Symposium 2025: Tombs of the Aristocracy
When
Where
West Dean College
West Dean College, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ
SOLD OUT!
The next Church Monuments Society symposium will be held at West Dean College from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st August 2025.
Our theme, Tombs of the Aristocracy, is inspired by the magnificent tombs of the Fitzalans and Howards (Earls and Dukes of Norfolk) in Arundel and Chichester but covers so much more (see the provisional programme below). The event will include expert lectures and two excursions, with both residential and non-residential options for attending. WE ARE NOW SOLD OUT OF ROOMS AT WEST DEAN and can take no more bookings.
Provisional Programme (detailed timings to be confirmed nearer the time)
Friday 29th August: West Dean College
- Registration (time TBC but after 3pm)
- Hot buffet dinner (private room) with President’s Welcome
- After dinner lecture: Dr Dirk Breiding on commonalities and differences in iconography between English and Continental aristocratic tombs
Saturday 30th August: West Dean College lectures and excursion to Chichester Cathedral
- Brian & Moira Gittos, ‘Beaufort’s pride’: the Tomb of John, 1st Duke of Somerset at Wimborne Minster
- Dr Keith Dowen, All’Antica or Alla Moderna? The Monuments of Erasmo and Giantonio di Narni in Padua
- Mid-morning refreshments
- Sophia Dumoulin, ‘meete for my degree and callinge’: The Monument to Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex, and Female Commemoration at Elizabethan Westminster Abbey.
- Pat Poppy, Fashion, status or timeless: clothing in 17th century church monuments.
- Buffet lunch at West Dean
- Visit to Chichester Cathedral
- Optional evening buffet meal (self-service)
- After dinner lecture: Dr Roger Bowdler, Humility in the Grave: outdoor aristocratic monuments over the centuries
Sunday 31st August: West Dean College lectures and excursion to Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel
- Dr David Carrington, The Church Monuments Society in Action: progress report on the Getty-funded North Yorkshire monument conservation publication
- Dr Adam White, John, Lord Lumley, the last of his line
- Mid-morning refreshments
- Dr Tobias Capwell, The French Connection: Refining the Stylistic Attribution of Armour Represented on Certain English Effigies c. 1435-1450
- Buffet lunch at West Dean
- Visit to Fitzalan Chapel, with talks
We look forward to seeing you at this exciting event!
Meanwhile – below there is a gallery of photos of churches and tombs and of West Dean College to whet your appetites.
Non-residential booking form