The Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society has arranged another short series of summer lectures to be held online via Zoom during August. The lectures are free and open to all but require individual booking in advance. The Zoom links for the lectures will be sent to all registrants a day or two before the event takes place.
Lecture 5
Thursday 29th August 2024 at 7.30 pm
Historic Building Mythbusting - Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology
Dr James Wright
Go to any ancient building and there will be interesting, exciting, and romantic stories presented to the visitor. They are commonly believed and widely repeated – but are they really true? These stories include those of secret passages linking ancient buildings, spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, ship timbers used in the construction of buildings on land, blocked doors in churches which are thought to keep the Devil out and claims to be the oldest pub in the country. Dr James Wright will explain the development of such myths and investigate the underlying truths behind them. Sometimes the realities hiding behind the stories are even more interesting, romantic, and exciting than the myth itself ...
Dr James Wright FSA is a buildings archaeologist and a conservation stonemason who has worked for Nottinghamshire County Council, Museum of London Archaeology (where he was part of the team that won Best Project at the British Archaeological Awards for his work at Knole (Kent). James' principle interest is buildings archaeology and he has worked on properties from the eleventh to twentieth century including castles, great houses, ecclesiastical sites, civic structures, industrial and vernacular architecture. He has been running Triskele Heritage (https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/ ) since 2016. His recent book, Historic Building Mythbusting, was published earlier this year.
To register for lecture 5 of the YAHS Summer Lecture Series please book here.