This autumn, English Heritage has teamed up with Manchester Metropolitan University to organise a series of free weekend events at monasteries in northern England themed around their historical associations with the supernatural.
Taking place at Byland, Furness, Lanercost, Rievaulx and Roche, there’ll be free site tours as well as creative writing workshops and readings of selected ghost stories by M.R. James.
The tours will be led by Dr Michael Carter of English Heritage and Professor Dale Townshend of Manchester Metropolitan University. Based on rigorous scholarship, they’ll explain how, for each of the monasteries, ghost stories and other tales of the supernatural, can be used to understand their history, art and architecture between the 12th and early 19th centuries.
The creative writing workshops will be led by the acclaimed author Rosie Garland. Readings of M.R. James ghost stories with suitably antiquarian and monastic themes will be by Robert Lloyd-Parry of Nunkie Theatre.
Generously funded by the AHRC, all the events are free (a site admission free is payable at Furness, Lanercost, Rievaulx and Roche for non-English Heritage members).
Further details and booking information is available here: https://revenantsandremains.mmu.ac.uk/events/
Site tours (dates below) do not require booking but booking is essential for the writing workshops and readings which take place on the Saturdays only.
Roche Abbey: 1 & 2 October (site tours at 10:30am and noon, respectively)
Furness Abbey: 8 & 9 October (site tours at 10:30am and noon, respectively
Byland Abbey: 5 & 6 November (site tours at 11am and noon, respectively)
Lanercost Priory: 12 & 19 November (site tours 11am both days)
Rievaulx Abbey: 26 & 27 November (site tours 11am and noon, respectively)
Medieval Art Research 