Virtual launch event

Monday 30 November 2020, 5.00-6.30pm GMT.

Sign up via link at the bottom of this post.

History creates community, and community creates history. Being part of a community means sharing histories, and these histories leave traces that can be encountered long after the event. The experience of such encounters enables us to develop a sense of our past and to connect with our community’s history and identity.

A perfect example of this are the materials preserved at Downside Abbey, not only in its library, archives and special collections, but also dotted around the abbey complex. Together they expose a rich, outward-looking historical and cultural heritage that connects Downside with the history of its neighbourhood, the Southwest region, the British Isles, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the Vatican, Russia and even Australia.

Featuring twenty carefully curated exhibits rarely or never displayed before, this online exhibition presents a vibrant panorama of the community’s heritage from Roman settlements in Somerset to medieval German monasteries, and from Russia at the eve of the Revolution to the beaches of Dunkirk in World War II.

All exhibits were chosen and curated through close collaboration between Downside’s community and a team of academic researchers from the University of Bristol under the direction of Dr Benjamin Pohl. The virtual launch event will include talks by Dr Pohl and the project team, a live demo of the exhibition website plus a Q&A session.

Registration (free of charge) is required in advance .

Join the virtual launch event on Monday 30 November 2020, 5.00-6.30pm GMT.

The event will be held as a Zoom webinar, and attendance is free and open to all.

Sign up to register your attendance (required): https://tinyurl.com/y46q2pyo

The exhibition was made possible through generous funding and support by The British Academy, the Centre for Medieval Studies (University of Bristol), the Centre for Material Texts (University of Bristol) and the Centre for Monastic Heritage (Downside Abbey and University of Bristol).

We look forward to celebrating the launch of this exhibition with you!

Below is the poster for our second project workshop (entitled: ‘History & Community, Part II: History @Downside’), which will take place at Downside Abbey (Stratton-on-the-Fosse) on Wednesday 25 March 2020.

In this workshop, we will present and discuss the ongoing work undertaken collaboratively by the project PI (Dr Benjamin Pohl), two student research assistants (UoB), Downside’s monks and the abbey’s Director of Heritage and Outreach Officer in preparation of a public exhibition that will take place at Downside at the end of 2020. The exhibition carries the working title ‘History @Downside: An Exhibition in 20 Objects’, and it will feature a carefully chosen and curated selection of materials from the abbey’s special collections.

Attendees will be given the opportunity to engage first-hand with heritage-related work-in-progress, provide feedback on the materials selected so far and even suggest additional materials for display in the exhibition. This will take the shape of an informal conversation (guided by the workshop organiser) between the participants, the exhibition team and the monastic community of Downside Abbey.

Attendance is free (incl. a free lunch), and travel will be provided free of charge between the University of Bristol and Downside Abbey on the day. A shuttle bus will leave from outside 13 Woodland Road at 8.15am, and it will leave Downside in the afternoon (3pm or thereabouts). Following popular demand at our previous workshop, there will also be a special guided tour of the abbey church, the monastic library and the special collections after lunch.

The list of participants is filling up quickly, and as before we will also set up a waiting list (operated on a first-come-first-serve basis). If you would like to attend, please email benjamin.pohl@bristol.ac.uk.

In this public lecture, Dr Benjamin Pohl (University of Bristol, project PI) will explore how and why medieval Benedictine abbots engaged first-hand with the writing of history by recording the traditions and collective memories of their monastic communities.

Which resources were available to these abbot-historians that ordinary monks did not have at their disposal? What difference did it make when the monastic historian was himself an abbot? Was it common for medieval abbots to pick up the pen, or was it an exception?

The public lecture will take place at Downside Abbey Visitor Centre on Thursday 27 February 2020, 5pm. Attendance is free and refreshments will be available.

Booking for the event is essential by emailing Steve Parsons sparsons@downside.co.uk or calling 01761 235323. Further details available here: https://www.downsideabbey.co.uk/shop/events/library-events/public-lecture-abbots-as-historians/

Below is the poster for the first of two project workshops (entitled: ‘History & Community, Part I: History in the Community’), which will take place at Downside Abbey (Stratton-on-the-Fosse) on the morning of Wednesday 11 Dec 2019. The list of participants is filling up quickly, but we will have a waiting list (operated on a strict first-come-first-serve basis) in case any of our registered participants drop out in the interim. If you would like to attend/join the waiting list, please email benjamin.pohl@bristol.ac.uk.