Church Monuments Society

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

Friday 24th to Sunday 26th September 2021

In view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the difficulties of holding a conference while adhering to social distancing measures and to protect the health of our members, the two societies have regretfully decided to postpone the conference scheduled to take place this September.

We hope to reschedule for some time in 2022.

If you have any queries please contact the president of the CMS via email: markdowning1@talktalk.net

The theme will still be ‘Status and Display’ and we hope to have the same lectures and 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.

What follows is the programme as we arranged it for this year: there may have to be some changes.

Friday 24 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 25 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 26 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 will be available in due course. For all enquiries please contact the CMS president at: markdowning1@talktalk.net