Women in Medieval Wales and the Marches
An online half-day conference
Date
Online Conference – Saturday 27th January 2024, 2.00pm to 4.45pm (GMT) (join from 1.45pm)
Venue
Online Only
Programme, Synopses and Biographies
Programme – Saturday 27th January 2024, 2.00pm to 4.45pm (GMT)
13.45 Participants to start to join the conference on Zoom (without video and audio)
14.00 Welcome and Introductions.
14.05 Dr Erin Lloyd-Jones
Lay lady, lay: Rediscovering skilled medieval women in Wales
14.45 Questions to Dr Erin Lloyd-Jones
14.55 Sarah Sprules MA
The Clare Women: Stories of female freedom and fear in the Welsh Marches
15.35 Break
15.50 Questions to Sarah Sprules MA
15.55 Dr Victoria Yuskaitis, FHEA
An Archaeological Analysis of Medieval Anchorite Cells in the Welsh Marches
16.35
Questions to Dr Victoria Yuskaitis and the other speakers
16.45 Close
Tickets
These are online events only
Saturday 27th January only: members £8.00; non-members £12.00
Online Booking
By telephone
0333 666 3366
(£2 booking fee)
By cheque
Make out to Mortimer History Society and post to Philip Hume, Waterloo Lodge, Orleton Common, SY8 4JG including contact details (email address needs to be specified for sending the zoom links) and names of all attending participants. Please ensure it is clear which option(s) are being booked.
Dr Erin Lloyd Jones – Lay lady, lay: Rediscovering skilled medieval women in Wales
Many of the royal accounts for Edward I’s castles of north Wales survive, including the details of the skilled workers responsible for building the castles. Whilst researching information for a new interpretation project based on ‘medieval construction’ at Beaumaris Castle, part of the World Heritage Site of the Castles and Town Walls of Edward I, new discoveries of note were made. These included previously unrecorded masons’ marks & a gargoyle, plus the presence of skilled women workers at the site. This led to the search of their presence at other castles in Wales in the 14th Century. It has now become clear that women held a strong and significant role in medieval Britain building work.
Dr Erin Lloyd Jones grew up in the Ceiriog Valley in the Welsh Marches. She volunteered at Chirk Castle as a teenager and completed her first degree in Archaeology and History from Chester College of the University of Liverpool. She held roles with the National Trust, the Heather and Hillforts Landscape Partnership Scheme and Bangor University. Erin then moved to Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, for almost a decade before moving to ‘sister department’ Creative Wales.
One of Erin’s major career milestones was the ‘Hillfort Glow’ experiment, working with over 200 volunteers on ten hillforts across Wales and England. This helped raise awareness of the monuments on a local scale and gathering international interest, exploring how the monuments sit within the landscape and how the hillforts may have connected with one another long before Twitter and Facebook! Erin’s PhD research at Bangor University dug deeper into this concept, exploring structural and dating evidence of the 100+ hillforts in north Wales and the Marches and investigating whether view was important during site selection.
Erin often works with the media and on tv, and is a regular co-presenter on BBC Wales’s Weatherman Walking.
.
Sarah Sprules MA – The Clare Women: Stories of female freedom and fear in the Welsh Marches
When Irish princess Aoife MacMurrough married Norman baron Richard de Clare, she began a line of Clare women who were not merely passive wives, but courageous, daring and influential women in their own right. Their experience in the Welsh Marches, their connections and their stories are an interesting note in history and medieval women as partners in marriage and wielding their own power in a male dominated environment.
Sarah Sprules MA a PhD student at University of Wales, Trinity St David, following completion of a Medieval History MA at the same university, my thesis for the MA considered the agency and power of several women in the Clare family. I am currently studying power in medieval Bristol with a particular focus on Bristol Castle and also have an interest in William Marshal and his time in the Welsh Marches.
Dr Victoria Yuskaitis, FHEA – An Archaeological Analysis of Medieval Anchorite Cells in the Welsh Marches
Historical, literary, and archaeological evidence demonstrates a strong and continuing tradition of anchoritism in the Welsh Marches, in particular on the Shropshire border. Anchorites, medieval religious recluses who were enclosed for life in cells attached to churches, played vital roles in their communities, and an examination of the archaeological evidence provides new insight into the daily lived experience of the women who participated in this prestigious vocation. Examining the archaeology of the anchorite cell at Ellesmere will demonstrate how Welsh identity impacted cell design and anchorite experience, and will invite an assessment of local women’s involvement in supporting anchorites or being an anchorite themselves, particularly in the de Braose and de Clare families.
Dr Victoria Yuskaitis, FHEA – completed her MA at the University of Sheffield in Medieval Archaeology, and her PhD at the University of Leeds in Medieval Studies. Her research focuses on the archaeology of English medieval anchorite cells, exploring the connections between the contexts provided by the archaeological, historical, and literary records, including antiquarian sources. She has significant experience with embedding public engagement with local communities in her research practice. Dr Yuskaitis currently works full-time at the University of Southampton as an Academic Skills Officer in the Learn with US Transition team, and she continues to publish in academic journals and deliver public engagement activities connected to her research.