Fig. 1. The shrine of St Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey.
The 2013 BAA Conference will embrace the royal palace and abbey of Westminster, covering the archaeology, history and art history of this complex of religious and secular structures occupying the Island of Thorney, from their origins to the fire of 1834. A full programme of lectures and visits has been arranged, which will include access to parts of the abbey, school and palace that are not open to the public. The conference dinner will be held in the fourteenth-century abbots’ private hall (now College Hall), and there will be another dinner in the Houses of Parliament.
Speakers will include Jeremy Ashbee, Steven Brindle, Nicola Coldstream, Mark Collins, John Crook, Richard Foster, John Goodall, Roland Harris, Edward Impey, Virginia Jansen, John McNeil, Richard Mortimer, Julian Munby, Warwick Rodwell, Marie Louise Sauerberg, Jane Spooner, Tim Tatton-Brown, Pamela Tudor-Craig, and Christopher Wilson.
Delegates will have open access to the abbey, and the arranged site visits will include the Norman undercroft, the Pyx Chamber, the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the coronation chair, the Cosmati pavements, the chapter house, the Jerusalem Chamber, the library and the museum. There will be visits to parts of Westminster School, including the remaining medieval fragments, and Ashburnham House. Visits to the palace will include Westminster Hall, St Mary Undercroft, St Stephen’s Cloister, and the Jewel Tower.
For more information, visit the website.
