Sex Murder and Mayhem in English Churches

By John Vigar

This is a talk over Zoom.  The Zoom meeting will start at 7:15 pm (BST) and the talk will commence at 8pm (BST).

Summary:  John say’s like most people I enjoy the peace and serenity offered by our parish churches, but having visited and recorded over 12,000 of them I have found they also contain countless images of Murder, Sex and Mayhem.
Medieval murals and stained glass depict the martyrdom of saints from home and abroad, and the grisliest of dooms. At a lower level may be found misericords showing whippings, wife beatings, and brawls.
Finally there are many monuments and memorials that show scenes of murder and mayhem in goodly measure including stagecoach crashes, bridge collapses, falling trees, falling bridges, falling chimneys, shootings, stabbings, mine collapses, shipwrecks and explosions. This digital lecture will show a selection of images of murder and mayhem from across the country and explain both the stories behind them and their relevance to particular periods of history.

Speaker Bio: Following a career in academia John worked for 13 years in the south-east region of The Churches Conservation Trust and he is a Trustee of a national charity, The Friends of Friendless Churches.
John is a member of the Advisory Council of The Norfolk Churches Trust and has previously served as Hon Sec of the Ledgerstone Survey of England and Wales and as Photographic Curator of The Kempe Society. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Centre for Parish Church Studies.  He runs the www.kentchurches.info and www.hampshirechurches.co.uk and www.norfolkchurchtours.co.uk websites.
John Vigar`s specialist subject is ecclesiology – the study of church architecture and associated topics. He has written extensively on the subject and leads regular tours to churches across England, both as part of his own programme of activities, and for other organisations including Denman College and The Ecclesiological Society.
He is particularly interested in nineteenth century church restoration and his MA thesis was written on the subject of Church Restoration in the Diocese of Rochester. John has written the guidebooks for several hundred churches and is the author of books on the churches of both Kent and Sussex. He has visited and recorded over 13,000 of the 16,000 Anglican churches in England and Wales.

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