Background
Lancashire contains an interesting variety of monastic foundations (independent houses, cells and alien priories) and orders (Augustinian, Benedictine, Cistercian, Dominican, Franciscan, and Premonstratensian) founded between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Subsequently some of its abbots played a prominent role in the sixteenth century Dissolution. The Monastic Lancashire Research Group was formed in 2018 to bring together researchers from different disciplines (Business School, Education, English and History) to develop interdisciplinary research into Monastic Lancashire in terms of both spirituality and the management of temporalities and relations with the wider community, both within the County Palatine and nationally. Key objectives of the group include the identification, transcription, translation and analysis of previously unpublished primary sources, and the promulgation of this research to the wider community including local history societies and schools with the aim of regenerating popular consciousness of Lancashire’s monastic past and heritage.
Members
Graham Bloor, Senior Lecturer in Accounting
Alisdair Dobie, Professor of Accounting
Ken Farnhill, Senior Lecturer in Accounting
Steve Illingworth, PGCE History Course Leader, Education
Imogen Marcus, Senior Lecturer in English Language
Nicky Tsougarakis, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History
Events
Monastic Lancashire Workshop 16 May 2018
Members of the group organized a work shop at which the Monastic Lancashire research group were joined by Professor Janet Burton (University of Wales – Trinity St David), Dr Martin Heale (University of Liverpool), and Dr Richard Thomason (University of Kent). Six sessions considered the aims and focus of the group and future research projects. An initial objective was the submission of a full panel to the Leeds International Medieval Congress 2019, see below.
International Medieval Congress Leeds, July 2019
A panel of four papers will be presented at the IMC on Monday 1 July 2019. These comprise investigations of the management of the temporalities of Furness and Whalley Abbeys, an analysis of the benefactors and socio-politics of Furness Abbey, and a case study on the integration of medieval monastic history into the secondary school history curriculum in Lancashire Schools.