Location: West Dean College, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ

Find out more about the Symposium 2025 on the Church Monuments Society website.

The Church Monuments Society is delighted to invite you to the next symposium which will be held at West Dean College from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st August 2025.

Our theme, Tombs of the Aristocracy, is inspired by the magnificent tombs of the Fitzalans and Howards (Earls and Dukes of Norfolk) in Arundel and Chichester but covers so much more (see the provisional programme below). The event will include expert lectures and two excursions, with both residential and non-residential options for attending. Please download the relevant booking form from below, which can be emailed to us (instructions on the form).

The symposium is open to anyone, but members of the Church Monuments Society are eligible for Early Bird rates (up to 31st March 2025). The final deadline for bookings is 30th June 2025. Those aged under 30, and/or registered on full- or part-time degree courses, are eligible for a special reduced rate, but these are strictly limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. See the booking forms for more details and conditions.

Non-residential attendees have the option to pay for the evening meal and lecture on Friday, and the extra meal on Saturday evening. Sunday-only attendees are able to attend the evening lecture (but not the evening meal) on Saturday with their Sunday-only ticket because, due to extra speakers filling the programme, Saturday now has a fuller programme of talks.

Provisional Programme (detailed timings to be confirmed nearer the time)

Friday 29th August: West Dean College

• Registration (time TBC but after 3pm)
• Hot buffet dinner (private room) with President’s Welcome
• After dinner lecture: Dr Dirk Breiding on commonalities and differences in iconography between English and Continental aristocratic tombs

Saturday 30th August: West Dean College lectures and excursion to Chichester Cathedral

• Brian & Moira Gittos, ‘Beaufort’s pride’: the Tomb of John, 1st Duke of Somerset at Wimborne Minster
• Dr Keith Dowen, All’Antica or Alla Moderna? The Monuments of Erasmo and Giantonio di Narni in Padua
• Mid-morning refreshments
• Sophia Dumoulin, ‘meete for my degree and callinge’: The Monument to Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex, in Westminster Abbey
• Pat Poppy, Fashion, status or timeless: clothing in 17th century church monuments.
• Buffet lunch at West Dean
• Visit to Chichester Cathedral
• Optional evening buffet meal (self-service)
• After dinner lecture: Dr Roger Bowdler, Humility in the Grave: outdoor aristocratic monuments over the centuries

Sunday 31st August: West Dean College lectures and excursion to Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel

• Dr David Carrington, The Church Monuments Society in Action: progress report on the Getty-funded North Yorkshire monument conservation publication
• Dr Adam White, John, Lord Lumley, the last of his line
• Mid-morning refreshments
• Dr Tobias Capwell, The French Connection: Refining the Stylistic Attribution of Armour Represented on Certain English Effigies c. 1435-1450
• Buffet lunch at West Dean
• Visit to Fitzalan Chapel, with talks