As if I don’t spend enough time hanging around this part of Westminster, I found myself, for the second time in 24 hours, hanging around in Dean’s Yard. But this time I was on a half-holiday, awaiting a tour of the Westminster Abbey Library & Muniment Room, with my friends from The Gresham Society.
The Library Collection is described through this link – click here.
We were such a large group that we needed to be split in two. I wondered whether to mention Solomon at the point that Tony Trowles, Head of Collections and our principal guide for the afternoon, suggested an even division of the group. But I thought better of that Old Testament reference in the particular setting of the Westminster Abbey Library.
If you want a general background/introduction to Westminster Abbey, btw, you could do a lot worse than the Wikipedia entry – click here.
Anyway, my half of the group went with Matthew Payne to see the Muniment Room first. I think the more conventional way is to see the Library first, perhaps because the Muniment Room is seen to be the highlight.
In reality, I found the whole tour a highlight.
It was fascinating to see the Muniment Room, it’s storage chests some of which are 800 or so years old, it’s extraordinary mural of Richard II’s white hart and it’s stunning views across the Abbey.
But it was also fascinating to have Tony show us the Library and learn all about its transformation from a Benedictine monks’ dormitory into a theological library.
Further, some of the artefacts on show in the library were quite simply breathtaking. An Edward The Confessor writ, for example, which they are almost 100% certain is genuine (there is doubt over some of the oldest relics), made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor#/media/File:Edward_the_Confessor_sealed_writ.jpg
After our private tour – even among Gresham friends it seemed extremely cosy in places – the wide-open spaces of the new Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries seemed liberating.
The stroll and climb to the galleries was enjoyable in itself – around Poets’ Corner at ground level and then a charming new staircase with gorgeous views across to the Palace Of Westminster. What a shame to think of the shambles that is the political mayhem going on in that historic place at the moment.
But then the new galleries and the stunning exhibits on show, well set out for ease of navigation and all very well labelled/described.
While Westminster Abbey prohibits photography within its confines unless you buy a licence to do so, it does provide excellent imagery for those beyond its confines, such as these excellent short videos about the new tower and galleries. First up, the climb up the stairs of the tower:
Next up, the galleries themselves, described extremely well by the curator, the Dean and also Tony Trowles, who guided our library tour:
On seeing these wonderful artefacts with my Gresham Society friends, I felt a burst of communal, almost cult-like enthusiasm, that reminded me of our Gresham Society visit to the London Mithraeum last year:
I wondered, briefly, whether the cult of Mithras (see above) or the Cult of Saint Edward The Confessor (yes, really, Westminster Abbey owes a great deal of its character to Henry III’s attachment to that cult) would be the preferred cult for us Gresham Society types.
I took some soundings…some might call it a mini-referendum…which was a very close run thing; 52%-48% approximately. As a heated, perhaps irreconcilable debate broke out amongst this group of hitherto convivial Gresham Society friends, I thought best to take my leave of the group swiftly.
For all I know, the remnants of the Gresham Society might still be debating the relative merits of their preferred cults in The Westminster Arms; at least, that’s where most of the group (or should I now describe it as a brace of warring factions) was last seen at the time of writing.
In truth, it was a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable afternoon out. Once again, thanks to Tim Connell for leading our field trips…also to Basil Bezuidenhout and others for helping to organise them.