Building a Church out of Herring in a 15th-Century Fishing Village

Join Dr Tom Johnson for a talk in the Oxford Lifelong Learning seminar series on 'Medieval Society and Landscape', convened by Professor David Griffiths and Dr Stephen Mileson.

Event details:

You can choose to join us in Oxford or watch the session online. If you are joining us in person, this talk will take place in the Rewley House Lecture Theatre.

About the talk:

The fifteenth-century church of Walberswick, a Suffolk fishing village, stands in ruins. Most of it was taken down in the late seventeenth century because it was too big — the nave was said to have enough room for a thousand parishioners — and by this time the village had diminished into poverty. But its size speaks of the wealthy, ambitious herring-fishing community that built it when the village was at its peak. The church was financed largely through a system of "doles", voluntary payments made by the fishermen, taken from a share of the catch. The dole system was used widely in the east coast fishery, but it is poorly-documented and little understood. But from Walberswick there survives a book kept by the churchwardens, which records the annual "reckoning of the doles", when the masters of the herring fleet accounted to the parish for their contributions. Drawing on this extraordinary record, this paper explores how the dole system worked and its effects on maritime community in late-medieval England.

About the seminar series:

This series will be a fascinating showcase of the history and archaeology of the medieval period, with a focus on societies, economies and landscapes. It brings together current research and fresh perspectives to explore how people shaped their lives and environments across the Middle Ages.

The programme offers a friendly, collaborative space for discussion, featuring research in progress, approaches to sources and methodologies, and an interface between academic research and local and community history and archaeology. Drawing on a rich heritage of documents, material culture and landscape evidence, the series highlights the breadth and continued relevance of medieval studies.

Open to staff, students and anyone with an interest in medieval history and archaeology, locally and globally, the series includes contributions from established scholars and practitioners.

Each session lasts 1 hour, and drinks will be available for purchase in the common room afterwards.

To view the full series of talks, please visit our website.

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Host or Publisher Oxford University, Department for Continuing Education