Supervisors
- Professor Beth Williamson (University of Bristol, beth.williamson@bristol.ac.uk )
- Professor James Clark (University of Exeter, J.G.Clark@exeter.ac.uk )
- Dr Matthew Payne (Westminster Abbey, Matthew.Payne@westminster-abbey.org)
(image by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster)
Professor Williamson is Professor of Medieval Culture and Chair in the History of Art; Professor Clark is Director of Exeter’s Societies & Cultures Institute, and Professor of History; Dr Payne is Keeper of the Muniments (Archivist)
The supervisory team bring complementary strengths in medieval and early modern history, religious, material and visual culture, and archival research. Between them, they have extensive supervisory experience in the religious history of the medieval and early modern period, including several CDA projects and SWWDTP-funded doctoral students.
Subject
This research will investigate a key aspect of the medieval history of one of the most important churches in medieval England, drawing on unique – and uniquely well-preserved – sources of evidence that have not been properly assessed before. The project facilitates new academic research to respond to curatorial questions and the interpretative needs of a heritage partner of international renown, a site whose public audience is among the largest and most diverse in the UK.
Westminster Abbey is the burial place of Edward the Confessor, medieval England’s best-known royal saint. His body lies at the heart of the Abbey, as its major relic, and his shrine was its major reliquary. But medieval Westminster possessed a multitude of relics, acquired via diverse routes, and housed in many spaces. This project has three connecting objectives:
- To trace the origins and growth of Westminster Abbey’s historic relics.
- To establish their original placement within the spaces of the Abbey
- To understand how individually and collectively they contributed to the religious culture of medieval Westminster.
Mapping Westminster Abbey’s collection, curation, and use of relics is a major undertaking in itself, but also the starting point for an enquiry into the spaces of the church, their evolution over time, and their sacred meanings. The Abbey was not one place of worship but many, with a suite of sacred spaces both for public ceremonial and private devotion. However, the original form and function of these spaces, and in general the diversity of medieval devotions, is difficult to recover for 21st-century visitors.
This research will transform the current, somewhat one-dimensional, public understanding of Westminster Abbey. As a consequence of Edward the Confessor’s status as both saint and king, as well as the Abbey church’s identity as the nation’s first and foremost royal mausoleum and as the location for coronations, Westminster Abbey has come to be understood and encountered primarily as a stage for the celebration of monarchy. In recent years this has been highlighted again by the funeral of a monarch and the coronation of her successor. But Westminster Abbey was a church whose religious purpose and spiritual meaning reached beyond the divine authority of monarchy.
Research questions
The central research questions for the doctoral project will include:
- What were, and where were, Westminster Abbey’s relics in the Middle Ages?
- What does the cult of relics, considered alongside an examination of the Abbey’s furnishings, spaces, and other material possessions, reveal about the conception, use, and understanding of sacred space and sacred objects in this building down to the Reformation?
- What insights for the present curation of artefacts, and interpretation of spaces might follow from this close attention to the medieval relics and their placement and treatment in the past?
The student will have a background in medieval studies (broadly defined), with experience of conducting independent research in the context of an MA, or equivalent experience (possibly including prior work in the heritage sector, or museums, libraries, or archives). They will be keen to work with visual and material culture (both surviving and lost but documented), as well as with textual and archival material. They should have a sound understanding of western medieval Christianity, and of English royal and religious history.
There will be wide scope for the student to shape the direction of the overall project, and to develop some specific avenues of research for themselves.
Research context
There has been much work on the history and architecture of Westminster Abbey, and on its connection with the cult of English kingship. There has been some work on individual relics or relic collections within the Abbey, but there is more to do on Westminster Abbey’s spaces in the service of a ‘cult church’, beyond the royal mausoleum identity. More recent contributions on the cult of saints, and on the role of churches of national importance in medieval England, will provide a context for this new work. This research will help WA to interpret and present its history in a more multifaceted way.
Skills development and employability enhancement
The student will be working partly within Westminster Abbey, using both the building and its archival records. The necessity for combining archival and material/architectural sources will give the student the opportunity to develop a broad range of expertise and skills that reaches across disciplines. The student will have the opportunity to participate in all the training opportunities offered by SWWDTP, and to benefit from membership of Bristol’s and Exeter’s Centres for Medieval Studies/ Early Modern Studies. They will be able to participate in specific skills training relevant to the project (such as Latin and palaeography). They will also receive specialist archival training from Payne at the Abbey, as well as introductions to other collections (such as The National Archives, the British Library, London Metropolitan Archives, Lambeth Palace Library) and to staff at other institutions that provide research potential (including Canterbury Cathedral and Durham Cathedral, among others).
The Abbey’s research environment is already significant and there is an intention to grow it still further. As well as hands-on archival training with the Abbey collections and finding aids, the student will gain a range of unique skills from the opportunity to work at Westminster Abbey, including: a dedicated programme of induction to the collections and history of Westminster Abbey, provided by the Abbey’s Head of Collections, Keeper of the Muniments, and Curator; access to senior members of Westminster Abbey clergy who can inform work on theological and liturgical matters; working with the Abbey conservation department, and the conservation department at Lambeth Palace Library, where the Abbey funds a conservator to work on Abbey materials; option to explore the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, and to discuss collections, display, and interpretation with WA’s Curator (Dr Susan Jenkins); the opportunity to present the results of research in various contexts (talks to Abbey staff, volunteers, and guides), and in a variety of formats (including academic-style seminars, and more informal talks to members of WA’s Learning Department, Westminster Abbey Association (for example) or directly to Abbey visitors); training from the Abbey’s digital and communications teams; access to the members of Westminster Abbey’s Fabric Commission, a group of over 20 experts charged with the conservation and care of the Abbey’s buildings and furnishings; opportunities to connect with other staff of the Abbey including those working in Development, Visitor Experience, Education and more.
All of this will give the student a unique opportunity to conduct doctoral research at the same time as gaining an understanding of the workings of a significant heritage institution. At the end of this project they will have the ability to look to careers in the academic world and beyond, and they will have produced research that will feed directly into helping the Abbey tell its stories in new ways, reaching 1.5 million visitors a year, and many more online.
References
Download project brief (Word, 28kb)
SWWDTP CDA application and assessment timeline, and application guidance.