Hidden Histories Talk

Apotropaics: the perception of magic and ritual in the medieval church. Steve Tomlin has spent 10 years investigating Apotropaic marks in the parish churches of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

This talk will explore Apotropaics and magic in the medieval church and how the remarkable evidence of traditional rural culture was obscured, disguised and threatened for centuries by overzealous restoration schemes, architects and religious denial. Steve will look at pilgrim marks, votives, hexafoils, consecration circles, doom paintings, mass dials and canonical hours, describing the journey of discovery.