Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday 11 October 2016

A purseful of coins from twelfth century Derbyshire


A couple of months back the BBC News website had this interesting story about the discovery of a few twelfth century coins in Derbyshire. It is, as the report makes clear, the smallness of the number of pennies that make the find interesting. Here is, probably, a minor personal catastrophe of a lost purse that took centuries to be recovered, a vignette of life in the time of King Henry II:


Rare silver coins found in Derbyshire declared treasure
Silver 12th Century coins found in a field in Derbyshire are declared treasure by a coroner.

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