Church Monuments Society

Joint M.B.S./C.M.S. Conference: Status and Display

Friday 25th to Sunday 27th September 2020 

This year’s conference has been organised in collaboration with the Monumental Brass Society and will be held at the Duke’s Head Hotel in King’s Lynn. The theme is ‘Status and Display’ with excursions to the chapel of St Nicholas and St Margaret’s church in the town (Friday afternoon) and to the village churches of Oxborough, Narborough, South Acre and Rougham (Saturday) where a team of experts will introduce a remarkable series of medieval and early modern funerary monuments and brasses in north-west Norfolk.

The keynote lecture will be given by Susie Nash (Deborah Loeb Brice Professor of Renaissance Art at the Courtauld Institute, London) on The Burgundian Ducal Tombs at Champmol at the Duke’s Head on Friday evening. The lecture programme will continue at the hotel on Sunday morning.

Programme:

Friday 25 September

14:00 Arrival and registration, Duke’s Head Hotel

14:45 Visit to King’s Lynn churches:

15:00 St Nicholas chapel. Jean Wilson, ‘The Monuments of St Nicholas Church’

16:00 St Margaret’s church. Paul Cockerham, ‘Those tasteless Topographers’: The Historical Accounts of the Brasses of King’s Lynn

19:00 Dinner at the Duke’s Head

20:00 Keynote lecture. Susie Nash, ‘The Burgundian Ducal Tombs at Champmol’

Saturday 26 September

10:15 St John’s church, Oxborough. Jon Bayliss, ‘Terracotta Tombs’

11:45 All Saints church, Narborough. Vic Morgan, ‘The Spelman Mausoleum’

13:00 Lunch in Swaffham

14:25 St George’s church, South Acre. Jessica Barker, ‘Holding Hands on the Harsick brass’

15:45 St Mary’s church, Rougham. David Lepine, ‘The Yelvertons of  Rougham and their brasses’

Tea at Rougham

19:00 Reception

19:30 Conference dinner, Duke’s Head Hotel

 Sunday 27 September 

09:15 Lectures:

Robin Netherton, ‘The Sideless Surcote: Elusive, Illusive, Allusive ‘

Nicholas Flory, ‘Illustrissima ac potentissima princeps: The  Commemorative Brass Plaques of  Isabella of Portugal and her  Carthusian Donations ‘

Ann Adams, ‘Creation and Re-Creation: Tombs and Plaster Casts’

10:45 Coffee and tea

11:30 Lectures:

Toby Capwell, ‘Flowering and Decline: English Effigies and Armour in the Late Fifteenth Century’

Roger Bowdler, ‘Rank Decay: 17th Century Vanitas Monuments to Persons of Status’

Jean Wilson, ‘Not a leg to stand on: the monument to Robert Pierrepont, †1669, at West Dean, Wiltshire’

13:00 Lunch and depart

The conference fee includes accommodation, breakfast and evening meals, all tea and coffee breaks, Sunday lunch and attendance on the excursions and lectures. Accommodation at the hotel is en-suite in single, double and twin rooms. It is limited and will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. Members are also welcome to arrange their own accommodation and to attend on a non-residential basis and will need to do so if the demand for rooms exceeds our allocation at the Duke’s Head. King’s Lynn has a wide range of accommodation to suit all budgets including a Premier Inn and a Travelodge.

The cost for the Conference is £300 (single room) or £250 per person (double / twin room) for CMS members (non-members: £325, single room; £275 per person, double / twin room), full board (excluding Saturday lunch). Alternatively, delegates may choose to attend on a non-residential basis: Friday afternoon and evening £35 members (£45 non-members); Saturday excursion £35 members (£45 non-members); Saturday reception and conference dinner £40 members (£50 non-members); Sunday morning (including lunch) £30 members (£40 non-members).

A downloadable booking form is below, on the reverse of the conference programme.  The deadline for booking is 30th June 2020. Cheques should be payable to the Church Monuments Society. For all enquiries please contact the CMS president at: markdowning1@talktalk.net