Friday 26th February 2027
7.30pm (doors open at 7pm) 

Building on the authors’ joint project work for the national Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, this lecture proposes that the early monastery at Medeshamstede (later Peterborough) was the sponsor and supporter of the hermit saint, Guthlac, on the fenland island of Crowland, locating that initiative within early Benedictine monastic practice in England.

It is argued that Medeshamstede subsequently sustained the saint’s pre-Viking cult and is the best candidate for the location where Felix produced the saint’s famous Life.

The potential impact of this proposition on received understandings of the relationships between the monasteries of Medeshamstede and Ely and the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia – played out through the local fenland polity of the Gyrwe – is also considered, whilst surviving early stone sculpture at Fletton is interrogated as potential evidence for the cult of Guthlac at Medeshamstede – and eventually found wanting.

Speaker: Professor David Stocker and Professor Paul Everson.

David worked for The York Archaeological Trust and in Lincolnshire before joining English Heritage. In addition to many honorary and administrative roles within British archaeology, he has been Honorary Fellow in Archaeology at the University of York, and is currently Honorary Visiting Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. David’s research interests lie mostly within medieval archaeology, especially buildings, settlement and landscape.

Paul previously worked for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and English Heritage. He is a long-time Honorary Lecturer at the University of Keele and a Visiting Professor at the University of Wales Trinity St. David.

Together, they’ve forged a partnership specialising in early medieval topics, most notably through their contributions to the British Academy’s Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture series.

Venue: Broad Street Methodist Church, Broad Street, Spalding PE11 1TB
Admission: £5 per person. Free entry for full-time students. Tickets available on the door (subject to availability).
Contact: For more information, please email lectures@sgsoc.org