Manchester Dress and Textile Discussion Group Programme 2016-17

All meetings are 5-6pm, and are held in Seminar Room 1, The Graduate Suite, Ellen Wilkinson Building, unless otherwise stated.

Friday 18th Nov 2016: Charles Farris (Westminster): The Administration of Cloth and Clothing in the Great Wardrobe of Edward I

Thursday 23rd Feb 2017: Julie Wertz (Glasgow): The art and science of Turkey red dyeing in 19th-century Scotland

Thursday 30th Mar 2017: Maureen Carroll (Sheffield): Cultural and Ethnic Identities in Dress Behaviour in Roman Germany

Thursday 20th Apr 2017: Elizabeth Coatsworth (MMU): Clothing the Past: Circumstances in which Medieval Garments Survive
For more information, please contact Alexandra Lester-Makin or Ursula Rothe. 

Dress and Textile Discussion Group

Details for the last Dress and Textile Discussion Group meeting at the University of Manchester for this academic year:

Dr Elizabeth Coatsworth will be speaking about Grace Christie one of the pioneers of medieval embroidery research. Her paper is entitled, 'Mrs. Christie and English Medieval Embroidery'.

The meeting will take place on Thursday 1st May at 5 pm.

We will be meeting in Seminar Room 1 of the Graduate Suite in the Ellen Wilkinson Building.

For more information, please contact Alexandra Lester-Makin.

Dress and Textile Discussion Group (University of Manchester)

Programme for 2013-14

Where: TBC – please see reminders

Time: 5pm

Thursday 10th October 2013
Dr Brenda King: Stitch and Stone. The Leek Embroidery Society and its collaboration with Gothic Revival Architects

Thursday 21st November 2013
Alexandra Lester-Makin: The Kempston Embroidery Revisited

Thursday 13th February 2013
Dr John Peter Wild: Cotton - the New Wool. A Developing Tale from Roman Egypt

Thursday 20th March 2014
Dr Chris Monk: Divine Clothing: Adorning God and the Patriarchs in the Rylands Bible Historiée

Thursday 1st May 2014
Dr Elizabeth Coatsworth: Mrs Christie and English Medieval Embroidery

For more information, please contact Alexandra Lester-Makin.

Recent Publications by Members

A round-up of recent publications by members of the Manchester Medieval Society.

Gale R. Owen-Crocker

The Bayeux Tapestry: Collected Papers, Variorum Collected Studies Series (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012)

(with Elizabeth Coatsworth) ‘Textiles’, in Oxford Bibliographies Online: Medieval Studies, ed. Paul Szarmach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)

(as editor with Elizabeth Coatsworth and Maria Hayward), Encyclopedia of Dress and Textiles­ in the British Isles c. 450-1450 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012)

‘Hunger for England: ambition and appetite in the Bayeux Tapestry’, in Holy and Unholy Appetites in Anglo-Saxon England: a Collection of Studies in Honour of Hugh Magennis, ed. Marilina Cesario and Kathrin Prietzel, English Studies, 93:5 (2012): 540-549

‘Image Making: Portraits of Anglo-Saxon Church Leaders’, in Leaders of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ed. Alexander R. Rumble, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012), pp. 109-127

‘Anglo-Saxon Woman: Fame, Anonymity, Identity and Clothing’, in Dress and Identity in the Past, ed. Mary Harlow (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2012), pp. 85-96

Elizabeth Coatsworth

(with Gale R. Owen-Crocker), ‘Textiles’, in Oxford Bibliographies Online: Medieval Studies, ed. Paul Szarmach (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)

(as editor with Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Maria Hayward), Encyclopedia of Dress and Textiles­ in the British Isles c. 450-1450 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012)

Alexander R. Rumble

(as editor) Leaders of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Publications of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012)

Hannah Priest

‘Review of The Jacqueline Rose Reader, ed. Justin Clemens and Ben Naparstek (Durham, 2011)’, Feminism and Psychology, 22:4 (November 2012)

‘Unravelling Constance’, in Dark Chaucer: An Assortment, ed. Myra Seaman, Eileen Joy and Nicola Masciandaro (Brooklyn, NY: Punctum Books, 2012)

‘“Hell! Was I Becoming a Vampyre Slut?’: Sex, Sexuality and Morality in Young Adult Vampire Fiction’, in The Modern Vampire and Human Identity, ed. Deborah Mutch (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

OUT NOW: Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, c. 450-1450

 The eagerly-awaited Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, c. 450-1450, edited by Gale Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth Coatsworth and Maria Hayward and published by Brill, is now available to buy.


From the publisher's website:

The single volume Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450 is a unique work that intends to bring together in 582 signed articles the latest research from across the range of disciplines which contribute to our knowledge of medieval dress and textiles.

There has been a long-standing interest in the subject, which has recently manifested itself in a flowering of research and publications, including activities by the editors of the Encyclopaedia: the foundation of DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics and Fashion) as an umbrella organization for the presentation of papers at the major medieval congresses in Kalamazoo and Leeds (Netherton and Owen-Crocker); the establishment of the annual journal Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Netherton and Owen-Crocker); the Manchester Medieval Textiles Project (Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker); and the AHRC Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project (Owen-Crocker and Sylvester). 

There is a clear need for an interdisciplinary reference work which will introduce readers to various sources of evidence, and give clear information about the most recent discoveries and interpretations and bibliographical guidance to readers. The Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450 contains also over 100 plates and diagrams to illustrate the text.

This work will be an invaluable resource for those studying or researching medieval culture, literature and history.

For more information, please click here. A free sample fascicle is available from the publisher's website.