New Records from the North-East coming out this week: the Fewston Records

The Records of Early English Drama North-East team is pleased to announce the release of several new Records this week, starting with those from the tiny village of Fewston in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The West Riding co-editor Ted McGee writes: ‘The records of performance activity in the small village of Fewston arose from […]

Launch of the Durham Priory Locelli Records

REED: Durham editors John McKinnell and Mark Chambers are very pleased to announce the launch of the pre-publication records from the Durham Priory locelli. The designation locelli (from Latin locellus, lit. ‘a little place’) originally referred to boxes or chests in which important documents were stored. Now referring to a category of important Priory documents, the Durham locelli contain […]

Launch of Records of Early English Drama for Berkshire

Today we share the exciting news that REED has launched its new digital edition of The Records of Early English Drama: Berkshire volume, edited by Alexandra F. Johnston. Moreover, the material is now freely available at REED Online, here:  https://ereed.library.utoronto.ca/. REED head office in Toronto adds the following: ‘We are pleased to make available the long-awaited records […]

Flower of the Month: Beverley’s Benevolence to Henry VIII

King Henry VIII visited Yorkshire only once in the course of his long reign, in the summer and autumn of 1541, and seems to have been prompted to travel so far only by the perceived need to calm (and possibly threaten) the rebellious North in the wake of the Pilgrimage of Grace and other risings […]

New ‘pre-pub’ records available from Yorkshire’s West Riding

Ted McGee, co-editor of the Yorkshire, West Riding REED material (with Sylvia Thomas) has made available some new records* for West Yorkshire, relating to performance in the ancient village of Methley and nearby Methley Manor, and in the accounts of Sir Leonard Beckwith of Selby (c.1520-1555). You can access all of the current West Riding […]

“Workshop on Attitudes to Nudity in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period”

REED N-E’s own Mark Chambers will be speaking on ‘Nudity in the Medieval Drama’ at the workshop below, hosted by Durham University’s Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies: —REGISTRATION IS OPEN— [WORKSHOP] Laid Bare: Attitudes to Nudity in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period Saturday 10th March 2018 Senior Common Room, St Cuthbert’s Society, 12 […]

Update (stop the press): even earlier plough ceremonies from Durham?

In an update to REED N-E’s earlier ‘Flower of the Month’, we’ve discovered that Durham might have even older evidence for plow ceremonies than those mentioned last week (see Epiphanytide in Medieval Durham). As mentioned in the previous post, accounts from several of the manor houses attached to Durham Cathedral Priory record payments to ploughmen and […]

Epiphanytide in Medieval Durham

The Feast of Epiphany celebrates the revelation of God’s earthly presence to the Gentiles, through the revelation of the Christ-child to the Magi: et ecce stella quam viderant in oriente antecedebat eos usque dum veniens staret supra ubi erat puer videntes autem stellam gavisi sunt gaudio magno valde et intrantes domum invenerunt puerum cum Maria […]

Images from the ‘Lost Voices of the North-East’ Event

Here are some photos from last weekend’s ‘Lost Voices of the North-East’ Event which took place in Durham University’s music department on Palace Green, as part of the University’s ‘Being Human’ Festival of the Humanities. The event included performances of North Yorkshire’s spooky Lyke-Wake Dirge, County Durham’s famous ‘Ballad of the Lampton Worm’, the so-called […]

‘No No my Lord’: Northumberland will have no turnings or windings

‘No No my Lord’ Anyone frustrated by current arguments in the news might benefit from reading the following spirited letter from the ninth Earl of Northumberland to William Cecil, second Earl of Salisbury. The subject is negotiations concerning the marriage of Lady Anne Cecil to Algernon Percy, future tenth Earl of Northumberland, and money that […]