see https://www.kent.ac.uk/publicengagement/questions-of-space.html
4 UNESCO Memory of the World Register
e are delighted that the medieval archive of the cathedral priory, as held in the Archives and Library, has secured inclusion in the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register. W The medieval archive dates from the 9th century to the dissolution of the priory in 1541, and amounts to some 17,000 individual documents. It constitutes one of the best medieval monastic archives in the UK. The collection was one of the seven new ‘inscriptions’ made in 2016. The awards were presented by the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, to representatives of the various archives at an event hosted by the Welsh Government at the Senedd in Cardiff on 21st June.
UNESCO established the Memory of the World (MoW) Programme in 1992. The programme vision is that the world’s documentary heritage belongs to all, and should be fully preserved and protected for all and permanently accessible to all without hindrance. The UK Register recognises documentary heritage deemed by a panel of experts to be of outstanding significance to the UK. It now lists 57 entries. Another of the new inclusions is the ‘Exeter Book’ held by Exeter Cathedral. This is an anthology of poetry in Old English, written down in about the year 970. It is the largest and probably the oldest of the four surviving major poetic manuscripts in the language. It belonged to Exeter’s first bishop, Leofric.
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 5 Book Review: Tracing Your Kent Ancestors
n recent years there has been a transformation in the way family and local historians can obtain I access to the records they require, with the availability of an increasing range of sources being provided online. Indeed, it is becoming clear that a substantial proportion of researchers extend their activities no further than their online efforts, thereby not only limiting their opportunities of successful research, but also curtailing their understanding of the world of archives – especially primary sources – which inevitably consigns their efforts to unnecessarily premature disappointment and frustration.
So, far from questioning whether a guide such as this is still relevant or necessary in a rapidly changing field, it seems clear that this offering is not only a vital addition to the assistance available for research on Kentish families, but very timely indeed. The publication is not only “bang up to date” but – lest it should be considered vulnerable to becoming immediately out of date with the launch of the next tranche of online records – it reminds us that many sources are not available online and re-emphasises a number of established principles of research, easily overlooked these days or even entirely unknown to those who have come to the hobby via their computer, and who may remain unaware of the value of guides such as this.
In the author’s Introduction and in his chapters on Preliminaries and Principle Basic Sources, the reader will pick up much that he or she may have thought they already knew - but didn’t! Among these sections is a clear explanation, for example, of the vital topic that so many family historians find daunting – that of wills and probate. Sources often overlooked by those reluctant to leave their computers are well covered by this guide, such as borough records and the fascinating church court records, and of course the extensive material to be discovered in our “parish chests” (so often overlooked by researchers) all of which are readily accessible at the Kent History and Library Centre and at Canterbury Cathedral Archives. Many other local sources described include newspapers and directories. The Victorian poor law system produced a plethora of records which are available to us – records of workhouses and asylums for example, but much more – which have very good survival rates and, again, are accessible locally. Maps can be vital to our research and are described clearly here, as are sources such as the land tax, assize courts, quarter and petty sessions and archives produced by schools and the education system.
6 Book Review: Tracing Your Kent Ancestors
Even the most experienced family historian will find material and explanations he/she will have overlooked, but the limits of space prevent here the description of every source or every suggestion made by Dr Wright, whose previous specialist guides on Kentish research have already pointed many readers in the right direction for some years now. His clear maps and his careful choice of photographs and facsimiles of documents located in our Kentish archive and library collections enhance the way in which the material and his explanations are arranged. It was high time a publication such as this appeared and it seems certain that a new generation of readers will benefit from the author’s long experience in the field of genealogical and local history research. By Peter Ewart Tracing Your Kent Ancestors: A Guide for Family & Local Historians by David Wright. Pen & Sword Family History, Paperback, 2016. pp ix, 229, bibliog., parish gazetteer & index. RRP £14.99
The Baedeker Raid on Canterbury - 75 years on conference and exhibition organised jointly between Canterbury Christ Church University and Canterbury Cathedral will be held to mark 75 years since the Baedeker Raids of AMay/June 1942. On 3rd June 2017 from 09:30-13:00 there will be a series of lectures by Martin Watts, Kevin Ruane, Jordan Newton, Tim Jones and Paul Bennet about different aspects of the raids. Tickets for the morning are priced at £8 or £5 and the event will be held in the Old Sessions House at Canterbury Christ Church University. This is followed by an afternoon guided walk around Canterbury with Paul Bennet (limited tickets are available, priced at £5). There will also be a photography exhibition on the day featuring items from the Cathedral Archives, and at 18:30 there is a film showing of A Canterbury Tale (1943) at the Eastbridge Hospital (donations welcome; booking required). The conference is contextualised by the ‘Object of the month’ display in the Cathedral Crypt which runs from 1st March to 31st May 2017. This features a bomb-damaged book recovered from the wreckage of the Cathedral Library following the raids in 1942. The book has been preserved in its bomb-damaged condition as a reminder of the impact of World War II. Opening hours are 10:00 to 1630 Monday-Friday and 12:00-14:00 on Sundays. Please note that the exhibition is subject to occasional restricted access for services and special events. Normal precincts charges apply. For full details of booking and tickets, please visit http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/baedeker or email: [email protected]; tel. 01227 782994.
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 7 Staff News
ackie Davidson, our very valued colleague, retired at the end of May 2016. The number of those in the Chapter House for tea and cake on her last day was testament to her achievements as part of the staff team. Jackie started Jworking at the Cathedral Archives in 1994. She spent some of her career working at the Modern Records Centre for Kent County Council, and at the Brymore Road Records Centre for Canterbury City Council; she re-joined the Cathedral Archives and Library staff in 2013. We wish Jackie all the very best for her retirement, and trust that she will call in regularly to see us—on those rare occasions when she is not abroad on holiday!
Laura Matlock, our colleague of many years in the Archives and Library, working on the Statutory Inventory and on digitisation, has decided to take a break from work to spend time with her daughter Luna. We are most grateful for all her contributions in the past, and will miss her; however, we know we will see her from time to time. We will also hear regular news of the family, as Laura’s husband, Luke, is one of the Cathedral’s gardeners. Mady Outen (neé Beardmore) left the Archives on the completion of the Inventory project at the end of the summer to cover a position in the Schools department. Shortly afterwards she secured a three-year curator role at the Mining Museum at Betteshanger. We are delighted for Mady and wish her all the very best in her continuing studies and future career in the museum sector.
Dr Margaret Sparks, honorary Cathedral Historian, who was based in the Archives and Library for many years, retired at the end of the summer. Dr Sparks’ contribution towards the historical understanding of the Cathedral has been enormous and unique; she has been very much part of the department team. An afternoon symposium was held in the Reading Room in September to mark the occasion with a series of illuminating and entertaining lectures from a panel of historians and archaeologists including Richard Gameson, Tim Tatton-Brown, Richard Eales and Paul Bennett. The symposium was followed by afternoon tea at the Cathedral Lodge where messages from others unable to attend were read out.
8 Staff News Staff News
The Cathedral’s Receiver-General, Brigadier John Meardon, also retired at the end of July 2016. Throughout his time at Canterbury he was very supportive of the work of the department, and we are most grateful to him. His successor, Commodore Martin Atherton, took over last Autumn.
Welcome On 20th June 2016, Ashleigh Hawkins joined the team as an Archivist on a one-year contract. Ashleigh had recently completed her course in Archives and Records Management at Liverpool, and we are delighted to have her with us.
Dr. Toby Huitson took over as Digitisation Officer (a three days per week role) in December 2015. Toby, who has been a member of Archives and Library staff for several years, was previously David Flood’s PA, and still has close links with the IT department as a former IT support technician. His role includes managing the Image Database, photographing material for internal and external orders, and digitisiting the Archives and Library collections (see page 13).
We also welcome Helen Swinney, formerly casual Archives and Library Assistant, to a regular part-time role covering the front desk and helping in the Strongroom. Helen is studying on a postgraduate Archives course.
Archives and Library Tour and Afternoon Tea
On Friday 4th and Friday 18th August 2017 there will be a rare chance to find out more about the Archives and Library with a special tour. Original documents and books will be on display, and there will be a chance to ask questions about our holdings and how to register with us to start doing your own research. The tours begin at 2:30pm on both days and are followed by afternoon tea at the Cathedral Lodge. For booking and tickets, visit: https://www.canterburycathedrallodge.org/events/cathedral- archives-tour-and-afternoon-tea/
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 9 An afternoon to remember William Urry
illiam Urry (1913-1981) was formerly Cathedral and City Archivist of Canterbury and one of the great historians of Wour city. This year marks the 50th anniversary of his major and ground-breaking publication Canterbury under the Angevin Kings which appeared in 1967. Dr. Urry also wrote on many other aspects and periods of the city and cathedral’s history, regularly appearing in the local press and in Cathedral publications. His book Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury was published posthumously in 1988, and Thomas Becket: his last days in 1999.
We invite you for an afternoon on Thursday 18th May from 2-5pm to mark this anniversary and to celebrate the work and legacy of William Urry. Prof. Louise Wilkinson of Canterbury Christ Church University will speak about Urry’s work on the medieval period, and Dr. Joanna Labon will speak about the age of Christopher Marlowe. Also contributing will be William Urry’s son, Bill Urry, who will share some of his own memories of his father. Others who knew him will also be contributing their own reminiscences, and there will also be an opportunity to listen to some recorded interviews. Cressida Williams, Head of Archives and Library, will introduce a display of items from the collections and an archive sound recording of Urry’s voice in his own reminiscences. The afternoon will take place in the Reading Room of the Archives, the reconstruction of which Urry oversaw after the destruction of the previous building 75 years ago in 1942. It will end with tea and cakes. Booking required, by phone or email (see back cover for our full contact details).
10 Reading Room Visitor Survey
uring October and November 2016 Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library took part in a national survey of visitors to archives in order to better understand the needs Dand views of our users. Of the 60 respondents to the survey the majority were researching family or local history, or were conducting academic research. The attitude of the staff and the quality and appropriateness of their advice was universally very highly ranked, with one respondent going so far as to compare the service favourably with both the British Library and the British Museum! Suggestions for how the user experience could be improved mainly centred upon the provision of facilities, such as a comfort area and a water fountain. The most divisive topic seems to have been that of the newly introduced photography licences, which have been well received by some, but not by others. The benefits to the user of visiting archives were widely recognised, and the ability of archival research to provide enjoyment, knowledge and inspiration was noted by many. Thank you to all those who took the time to fill in the survey and provide feedback on facilities and services, as well as information about why and how you access our collections. The results of this survey have been both positive and thought-provoking and will be used to inform plans for the future of the service. They will also be shared with our User Groups.
Ashleigh Hawkins
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 11 Accessions Highlights
mongst recent accessions is a set of deeds dating from the 17th century onwards for the Rose/Duke of Cumberland/Duke’s Head in Church Street St Paul’s, Canterbury. This property is now occupied by a restaurant. It was originally demised from Richard Roberts to Thomas APavier in 1619 on a 1000 year lease. Pavier (d1625) was a London bookseller who published some of Shakespeare’s plays. More research on these documents will be carried out shortly, so we shall hope to be able to report again in subsequent newsletters!
Parish Records (U3) Cheriton, St Martin (U3-148): Documents relating to major restoration, early 20th Century Faversham, St Mary of Charity (U3-146): Register of baptisms, 1981-2008, Register of banns, 2001-2008, PCC and APC minutes, 1994- 2013, Papers relating to church, glebe and Vicarage, 1873-1962, Altered Tithe Apportionments, 1856-1907 Harbledown, St Michael (U3-194): Records of the Mothers Union, 20th Century Preston next Wingham (U3-245): Charities, Appointment of Trustees, 1943 Dean and Chapter Records (DCc) Glass Plate Slides and Negatives (DCc-GPSN): George Washington Wilson slide of Cathedral and Canterbury pilgrims; slide of Christ Church Gate, 19th Century Prints (DCc-PRINDRAW): Penance of Henry II before Becket’s Shrine, 1794; Line engraving of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1742; “The Blue Girls of Canterbury” from the Pictorial World, 1874 Photographs (CCA-Photo): Photographs, prints and postcards of Christ Church Gate, 19th-21st Century Unofficial (U) Eastbridge Hospital (U24): Appointment of 1938 Deeds, 1620-1923; Sales particulars and related items relating to properties in Canterbury, Wickhambreaux, Stodmarsh and Whitstable, 1829-1938 (U538)
12 Accessions Highlights Digitisation News
he Digitisation Studio provides a copying and transfer service for internal and external customers, and enables on-line access to fragile historic material. 2016 was a busy year with special commissions from the University of Stavanger in Norway for their Middle English TScribal Texts project and the University of St Andrews for their research into church courts in the 13th century. We have also undertaken document and audio digitisation for the archives of the King’s School, Canterbury.
We received over 100 digitisation orders last year from private individuals. January and August were the busiest months, representing between them a third of the annual total requests. The material requested varied widely. About half of all orders, as might be expected, were from the Dean and Chapter’s collections, including charters, maps and register extracts. Roughly 10% of orders was for material from the parish collections, with a similar number for the City archives and Unofficial collections. Material relating to the Diocese, and images from library books, accounted for just under a tenth each. There was also several requests for images of the Cathedral building, including tombs, monuments, pavements and floors, and one or two requests for images of paintings and artefacts. The items ranged from a Hebrew scroll and a 17th-century pilgrim ribbon to a vintage car registration entry and slides of a historic map. We are very pleased to have been presented with a second-hand digital microfilm reader by the University of Kent. It is now available for use in the Reading Room following refurbishment. This equipment will enable our readers to make their own high-quality digital images from microfilm with infinitely more detail and control than was possible with the old reader-printer. An ongoing project is the digitisation of our audio collections. While our holdings (currently comprising about 750 items, including 78 RPM and vinyl records, domestic and studio reel-to- reel tapes, cassettes, minidiscs and CD-Rs) are relatively modest in number compared to the 6.5 million items held in the British Library Sound Archive, they are nonetheless valuable and many are unique. They cover former Archbishops’ enthronements, live and broadcast services including Choral Evensong, bellringing, drama and plays, oral history, talks, and reminiscences. Much of this material has not been heard for decades and urgently needs transferring to ensure its preservation and future access. We have been delighted to several recordings in recent months from various individuals, either as originals, or on temporary loan for copying. If you have any recordings relating to the Cathedral which you think may be of interest to us, or if you would like us to digitise some audio material of your own, we would be very pleased to hear from you. Toby Huitson, Digitisation Officer
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 13 ‘What manner of men…’?
Chris Price, Lay clerk and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music and Performing Arts at CCCU, writes about his continuing research into the history of the Canterbury Catch Club.
In 1900, a journalist at the Kentish Gazette found himself looking at the Canterbury Catch Club print and wondering ‘what manner of men they were in those early days’. It becomes clear that the Club, by then, was ancient history for the Gazette: ‘It is impossible to help smiling at the rows of sedate-looking citizens, each one puffing at a church-warden clay pipe full half a yard long’. By then, pipes and music had gone the way of the members themselves, who had, ‘alas, long passed ‘into the land of silent shadows’ from which no Orpheus can recall them’. Well, I’m no Orpheus, but for the last few years I’ve been recalling the Canterbury Catch Club for anyone who would come and listen: in the Archives Reading Room (which ended up in that BBC documentary, you may recall), the Beaney, the Canterbury Festival and, in 2016, much, much further afield. And all because of that print. If Henry Ward, Canterbury’s enterprising early 19th-century bookseller, had known what he was starting, he’d have charged more than twelve shillings and sixpence for it in 1826. Last year, it went to Venice, St Petersburg, Xi’an (yes, China) and Hong Kong, on display for a fascinated academic community who – quite rightly – find the image an iconographical treasure-trove. It’s not just the print. The image is the most well known, and most accessible, tip of the archival iceberg, but the beauty of it is that we have all the other material (Minutes Books, Concert Records, other artefacts and, of course, the music) to help tell the story of the Club – and to show that the image is rather a work of fiction. The absence of actual singing (not to mention actual drinking), women, pipe smoke, and general ribaldry is some way from the truth – but that gives the scholar even more to talk about! There’s much more work to be done, and music to be sung, by me and my fellow Lay Clerks, but many thanks to the Archives and Library staff, to Canterbury Museums, and to Canterbury Christ Church University, for the story so far.
The print of the Catch club in its heyday View of the Bell Tower at Xi’an
14 Unlocking the Chest
t the St Catherine’s Audit each December, the Dean and Chapter drew up an account of its wealth in a single-sheet document headed ‘The State of the Church’. The Cathedral Archives has an almost continuous series of these from 1679 to 1712 (CCA DCc/SC/1-32). The ATreasurer was then responsible for making the individual payments which would be recorded in the Treasurers’ Books and signed for by each of the canons (CCA DCc/TB series). All of these transactions were for large or relatively large amounts of money for payments which could not be made out of current cash-in-hand, or for surplus amounts of cash-in-hand which needed to be put into the reserves. It is clear from the many references in these documents to ‘the Chest’ that there was a central secure repository for the Dean and Chapter’s reserve funds. Many of the transactions are backed up by three signatures, usually of the Dean, the Vice Dean and the Treasurer, sometimes mentioning that one of the signatories was representing an absent key holder and was armed with his key; for example, in 1688, we find the signature of ‘Geo Thorp cum clave vicede[cani]’ (George Thorp with the Vice Dean’s key); Dr Thorp is signing on behalf of that year’s Vice Dean whose key he has been given. This suggests that there must have been a security system involving a chest with three locks which required all three key holders to be present to pay money in or take money out of the reserves. All three then signed a record on the sheet for that year’s ‘State of the Church’ reconciliation for the St Catherine’s Audit. The chest was already in use in 1662. Dr William Belke, the Treasurer for 1662/1663, records in rough notes at the front of that year’s Treasurer’s Book (CCA DCc TB 3):
Aug. 25: layd more into ye chest in ye treasury of my money 180£ viz. one bag 100£ and another 80£ in all 480£
Chests of this sort with multiple locks had been a common system for securing institutional valuables since the Middle Ages. An enquiry to the Cathedral’s Vesturer (head virger) Christopher Crooks quickly established that the Cathedral does have such a chest and that it was to be found in the virgers’ office in the Wax Chamber (see photo). Mr Crooks informs me that it is thought to be an iron chest of 17th-century German manufacture of a sort (erroneously) known as an ‘Armada’ chest. It seems highly probably that this is the chest referred to in these ‘State of the Church’ documents. Adapted from ‘Financial record keeping at Canterbury Cathedral in the late seventeenth century’ by Dr. David Shaw (Library volunteer), published in the Cathedral Libraries and Archives Association Newsletter (Winter 2016).
Newsletter 56 | Spring 2017 15 Forthcoming Events & Closures 2017
Canterbury Cathedral Library Treasures 1st Apr 2017 10:00-11:00 and 11:30-12:30. Two tours of the Library, as part of the Canterbury History Weekend (maximum 20 people in each group). Tickets £10 each. For more information, visit www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities and follow the links. An Afternoon to remember William Urry Thurs 18th May, 14:00-17:00. Full details on p. 10. Booking required by phone or email (see below). Free to attend but donations welcome. Normal precincts charges apply. The Baedeker raid on Canterbury - 75 years on Sat 3rd June 09:30-13:00 Talks and archive photograph exhibition to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the 1942 Baedeker raid on Canterbury. To book, visit www.canterbury. ac.uk/baedeker Day Conference of the Cathedral Libraries and Archives Association 2017 Mon 19th June 2017 ‘Cathedral Treasures: celebrating our historic collections’. Non- members welcome: please email [email protected] for further details. Archives and Library Tour and Afternoon Tea Fri 4th & Fri 18th Aug 2017, 14:30. Enjoy a full afternoon tea overlooking a beautiful courtyard garden. Afterwards, experience a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of the Cathedral Archives and Library. £22.95 per person; tickets available from the Cathedral Lodge: www.canterburycathedrallodge.org Saturday Reading Room openings (09:15-12:45): 1st Apr, 6th May, 3rd Jun, 1st Jul, 5th Aug (TBC), 2nd Sep, 7th Oct. (Booking required)
Reading Room closures 7th Apr – 24th Apr (inclusive) Easter closure 18th May Afternoon closure for William Urry event 6th Jun Closed for group visit 14th-25th Aug (inclusive) Summer closure 6th-10th Nov Schools Days closure 18th-31th Dec Christmas closure
Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library The Precincts, Canterbury CT1 2EH Tel +44 (0) 1227 865330 Fax +44 (0) 1227 865222 Email: [email protected] |[email protected] www.canterbury-cathedral.org/heritage/archives-library/