Representing Re-Formation: Reconstructing Renaissance Monuments
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leicester
Department Name: History of Art and Film
Abstract
In 1934, large-scale excavations on the site of the ruins of Thetford Priory produced hundreds of late-medieval and Renaissance sculptural and architectural fragments. Today, those fragments are still in storage, in an English Heritage warehouse in East Anglia. In response to a call from Simon Thurley, CEO of English Heritage, for all curators to determine exactly what was in store, Dr Jackie Hall was called in to compile a handlist of these fragments. She sought specialist advice and Dr Phillip Lindley visited the site three years ago, with exciting results.
The boxes in store revealed many pieces of sculpture and architecture which are known to be related to two of the Howard tombs in Framlingham parish church, about 40 miles from Thetford. Framlingham had become the burial place of the Howards after Thetford Priory's dissolution by Henry VIII. Quite how these fragments related to the tombs, though, is controversial. It is known that the tombs - commemorating the third duke, and his son-in-law, Henry VIII's bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond - had been made in 1539 and had been salvaged at some time in the 1550s and moved to Framlingham. Quite what had happened to the monuments between 1540, when the priory was dissolved, and the 1550s, when they were removed to Framlingham, is unclear. For much of the time, the duke had languished in prison.
The tombs as erected at Framlingham are not what they appear: they seem to have been put together from salvaged components and finished off with new materials. Determining what is original and what was added is very difficult. Our research will offer a radical new solution to the problem. Using cutting-edge 3-D scanning and analytical techniques developed for space science, we shall 'disassemble' the tombs into their constituent parts, and recombine those components virtually, to recreate their original appearance and differentiate the later components from the earlier ones. We will be able to recreate the first, lost stages in the existence of the tombs. Further, our scientific investigation and analysis will determine which fragments excavated at Thetford originally belonged to these tomb-monuments and enable us to reintegrate virtually the appropriate fragments into our reconstructions. We shall use the same techniques to recreate other lost monuments and sculptures once in Thetford Priory, and will bring them back to (virtual) life.
From the outset audience needs will be paramount. We will liaise with teachers and other potential stakeholders through our interactive website and via focus groups. We will render the results of the research into the formats teachers and other audiences tell us they need and make them freely available on-line. The project will produce many papers and books, digital teaching materials adapted to the needs of the National Curriculum, data for our use and for future researchers, and at least one public exhibition.
This collaborative project, which will combine research tools from space science, art history, archaeology, museology and computer science will effect a small revolution in our understanding of the late middle ages and early Renaissance in England. The Howards were the most important noble family under Henry VIII and their fortunes provide a fascinating case study into a turbulent period in our national history. This gripping episode, and the detective story of its reconstruction, will prove fascinating to many diverse audiences.
The boxes in store revealed many pieces of sculpture and architecture which are known to be related to two of the Howard tombs in Framlingham parish church, about 40 miles from Thetford. Framlingham had become the burial place of the Howards after Thetford Priory's dissolution by Henry VIII. Quite how these fragments related to the tombs, though, is controversial. It is known that the tombs - commemorating the third duke, and his son-in-law, Henry VIII's bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond - had been made in 1539 and had been salvaged at some time in the 1550s and moved to Framlingham. Quite what had happened to the monuments between 1540, when the priory was dissolved, and the 1550s, when they were removed to Framlingham, is unclear. For much of the time, the duke had languished in prison.
The tombs as erected at Framlingham are not what they appear: they seem to have been put together from salvaged components and finished off with new materials. Determining what is original and what was added is very difficult. Our research will offer a radical new solution to the problem. Using cutting-edge 3-D scanning and analytical techniques developed for space science, we shall 'disassemble' the tombs into their constituent parts, and recombine those components virtually, to recreate their original appearance and differentiate the later components from the earlier ones. We will be able to recreate the first, lost stages in the existence of the tombs. Further, our scientific investigation and analysis will determine which fragments excavated at Thetford originally belonged to these tomb-monuments and enable us to reintegrate virtually the appropriate fragments into our reconstructions. We shall use the same techniques to recreate other lost monuments and sculptures once in Thetford Priory, and will bring them back to (virtual) life.
From the outset audience needs will be paramount. We will liaise with teachers and other potential stakeholders through our interactive website and via focus groups. We will render the results of the research into the formats teachers and other audiences tell us they need and make them freely available on-line. The project will produce many papers and books, digital teaching materials adapted to the needs of the National Curriculum, data for our use and for future researchers, and at least one public exhibition.
This collaborative project, which will combine research tools from space science, art history, archaeology, museology and computer science will effect a small revolution in our understanding of the late middle ages and early Renaissance in England. The Howards were the most important noble family under Henry VIII and their fortunes provide a fascinating case study into a turbulent period in our national history. This gripping episode, and the detective story of its reconstruction, will prove fascinating to many diverse audiences.
Planned Impact
Social impact, relevant to wide and diverse audiences, is conceived as integral to the project from the outset. It is a key mission of our project partner, English Heritage.
The story of the Dissolution of Thetford Priory; of the third duke's attempt to save his dynastic mausoleum; of the king's brutal attempt to destroy the Howards, which resulted in the Earl of Surrey's execution, a fate from which the third duke was only saved by the fact that Henry VIII died on the day set aside for the duke's execution; the dramatic changes of religion and religious allegiance during the period; the dangers and opportunities of political power: all of these are important national narratives which affected the artefacts we are studying, the architecture of the churches and their contents. Our research will develop new and deeper narratives focussed round the objects we planned to study, but also of much wider significance. Public engagement will play a key role in the development of alternative narratives as we uncover new evidence of many different kinds (archaeological, historical, scientific).
But, we also want to communicate the importance and the nature of the acts of research, investigation and discovery. Consequently, our project includes an Audience Advocate who will establish an interactive website which will explain the means we plan to deploy to solve our research questions, report the progress of our research and our investigative techniques, and invite audiences to engage personally in the process of research.
Our website will actively foster participation with many different interest groups in the project's research and activity. Teachers at all levels will be particularly targeted and meeting their needs and encouraging their ideas will be a central concern. We are certain that the hybrid combination of research tools and techniques from cutting-edge space science, computer science and humanities disciplines, to transform understanding of important cultural objects, will be intrinsically exciting to the general public. It will also open up creative ways for teachers to cross-cut and combine key topics and themes in the National Curriculum at every level.
The Audience Advocate will elicit and evaluate audience expectations and needs in person via focus groups and by responses to the on-line and on-site displays. We want our audience to have the opportunity to see us formulate and test our theories, to see the results of our deliberations and to make their own suggestions and offer their opinions. It is entirely possible that engagement with the general public will inform and develop our understanding.
The project, working closely with English Heritage's Education Department, is committed to producing resources for schools: digital materials that schoolteachers can access on-line and readily use in the classroom, at the whiteboard, that will build creative and inspiring links with the curriculum. Much of this on-line content will benefit individuals and other visitors (to Thetford or Framlingham, or English Heritage online). The final exhibition and study day is specifically aimed at public engagement with the cultural heritage we are investigating and the result of our research.
We will discuss from the outset how complex narratives and competing theories or discourses can be clearly conveyed to the public; how scale, size and perspective can be meaningfully presented; how doubt and trust are dealt with in a context where evidence may be contentious or missing; how visitors respond to (or recognise) simulacra and reconstruction vs. 'authentic' objects. A final high-impact output, therefore, is the construction of a transferable way of designing complex three-dimensional digital heritage. Working in close association with EH's Outreach Department, the aim is to build a methodology that can be used in other EH projects, if
The story of the Dissolution of Thetford Priory; of the third duke's attempt to save his dynastic mausoleum; of the king's brutal attempt to destroy the Howards, which resulted in the Earl of Surrey's execution, a fate from which the third duke was only saved by the fact that Henry VIII died on the day set aside for the duke's execution; the dramatic changes of religion and religious allegiance during the period; the dangers and opportunities of political power: all of these are important national narratives which affected the artefacts we are studying, the architecture of the churches and their contents. Our research will develop new and deeper narratives focussed round the objects we planned to study, but also of much wider significance. Public engagement will play a key role in the development of alternative narratives as we uncover new evidence of many different kinds (archaeological, historical, scientific).
But, we also want to communicate the importance and the nature of the acts of research, investigation and discovery. Consequently, our project includes an Audience Advocate who will establish an interactive website which will explain the means we plan to deploy to solve our research questions, report the progress of our research and our investigative techniques, and invite audiences to engage personally in the process of research.
Our website will actively foster participation with many different interest groups in the project's research and activity. Teachers at all levels will be particularly targeted and meeting their needs and encouraging their ideas will be a central concern. We are certain that the hybrid combination of research tools and techniques from cutting-edge space science, computer science and humanities disciplines, to transform understanding of important cultural objects, will be intrinsically exciting to the general public. It will also open up creative ways for teachers to cross-cut and combine key topics and themes in the National Curriculum at every level.
The Audience Advocate will elicit and evaluate audience expectations and needs in person via focus groups and by responses to the on-line and on-site displays. We want our audience to have the opportunity to see us formulate and test our theories, to see the results of our deliberations and to make their own suggestions and offer their opinions. It is entirely possible that engagement with the general public will inform and develop our understanding.
The project, working closely with English Heritage's Education Department, is committed to producing resources for schools: digital materials that schoolteachers can access on-line and readily use in the classroom, at the whiteboard, that will build creative and inspiring links with the curriculum. Much of this on-line content will benefit individuals and other visitors (to Thetford or Framlingham, or English Heritage online). The final exhibition and study day is specifically aimed at public engagement with the cultural heritage we are investigating and the result of our research.
We will discuss from the outset how complex narratives and competing theories or discourses can be clearly conveyed to the public; how scale, size and perspective can be meaningfully presented; how doubt and trust are dealt with in a context where evidence may be contentious or missing; how visitors respond to (or recognise) simulacra and reconstruction vs. 'authentic' objects. A final high-impact output, therefore, is the construction of a transferable way of designing complex three-dimensional digital heritage. Working in close association with EH's Outreach Department, the aim is to build a methodology that can be used in other EH projects, if
Organisations
Publications
Ford, L
(2012)
A Body in Motion: The Afterlives of the Tomb of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton
in Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle
FORD, L
(2016)
Ghostly Remains: The Surviving Howard Brasses at Lambeth
in Monumental Brass Society Transactions
Hall J
(2014)
Thetford Priory: the Unpublished Documents of the Office of Works
in English Heritage Historical Review
Lindley P
(2013)
'Pickpurse' Purgatory, the Dissolution of the Chantries and the Suppression of Intercession for the Dead
in Journal of the British Archaeological Association
Lindley P
(2012)
The Artistic Practice, Protracted Publication and Posthumous Completion of Charles Alfred Stothard's Monumental Effigies of Great Britain
in The Antiquaries Journal
Lindley P
(2016)
Tributes to Jean Michel Massing: Towards a Global Art History
Lindley P.G
(2014)
Intention or Accident? Charles Alfred Stothard's Monumental Effigies of Great Britain
in Studies in Medievalism
Lindley P.G.
(2013)
Peter Mathias Van Gelder's Monument to Mary, third Duchess of Montagu (d. 1775) in St Edmund's, Warkton, Northamptonshire
in The Burlington Magazine
Lindley P.G.
(2013)
Thetford's Lost Tudor Sculptures, exhibition guide
| Title | Representing Re-Formation |
| Description | Andrew Williams used our 3D digital imagery to form his own artwork, movingly showing the transience of even monuments, echoing the lines of Juvenal: Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris in Dryden's translation: Sepulchres themselves must crumbling fall in time's abyss |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2012 |
| Impact | We included the video in our exhibition in the Ancient House Museum, Thetford, but it also stands alone as an artistic product of Andrew Williams's engagement with our project, whilst he was working with the Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester. |
| Description | Our project studied four Tudor Renaissance tomb-monuments, located in the east end of the parish church of St Michael in Framlingham, Suffolk. The work was collaborative between Arts and Science Researchers. The tools we deployed ranged from conventional historical, archaeological and art-historical investigation to analytical techniques used in Space Science. The four monuments commemorate: 1. Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk (d.1554), &his first wife, Anne (d.1511), Edward IV's daughter. 2. Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond & Somerset (d. 1536) and his wife Duchess Mary [Howard] (d. 1555). 3. Thomas Howard the fourth duke (d. 1572), executed for treason in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and two of his three wives. 4. His daughter, Elizabeth Howard, d.c.1565. The Howards were the most powerful noble family of the Tudor period and the monuments therefore have considerable historical interest. They are also art-historically significant as key works of the mid-Tudor Renaissance, strongly influenced by French sculpture. The first two monuments feature religious imagery: relief figures of the Apostles and two Old Testament figures on the 3rd duke's tomb and Old Testament narratives and (wingless) angels on Richmond's. Imagery of this kind became very uncommon after the Reformation under Edward VI. None of the four monuments has an inscription. All are incomplete or unfinished, to varying degrees: there are no effigies on the Richmond monument, for example, and the fourth duke's monument lacks an effigy of the duke. Their dates have been the subject of debate. Previous studies (notably Stone and Colvin; Marks; Lindley) discussed the monuments and their relationship to a series of fragments excavated on the site of Thetford Priory. The church of this Cluniac priory had been, before its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1540, the mausoleum of the dukes of Norfolk. We refined and developed Marks's widely accepted view that the first two monuments at Framlingham - those of the 3rd duke and of Richmond - were originally planned to stand in Thetford Priory and were nearly complete in 1539, just before the priory was dissolved, in spite of the 3rd duke's strenuous efforts to save it. The components of the two monuments that could be salvaged were first moved to the duke's house at Kenninghall and later, to Framlingham, where the chancel of the church was reconstructed as a new mausoleum, and the monuments were [largely] completed and erected there in the 1550s. The sculptors responsible for the monuments' completion went on to make the monuments of the fourth duke and of his daughter, Elizabeth in the 1560s. The history of the move of the monuments is complicated by the fact that the aged and increasingly paranoid Henry VIII planned to execute the third duke and his son, the Earl of Surrey, during his final year on the throne, because he thought their power posed a threat to Henry's young son, the future Edward VI. At the time of the king's move against the Howards, at the end of 1546, the new chancel at Framlingham had not been completed and had no roof. The third duke escaped execution, because Henry VIII died on the day set for the duke's execution, but Howard spent Edward VI's reign in prison. One of our investigations focussed on what happened to the monuments between the dissolution of Thetford Priory and the third duke's release from prison on the accession of Mary Tudor in 1553. We have also been concerned to find out when Framlingham's Chancel had been completed: when it was actually ready to receive the tomb monuments moved from Thetford, and when were they erected there. Our project involved historical, archaeological and art-historical research into the monuments, their patrons and sculptors, and the ruined Thetford Priory Site (which is in the care of English Heritage). What is innovative, however, was our collaboration with Physicists from the Space Research Centre at Leicester, who have been responsible for the 3D laser scanning of the monuments and of the fragments derived from the archaeological digs. Using these 3D scans and CAD, we have been able to virtually disassemble the monuments along their original construction lines, to remove components and to integrate the archaeologically-derived pieces into our reconstructions. As a result, we have been able to reconstruct what we think the monuments were planned to look like in 1539; the historians have identified what happened to the monuments after Thetford Priory was dissolved; and we can show how they were put together at Framlingham. In an exhibition in the Ancient House at Thetford Priory, from the summer (July) of 2013 to spring (March) of 2014, we displayed all the key fragments from the digs and used 3D printers to print out, to scale, the monuments as they are at Framlingham today. We have also been able to evaluate other competing theories, so that we could reveal both the uncertainty of academic research, and how it advances by testing theories against the different types of evidence available - historical, art-historical and archaeological. Our work uses a combination of analytical techniques derived from Humanities and Science Research. In addition to our work on these monuments, we have also identified a piece of a terracotta roundel by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Giovanni da Maiano, identical to those he produced for Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court Palace. Our fragment, however, has its original paintwork still intact and our work on it has helped inform researchers in Historic Royal Palaces working on the roundels at Hampton Court. Furthermore, there are numerous other fragments of earlier monuments from Thetford Priory in store: our current art-historical research is investigating whether we can identify the monuments from which these pieces came and whom they commemorate: the Howards or their Mowbray predecessors as dukes of Norfolk. Archaeological work has done a great deal to clarify the history of Thetford Priory before and after the Dissolution in 1540. The specific locations where individual fragments were dug up in the 1930s excavations have been thoroughly researched and many other types of excavated artefact are being investigated. We developed an app to use on and off site at Thetford, one which clarifies many details of the Priory and encourages tourism to, and understanding of, the site. The Physics team have investigated different types of 3D scanner, evaluating the cheapest, Pico-scanner, against expensive commercial scanners widely used by industry. A range of different non-destructive analytical techniques used in Space Research, was deployed to analyse the monuments and the fragments, alongside conventional pigment and geological analysis. Throughout, we have been supported and informed by English Heritage staff; their collaboration, generous assistance and guidance have been vital to the whole project. Finally, we have been able to deploy knowledge and techniques [art-history, 3D scanning, archaeology, app design] gained during this project elsewhere - to inform and research the conservation campaign at Warkton, Northants, on four world-class eighteenth and nineteenth century monuments. We have also started to develop a new project to investigate formal gardens, using an app to reimagine the lost features. |
| Exploitation Route | Many aspects of our research will be of use in non-academic contexts. The first analysis of the excavated Howard tomb fragments, in English Heritage stores, (Lindley), was quickly employed by the English Heritage curator responsible for them (Summerfield): some fragments were placed on exhibition in the new English Heritage display in Framlingham Castle and others were loaned to Norwich Castle Museum where they are on public display. The newly discovered terra-cotta roundel fragment has been on temporary loan to the Sir John Soane museum in London. Two relief panels from the Howard monuments, belonging to the British Museum came backto Thetford for our six-month long exhibition in the Ancient House Museum and are now on permanent loan. This exhibition, open to the general public for free (from July 2013), provided an opportunity to showcase our research. It demonstrated how cross-disciplinary collaboration between Humanities and Science Researchers could generate results which enthused visitors of all ages and backgrounds, making academic research relevant. Throughout our work on this exhibition, we have greatly benefited from the collaboration and expertise of the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service as well as of English Heritage. So, public display of fragmentary sculptures in several different permanent and temporary exhibitions, has been made possible by academic research, which has done much to explain their significance and relevance to Tudor History. The guide to the exhibition will be a lasting record (and will be followed by a collaborative monograph). Our work has been widely publicised in numerous lectures open to the general public in the UK and USA as well as by tv and radio appearances in the UK. Two sculpted relief panels, carved for a Howard tomb in 1539, were visible in Thetford for the first time since the sixteenth century, and will now be on permanent loan [from 2014] to the Ancient House Museum. So, sculptures produced in Thetford in the reign of Henry VIII are on public view a few hundred yards away from where they were originally carved. The historians' work (Gunn, Claiden-Yarley) has clarified the status and context of the Howard monuments and we have also collaborated with a researcher from the Yale Center for British Art, (Ford) who has studied, as part of our collaborative team, the retrospective, early seventeenth-century monument of the Earl of Surrey. The historians have contextualized Howard memorialisation strategies and examined how the Howards' fortunes were affected by their monarchs' actions. Their work will be of interest not only to the academic community but also to the wider general public, whose interest in Tudor History has recently been stimulated by popular historical novels such as Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. The analysis of Thetford Priory has revealed an earlier, unpublished, guide book, which in a substantially revised and edited form (Hall) is being published by English Heritage. This is the first guide to the site published since the Second World War. Work on the site has clarified its development and history to the Dissolution; its history after 1540 and comparisons with the fortunes of other dissolved houses in Thetford and elsewhere. This work will generate significant new tourism to Thetford and will inform Thetford's citizens of key monuments and events in the town's history. Research into other excavated artefacts from Thetford is shedding light both on life in the priory and on the wider cultural and historical contexts. Museologists (Parry, Richards) have considered how the monuments can be employed in a narrative that reveals the religious and political turbulence of early modern England, a narrative in which the Howards, the premier noble family of the sixteenth century, played a key part. But they have also studied how we can convey both the process and uncertainty of academic research, and provide an 'open window' into the progress of the project. The issue of 'authenticity' in museum display (Parry) - one of our central interests - will inform future museological debate. As part of the same team, Computer scientists (Law, Beddall-Hill) evaluated audience reaction to the website information in work which will be of general interest to website designers. Blogs and video have throughout informed the public about the progress of work and sought input from the wider communities. Our development of an app for Thetford generated new audiences for our research. The Space Research Scientists (Fraser, Karim) have evaluated different 3D scanners; optical reflectance analysis of pigment; and analysed off-gassing from 3D printed models. This important work, when published, will impact not just on academic research, but on wider audiences and will show how scientific research can have a direct impact on humanities research communities. Art-historians (Lindley, Constabel) have studied the context of the monuments in the Tudor Renaissance and links between England, France and Italy in the sixteenth century. We have brought closer together communities in Framlingham and Thetford by demonstrating how they both are linked historically. We have shown how sixteenth century England, France, the Low Countries and Italy, were bound together culturally, in spite of political, military and religious conflict. Our work at Framlingham unexpectedly generated research into the world-class eighteenth-century monuments to the dukes of Montagu and their family in Warkton, Northamptonshire, and our research has underpinned a successful Heritage Lottery Fund bid for their conservation. Thus academic research has had a direct impact on the preservation, interpretation and presentation of early modern artefacts and works of art. Finally, we are currently working with the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust and Enigma Interactive [who produced our Thetford app] to develop an app which helps visitors understand the past of the gardens through which they walk, 'stripping back' the modern turf to reveal the eighteenth-century formal gardens. We are transforming understanding and breaking down the often artificial barriers between the academic research community and the wider public. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://representingreformation.net/ |
| Description | Research with English Heritage, Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, Historic Royal Palaces and the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust has directly impacted on the study, preservation and exhibition of sculpture, inspired cutting-edge scientific analysis, encouraged local participation in the research process and enhanced understanding of and appreciation for a shared past. It has also underwritten successful bids to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the conservation of world-class monumental sculpture. Our work helped develop a spin-off 3D laser scanning group working on Heritage and the Arts [as part of Europac 3D] and has inspired further work on apps which will have a potential for design transfer to other historic sites. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Economic |
| Description | AHRC funding addition for Archaeology Data Service, York |
| Amount | £44,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Archaeology Data Service supplementary award, exception |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | |
| Description | Collaboration with Space Research Centre, University of Leicester |
| Amount | £2,750 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Initiative of the late Professor George Fraser, quondam Director SRC |
| Organisation | University of Leicester |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2011 |
| End | 12/2011 |
| Description | Donation of staff time from NMAS |
| Amount | £89,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Norfolk Museums Service |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2012 |
| End | 03/2013 |
| Description | EU Erasmus Senior Staff Mobility Award |
| Amount | £1,200 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Erasmus |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 03/2012 |
| End | 03/2012 |
| Description | JISC student scholarships |
| Amount | £3,550 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Jisc |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2012 |
| End | 12/2012 |
| Description | Collaboration with English Heritage |
| Organisation | English Heritage |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The team provided the research skills and expertise in Art History, Archaeology, Museum Studies and, above all, Physics [SRC team, for 3D scanning etc]. We were supported throughout by EH. Associated with the collaborative project were three English Heritage staff, providing regular advice and attending project meetings (Summerfield also as member of the Advisory group) - Jan Summerfield, Archaeology Curator, Cambridge Office; Paul Bryan, Head of Geospatial Imaging, Imaging Graphics & Survey, York; Dave Thickett, senior conservation scientist, responsible for environmental preventive conservation and research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Many of the objects we analysed [using 3D laser scanning and CAD] are in the care of English Heritage. The loan of these objects [mainly pieces of architectural sculpture], in secure conditions, to the Space Research Centre laboratories, for scanning and analysis was essential to the project and owed much to the initial support from Dr Simon Thurley CEO of EH. Summerfield of EH supported the project throughout. Equally essential was her support in securing the partnership of Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Services; the latter housed our 6-month long exhibition in the Ancient House Museum at Thetford, co-ordinated a number of the external lectures we provided, the launch and associated events etc. EH expertise [Bryan] assisted with all stages of the project, from the advice on 3D scanning companies to new technological developments in Imaging. EH [Thickett, Summerfield] also assisted with conservation. |
| Impact | Exhibition at the Ancient House Museum, Thetford. Meet the Tudors festival in Thetford. However, the entire project was reliant on the support of EH and could not have been successful without it. |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | Collaboration with Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service on exhibition and mobile appp |
| Organisation | Norfolk Museums Service |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our chief contribution was to provide public access to the fruits of our research project in an exhibition hosted in the Ancient House Museum, Thetford, for six months, ending in March 2013, making use of a variety of media, including 3D scans, an artist's video, 3D print models, graphic panels, hangings, interactives and display of artefacts, to engage with the variety of audiences from this part of East Anglia. This exhibition was called 'Thetford's Lost Tudor Sculptures' and we also provided a free, fully illustrated guide of 6,000 words, for the exhibition [we reprinted it during the show's duration]. The exhibition was a collaborative venture, with Parry [Museum Studies] a key protagonist in the team, working alongside Lindley, and NMAS and EH members and the designer. Our other contributions included: First, our project enabled free admission to the Museum over the summer (and for the run of the display) for the first time since the 1970s. This led to substantial increase (over 100%) increase in visitor numbers. The exhibition also gave the Ancient House Team a chance to try new approaches, including use of the Tudor Hall for exhibition work, which they will draw upon in future activity. This initiative came from our team [Parry, Lindley] Secondly, many members of the project team were much involved with the museum's active programme of events for families and adults including talks, tours and booked family event days. Numerous lectures and tours for the general public were provided by my team, over a more than six month period. Lecturers included Fraser, Gunn, Hall, Lindley. Thirdly, to engage with schools, new resources have been put together by the research team, with the active assistance of NMAS, again drawing upon the results of the research project. A free app for mobile phones and I-pads has been created which includes contributions from members of the team discussing Thetford Priory, the Dukes of Norfolk and the Framlingham Tomb Monuments. Collaborative work on a free Thetford app was undertaken by Richards and Beddall-Hill. PhD students Karim and Claiden-Yardley under the overarching direction of Parry, Law and her RA, Beddall-Hill, also assisted. Film work was undertaken by Richards, who was key to much of the video and film element of the app., liasising with the Education Officer of the Ancient House Museum and Beddall-Hill. Fourthly, the exhibition has also been used as inspiration for young people working on their Arts Awards and was used to engage with the Matthew project, working with people recovering from addictions, to create heraldic art work relating to the project in the Museum's 18th-century bow window. Fifthly, a climax of the public event programme was the finale day of the Thetford Festival, which was called 'Meet the Tudors' on September 7th. This day again featured contributions from several members of the project team meeting with many members of the public and passing on the knowledge gained from the research project. The Thetford and Tourism Heritage Partnership applied for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to enhance this event and was awarded £9.300 to make the day bigger and better and draw in even more people. It was opened by the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP. Finally, a remarkably valuable outcome of the project has been the loan by the British Museum of two stone panels from the Thetford monuments, for display at Thetford, both for the exhibition and now on extended loan, as part of the long term displays. The panels are now exhibited, as I remarked to the NMAS team, within a few hundred yards of where they were carved in 1539, just before Henry VIII's Dissolution of Thetford Priory... |
| Collaborator Contribution | The NMAS team including the Director of the Ancient House Museum and his team were essential not just because they hosted the exhibition 'Thetford's Lost Tudor Sculptures' which was one of the fruits of the research project (sept 2012-March 2013) but because of the support they provided throughout the project, fully engaging the local community, the Mayor and councillors, as well as the larger NMAS team, including its director, curators and conservators. The exhibition was in every sense a collaborative work, with valuable input at every stage from the Ancient House Team, working alongside us, the designer, conservation team, and English Heritage [represented by Summerfield]. The Ancient House education officer worked with local schools and members of the project team in developing the Beta model of our 'Thetford' app in July 2013. The fully developed app is now freely available. They organised the public 'Meet the Tudors' festival and timetabled all events. |
| Impact | 1. Public Exhibition: Thetford's Lost Tudor Sculptures (2012-13), with long-term loan of two panels from the British Museum. My team members from: Museum Studies, Art History, Archaeology, Space Science, History contributed to it and to the outcomes below. 2. Exhibition guide 3. Lectures 4. Public Festival 5. Mobile app 6. In addition, there was an Artist's video |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Collaboration with Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, USA |
| Organisation | Yale University |
| Department | Yale Center for British Art |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The research project engaged researchers collaborating across several different disciplines and in different institutions: Art History (Leicester); Archaeology (Leicester); History (Oxford, YCBA, Yale); Space research (Leicester); Museology (Leicester); Computer science (Leicester) together with English Heritage and later Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service. We collaborated to solve a series of inter-related problems posed by significant cultural artefacts - the Tudor Renaissance tombs of the Dukes of Norfolk and their family in Framlingham and associated components of the monuments in the care of English Heritage and the British Museum. Our teamwork directly addressed the Science and Heritage programme's aim to assist collaboration between Science and Arts researchers, in order to develop a hybrid research discipline. We aimed to convey the process of investigation, and display the results of our research, online and in exhibition spaces. Working closely with our partners in English Heritage and at the Yale Center for British Art, we aimed to devise a transferable set of methodologies for the interpretation and visualisation of complex three-dimensional artefacts through time, to a wide range of audiences. We demonstrated collaboration across universities/heritage organisations/museums and increased public understanding of, and engagement with, heritage and heritage science. Our project partner at Yale, Dr Lisa Ford, Associate Director of Research at the YCBA, played a key role in the project, as one of the team of historians. She has independently made research visits to the Arundel Castle archives, the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Trinity Hospital, Greenwich, the British Library, Lambeth Palace Archives, the Mercers' Company Archives, the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, in connection with the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Yale Center for British Art funded the research of Dr Lisa Ford, who worked alongside us for the entire duration of the project, and whose input and work was essential to the project. |
| Impact | Dr Lisa Ford contributed to many aspects of the project, lectured alongside us in the UK and USA, organising our collaborative session at the Sixteenth-Century conference in Cincinnati, USA [speakers Constabel, Claiden-Yardley and Lindley], and separately in the UK and USA. She contributed reports on her own research and has produced important publications, out already and forthcoming. |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | BBC Coverage, radio |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Today Programme on radio 4 (interviewer Sarah Montague): http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9515000/9515331.stm) . http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011pqzv/Good_Morning_Wales_17_06_2011/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00h7gj1/Matthew_Gudgin_17_06_2011/ Radio interviews which followed the tv interview broadcast stimulated great deal of activity and interest in the project and its website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | BBC Coverage, tv |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | BBC coverage with Dr Lindley on tv and radio interviews include: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment/ Today Programme on radio 4 (interviewer Sarah Montague): http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9515000/9515331.stm) . http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011pqzv/Good_Morning_Wales_17_06_2011/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00h7gj1/Matthew_Gudgin_17_06_2011/ The TV interview on the project, in Framlingham, used the 3-D scans. It led to radio interviews too, which are separately listed. After my work the interest in the work of Europac, the company responsible for our 3D scanning, increased dramatically. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | DigiDoc conference, Edinburgh |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An interesting day in which my talk fitted alongside some remarkable commercial and acacdemic projects. Lively email exchanges. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Dr Effie Law's Presentation to College of Science and Engineering |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Dr Law (CoI) presentation to the College of Science and Engineering Showcase event (about 20 academic researchers and staff) on the integration into the project of a specific user-centred design approach called social requirements engineering (SRE) for iteratively capturing and analysing requirements of users in relation to the digital artefacts being generated by the project. Dr Law's presentation on her plan to integrate into the project a specific user-centred design approach called social requirements engineering (SRE) for iteratively capturing and analysing users requirements stimulated further discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Dr Ford, Talk on her work, at Yale |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Dr Ford, our collaborator (History group) from the YCBA, Yale University, gave a talk, on the Northampton monument, 01/03/2012, to the Yale Material Culture Study Group, meeting in the Fellows' Dining Room of Saybrook College. There were approximately 20 people in attendance; this is a lunch/discussion group held weekly during the academic term at Yale. Dr Ford gave an informal talk to the Yale Material Culture Study Group, meeting at the Fellows' Dining Room of Saybrook College. There were approximately 20 people in attendance; this is a lunch/discussion group held weekly during the academic term at Y |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Final Conference, QEII centre, Westminster |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Talk sparked discussion, led to furthe rinvitations to present. Karim's poster won prize. PhD student Karim won poster competition |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Guardian Education article |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Guardian article on the project based on short interviews with Dr Lindley (PI) and Dr Gunn (CoI) but the work of the journalist himself. Sparked a good deal of interest. An introduction to the project by a journalist on the basis of short interviews. Conveyed excitement of the project to a wide audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Lecture Evening in Framlingham Church, Suffolk, to local people |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lindley (PI), Dr Hall (PM), SRC PhD student Nishad Karim, all gave presentations on 10/06/2011, in Framlingham Church during the week in which 3-D scanning took place, and lectured to interested townsfolk at least 70 of whom attended. This was organised by the vicar, the Rev Graham Owen, who was himself 3-D scanned as part of the demonstration. There was enormous interest from those who attended, which showed remarkable engagement with the project at a local level. The enthusiasm for the project has never waned. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Lecture on Project's Progress to SIAH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk initiated discussion and exchange of information. Public Lecture on project to the SIAH. Framlingham, the location of the Howard tombs which are the subject of our research project, is in Suffolk and there has been considerable public interest in the project in the county. Email contacts from some of those who attended. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Lecture on the project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | 15 minute lecture on the project by PI as part of Research Focus Week at University of Leicester, in conjunction with Prof Rick Rylance's visit and focus on AHRC projects Dr Lindley gave an introduction to the project in connection with the visit of Prof Rylance to Leicester, organised by the Research Office of the University. Different AHRC schemes were discussed. Prof Rylance lectured on the AHRC's emerging themes etc. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Lectures by Professor Fraser |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | Prof Fraser gave two 40 minute lectures on the project to the University of Leicester Court Senior supporters had the unusual role of the SRC in a cultural project explained; it was extremely interesting for them and showed how scientists can collaborate with conservators and cultural historians to their mutual benefit. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Plenary at University College, Suffolk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 24 April 2013 Lectured to 300 at University College Suffolk on Cardinal Wolsey's Art Patronage & Tomb Great interest in reconstruction of Cardinal Wolsey's tomb. This is currently [2014] the subject of fund raising at the V&A to buy the four recently rediscovered bronze angels by Benedetto da Rovezzano. My research directly impacts on this project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Trio of Lectures on Historicism |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Dr Lindley lectured to the Università di Pisa, Doctoral Students Programme (History and History of Art), on the subject of Cultural Heritage, Conservation and Historicism in England. He lectured on 'Joseph Strutt's strange Manners and the artifice of authenticity' plus seminar on 'Authenticity and accuracy'; then on 'John Carter and the preservation of the Past' plus seminar on 'The origins of the conservation movement in England: Carter, Wyatt and architectural "improvement"'; and 'Charles Stothard: Hero of Historicism' plus seminar on 'Stothard's etchings of medieval effigies' . This was a trio of EU-funded Erasmus lectures and accompanying seminars plus a guided study visit (lecturer was guided to sites near Pisa by Prof.ssa Sicca) as part of a programme to convey current historicist research to Italian doctoral students and to academic staff, as part of the Representing Re-Formation research programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Trio of short presentations in Leicester to MA students, Museums Studies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Nishad Karim (PhD student, Physics), Kirsten Claiden-Yardley (PhD student, Oxford), Dr Hall (PM, Leicester) and Dr Parry (CoI, Leicester) spoke at a Leicester Museums Studies seminar on 1.2.12 Trio of seminar presentations by members of the collaborating team, representing Physics, History (PhD students) and Archaeology (PM and Researcher). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The website was a key means of diseminating our research and sparked a great deal of interest http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/112501_1.html http://www.culture24.org.uk/history%20%26%20heritage/time/tudor%20and%20stua rt/art313768 http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/12/2010/space-science-and-t he-16th-century http://www.framlingham.com/2010_noticeboard_detail.php?ID=577 http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/3-D-probe-historic-tombs/story-1205674 2-detail/story.html http://www.klosi.org/news/klosi_news_culture/2385.html http://news.softpedia.com/news/Space-Science-Reveals-the-Mysteries-of-Renais sance-Tombs-169628.shtml http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/media/brief/Pages/Healthsoccase.aspx#2 http://www.dailyestimate.com/article.asp?id=44176 http://egiptomaniacos.top-forum.net/t4539p15-encuentros-con-la-historia http://www.ukwirednews.com/news.php/162873-Tombs-in-Suffolk-studied-with-aid -of-space-age-science http://www.manchesterwired.co.uk/news.php/162873-Tombs-in-Suffolk-studied-wi th-aid-of-space-age-science http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/space-science-and-re naissance-tombs.html#comment-form http://www.whatsonjinan.com/news-386-laser-imaging-x-ray-spectrometers-used- to-probe-secrets-of-tudor-tombs.html http://www.scatoday.net/node/20876 http://www.allvoices.com/news/9416689-space-science-trained-on-tombs http://www.thetudorswiki.com/thread/4364879/Investigating+tombs http://newscaca.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/technology-to-help-archaeologists.htm l http://www.stiriazi.ro/ziare/articol/articol/the-science-of-the-space-age-is -being-deployed-to-probe-the-secrets-of-the-tudor-tombs/sumar-articol/206553 48/ Already, before the project website was online there were numerous reports on the project, many organised by Dr Adair Richards. After the website was set up, it hosted campaigns, blogs etc (from September/October 2011). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013 |