Fiction & Commercial Writer
Work is starting!
Work is starting on Greyfriars, including these first trenches before the alterations to make the building open to the public. Hope they find something exciting!
#heritagelincolnshire #greyfriarsreimagined #greyfriarslincoln
I’m sure we all remember what happened in London, on this day in 1842. No? Then let me remind you of one of the greatest displays of radical political feeling ever to have graced the capital.
On this day the Chartist movement with its millions of followers presented their six point charter to Parliament, their intention, political reform on a scale never seen before.
A movement borne of economic strife that was culturally inclusive and had reform of the political system at its heart. This was the culmination of years of workers being downtrodden and ignored.
3,317,752 men, women and children signed a mammoth petition demanding six key changes:
This National Petition of 1842 was the greatest expression of protest in favour of democracy that has ever occurred in British history. So why might you never have heard about it? Probably because it didn’t lead to reform at the time. As you can see from the list above, most of the aims are now familiar to us and have been enshrined in our political system today.
So, ordinary people pulling together in times of economic crisis, something that still resonates now. Maybe Chartism will rear its head again in one form or another – anyone with me?!
Hopefully you’ll enjoy this modern take on a favourite fairy tale, re-imagined for the modern age and the season.
Merry Christmas.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18dDiYO3KBd23PNCyKfPhaVZ0KV16srz809yDOBOZixs/edit?usp=sharing
I have been researching medieval dances this week, as it turns out that Benedict, the protagonist in my 13 century novel, has an aptitude for dance – who knew! (Neither he or I did until I got to that scene in the book)
As we medieval history fans are well aware, sources for many medieval facets of life are limited and fragmentary, and of course this is the case for examples of dances. There are patchy references, and texts are alluded to, but not much more than that. The best examples seem to be depicted in paintings. However, we do know that medieval dance can be split into two categories, one being court dance and one country dance.
The most common dances of the period are the carole, the jig, the egg dance, the quadrille, morris dancing, country dancing and May pole dancing.
The scene in the book requires an element of comedy, as well as being Benedict’s first performance as a skilled dancer. On first investigations I liked the sound of the egg dance, until it clicked that this was probably a seasonal dance, and it was. It was a traditional Easter game involving the laying down of eggs on the ground and dancing among them whilst trying to break as few as possible.
The carole was a very popular dance, and could be found in both rural and court settings. No surviving lyrics or music are known for this dance, but we know it consisted of a group of hand holding dancers, usually in a circle. The dancers sang along in a leader and refrain style, repeating the verse after each stanza.
The scene is set around late November/early December, so after ruling out the other dances as being a bit too involved for what I needed, or not being appropriate, I settled on the jig.
The jig was a general name, used to describe a variety of rustic style dances. It involved skipping, kicking and leaping. Music was played in three-four time, i.e. having a ‘waltz’ quality to it, 1-2-3, 1-2-3.
The jig was general enough for me to use and mould it into what I needed for the scene, and had enough scope in it to give Benedict a range of movements that he can impress with.
Now to research how he would be musically accompanied whilst dancing…
I’ve introduced a few strong, maybe not so typical women into my novel over the last couple of weeks. One’s a fierce mother figure, one is in love with her maid, and one is a young woman determined to buck the trend of being married off and consequently written off before she’s even reached adulthood!
These women got me thinking about other contemporaries that lived in Lincoln. I’ve picked out three below to tell their stories.
When her father died, Nicolaa de le Haye became a wealthy heiress with extensive estates in Lincolnshire. She married twice and after the death of her second husband, Gerard de Camville, she had a claim to the position of Lincoln castle governor. Much admired by King John, she had already proved herself by defending the castle from attack in 1191, and in 1216 he made her Sheriff of Lincolnshire. Not bad for a female in her mid-sixties.
In 1217 the second battle of Lincoln was fought, and Nicholaa withstood months of sieges from invaders, but shockingly, she lost her position to the Earl of Salisbury just days after the battle, but undeterred, she continued to run her estates into retirement.
Alice de Lacy was an heiress to the earldom of Lincoln, and a great prize on the marriage market. At around age 12 she was married to King Edward I’s nephew, Thomas of Lancaster. But, in a bizarre event, she was abducted by an enemy of her husband, with Thomas making little attempt to have Alice returned to him.
She re-married in 1324 to Sir Ebolo Lestrange, in seemingly a love match. Ebolo died in 1335, and was buried in Barlings Abbey. Then in 1336 Alice was abducted for a second time by Sir Hugh de Frene, who assaulted her, and as was common, the couple then married.
Alice lived until 1348, was buried next to Ebolo, and is an example of the perils of being an heiress at this time.
Katherine Swynford, born in 1349, was married to Sir Swynford, a knight in the service of John of Gaunt. She became governess to John’s daughters, but started a scandalous relationship with him that resulted in four children. Two years after the death of John’s wife, they were married in Lincoln cathedral and their children legitimised, and because of this she became an ancestress of several royal dynasties.
Her tomb, and that of her daughter are in the sanctuary of Lincoln cathedral.
https://www.lincolncastle.com/
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Janet Stock 