With social distancing requirements and the possibility of a “second spike” in the Autumn the History Jar has gone online with Zoom for 2020 and January 2021!

Classes will run on a Monday afternoon at 3.00pm (London time) for 1 ½ hours. Please be in the waiting room at least five minutes before the class starts so that you are ready to be admitted into the virtual class room.

Christmas and the festive season through the centuries

Classes will run on a Monday afternoon at 3.00pm (London time) for 1 ½ hours. Please be in the waiting room at least five minutes before the class starts so that you are ready to be admitted into the virtual class room.

Monday 21st December – Here we come a carolling – the history of some Christmas carols

Many regular students have already paid for classes.  If you would like to use the money I am holding for a day school or Derby class to pay for Zoom classes please contact me.

If you would like to join the class for the seven week block, the cost is £30.00. Choose the £30.00 option to pay via Paypal. If you prefer to join fewer sessions continue to scroll down to the next PayPal button. The button is an automatic link to pay me via my Paypal account.

The Rise and Fall of Medieval Monasticism in England

Classes will run on a Monday afternoon at 3.00pm (London time) for 1 ½ hours. Please be in the waiting room at least five minutes before the class starts so that you are ready to be admitted into the virtual class room.

English and Welsh medieval monasteries are largely ruined or their buildings have become cathedrals and their precincts; in some cases the monastic church has become a parish church and in other instances monastic buildings have become private residences.  

This course looks at post-conquest re-foundation of monastic houses, monastic and dynastic patronage as well as the growth and decay of monasteries concluding with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s ending hundreds of years of tradition. We will be looking at some houses which were initially founded before the Conquest and where appropriate, as in the case of Whitby for instance, we will look pre-Conquest history.

We will consider patronage, land and power as well as the economic, social and cultural landscapes in which these houses were set. I will draw on a number of monastic foundations for examples and will include the problem of civil conflict, invasion and plague as well as changing attitudes.

18 January 2021 – The Benedictines – Post-conquest pioneers.

The order of St Benedict, life in an abbey, the structure of abbeys and priories.   The abbey is a distinct organism.  The importance of patrons.  We shall be mentioning St Augustine’s Abbey Canterbury, Great Malvern, Selby, Whitby and York St Mary.

25 January 2021 –The Cistercians – “Far from the haunts of men.”

With focus on Fountains and Rivaulx.  The Cisterian order and reforming the way monasteries operated.  The role of lay brothers and monastic granges.

1 February 2021 – Black and White Canons –  The Augustinians and Premonstratensians. You could not become an Augustinian canon unless you were a priest.  They went out into their communities, often to minister to parish churches.  The Premonstratensians are also called the Norbertines. We shall be looking at Cartmel this week.

8^th February 2021 – The Cathusians –

Their rise and fall with Henry VIII”s Reformation. Focus on  Mount Grace Priory and Beauvale.  

Half term – Monday 15^th February 2021

22 February 2021 -Holy women –

The role of nuns and the functions played by nunneries. Kirklees, visitations and what happened to the nuns with the dissolution of the monasteries. 

1 March 2021 –  The English order and alien foundations – The Gilbertines and the Cluniacs. Visitations, royal decrees and suppressions.

8 March 2021 – Mendicant friars – the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites and just because confusion is good for the soul – the Augustinian Friars who were different to the canons.