Monday 16th March 2026 -
Rory Naismith - Late Anglo-Saxon Ely: a Monastery and its World.
Abstract:
The medieval Cathedral of Ely, the 'ship of the fens', dominates the flat, watery landscape around it. Yet it attained its pre-eminent position in the region more than a century before the present building was even begun. Ely was refounded around 970 by the vigorous monastic reformer St Æthelwold (d. 984). Like other monasteries, Ely benefited from Æthelwold's lavish patronage, but unlike other monasteries, Ely has preserved detailed records of how that growth unfolded, involving negotiations with everyone from local farmers to major aristocrats. It also preserves several remarkable sources that illustrate its links with the surrounding population, among them a list of serf families, a very rare set of Old English records of land management, and one of the first guild regulations from anywhere in medieval Europe. Together, these sources provide a really remarkable insight into both the monastery and the population it dealt with.
Bio:
'Rory Naismith is Professor of Early Medieval English History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He has written widely on aspects of early medieval history, with books including Offa, King of the Mercians (Yale University Press, 2026), Making Money in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2023), Early Medieval Britain c. 500-1000 (Cambridge University Press) and Citadel of the Saxons: the Rise of Early London (IB Tauris, 2018).
Rory Naismith - Late Anglo-Saxon Ely: a Monastery and its World.
Abstract:
The medieval Cathedral of Ely, the 'ship of the fens', dominates the flat, watery landscape around it. Yet it attained its pre-eminent position in the region more than a century before the present building was even begun. Ely was refounded around 970 by the vigorous monastic reformer St Æthelwold (d. 984). Like other monasteries, Ely benefited from Æthelwold's lavish patronage, but unlike other monasteries, Ely has preserved detailed records of how that growth unfolded, involving negotiations with everyone from local farmers to major aristocrats. It also preserves several remarkable sources that illustrate its links with the surrounding population, among them a list of serf families, a very rare set of Old English records of land management, and one of the first guild regulations from anywhere in medieval Europe. Together, these sources provide a really remarkable insight into both the monastery and the population it dealt with.
Bio:
'Rory Naismith is Professor of Early Medieval English History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He has written widely on aspects of early medieval history, with books including Offa, King of the Mercians (Yale University Press, 2026), Making Money in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2023), Early Medieval Britain c. 500-1000 (Cambridge University Press) and Citadel of the Saxons: the Rise of Early London (IB Tauris, 2018).