Fifty Shades of Archaeology: Historic Building Mythbusting

As part of this year's Buxton Festival Fringe, we are pleased to bring you the popular, award-winning author Dr James Wright of Triskele Heritage who will be talking about his upcoming book.

The book is a deep dive into commonly believed and repeated stories about historic buildings. Nine themes will be investigated in detail, the myths will be debunked, underlying truths revealed, and there will be a look at how and why the tales developed in the first place.

James Wright said: “Go to any mediaeval building in the land and there will be interesting, exciting and romantic stories presented to the visitor. They are commonly believed and widely repeated – but are they really true?” He goes on to say: “These stories include those of secret passages linking ancient buildings, spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, ship timbers used in the construction of buildings on land, blocked doors in churches which are thought to keep the Devil out, and claims to be the oldest pub in the country. Delightful as these tales are, they can be a tad misleading in some cases and absolute myths in others.”

For example, tales of hidden tunnels are often connected to the Reformation and an emerging cultural identity which was suspicious of Catholicism. The spiral staircase myth was invented in 1902 by an art critic obsessed with spirals, left-handedness, and fencing – it is intricately bound up with the Victorian obsession with militarism. Ship timber yarns can be linked to the ideals of a seafaring nation. Blocked doors in churches are connected to forgotten processions on church feast days. The book even looks at the archaeological evidence which points to the possible identification of what may genuinely be the oldest pub in the land.

Host or Publisher Enrichment Through Archaeology