A skull and rib bones were discovered under a cannon by marine archaeologists investigating the wreck of HMS Victory - the direct predecessor of Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar - which went down during violent storms in 1744.

In its day, the 1744 Victory was the biggest and most powerful ship in the world with a mighty 110 guns and fought during the War of the Austrian Succession.

Greg Stemm said: "This is the first time that we have come across a human skull and remains of this type." It is highly unusual for remains to be found in a wreck so deep, they would normally be eaten by the crabs, eels and fish.

On 3 October, Victory and the other ships of the line sailed into an almighty storm in the Channel Islands. All the ships returned, albeit limping - dismasted or with leaks - apart from the Victory. All 1,100 men were lost and only the ship's main topmast was ever found, washed up on Guernsey.

Writers and 'psychogeographers' Iain Sinclair and Alan Moore undertake their own journeys across England in collaboration with musicians and artists inspired by English Journey, JB Priestley's account of England in 1933. The project starts at Faster than Sound in Aldeburgh with song collector Shirley Collins, composer/musician Susan Stenger, composer FM Einheit and visual artist Graham Dolphin, presenting a unique interpretation of the Suffolk countryside.

Link to video of an English journey re-imagined.

Talent Show

Our Talent Show this semester included an amazing 15 acts plus a couple surprise acts, all of which were absolutely fabulous! Congratulations to Sam, who managed to raise the most money for the much needed disaster relief - Shelter Boxes. Well done to all those concerned!

We have many more photos for you to look at, these can be accessed by clicking on this link.

Behind the scenes photos can be viewed by selecting this link here.

Archaeologists have located not just the site of the Battle of Bosworth, but the spot where – on 22 August 1485 – Richard III became the last English king to die in battle when he was cut down by Tudor swords.

The crucial evidence, including badges of the supporters of both kings, sword mounts, coins and 28 cannonballs, was found in fields straddling Fen Lane in the Leicestershire parish of Upton.

The site was located by archaeologists using metal detectors across hundreds of acres, and poring over the evidence of medieval place names to match them to accounts of the battle. Their finds suggest a sprawling fight, with the two armies facing one another in straggling lines almost a kilometre in length.

One of the crucial finds, the largest of the cannonballs nicknamed "the holy grapefruit" by the archaeologists, was found just behind one of Oliver's barns. Another key discovery was a silver boar no bigger than a thumbnail, battered but still snarling in rage after 500 years.

"The fact that this little boar is Richard's personal emblem, and made in silver gilt, means that it can only have been given to one of the closest members of his retinue. The man who wore this would have fought and died at Richard's side," Glenn Foard said.

Time seems to zoom by when you're having fun; students have thrown themselves into the many activities and events going on here. 

The Valentine's Dance and Karaoke in the Bistro were both very well attended and so much fun.  The Clue Night (a night of intrigue and mystery) was a great success; students and faculty dressed up in costumes, and the acting (like the venue) was just amazing. 

Lastly, and just as important is volleyball, our lovable Lions made the crowds roar with their hits and digs; great technique Lions.

Photos are now ready for you to view by selecting one of the following links:

Karaoke

Valentine's Day Dance

S10 Clue

Volleyball

Romanticizing on the York Trip

by Kathryn Cesarz

Saturday Morning started bright and early for students going on the York Trip. The buses left at 8am into the cool, morning fog (but the weather was reasonable; after a month of living here, this climate that, in the beginning, made us seek the Tube in London not because we wanted transportation but because we needed the warmth of the subway cars, and that made us think our hands would fall off while we stood in the rain on the Lincoln field trip has now put us into a state of mind, where if we only have to wear one coat while eating in the refectory rather than two, we say "well, what a pleasantly balmy day!")

Though some would call them just a means to get from A to B, I personally enjoy the coach rides. This morning, the picture windows of the bus (and they are huge windows) presented us with a scrolling blue countryside speckled with sheep and flocks of birds. So I'm a romantic. It's travel; I'm allowed.

We arrived a couple of hours later in York, home of the world-renowned York Minster Cathedral. Most students headed from the Coach Park straight for the Cathedral (which was easy to spot, since it towered over all the puny buildings between us.) Walking the streets to the Cathedral, we could tell right away that the city would be a pleasant place to spend the day. Tea shops and quirky stores (life-like baby dolls in the shop window! vintage records!) lined the narrow, cobblestone roads, many of which were closed off as pedestrian-only streets.

And the Cathedral was impressive. We were able to buy passes to see just the cathedral, or the cathedral and the crypt, OR the cathedral, the crypt, and climb the tower. I buckled up my adventure belt and did all three. The treacherous 260-ish-step climb to the top was well worth it, because the view (although it was one we came upon huffing and puffing, hearts pounding) was lovely. 

The crypts in the cathedral had remaining structures from both the Roman Basilica and the Norman Cathedral that preceded the modern Cathedral. These sites were both fascinating and useful; I used York Minster's architectural history as an example on last week's British Studies Exam! 

The other features of the city gave day trippers lots to do. I walked the walls of the city with a friend, stopping shortly in a big tea house (shortly because it had no vacancy), and then (maybe being rewarded for our failed efforts) found a wonderful coffee shop in one of the wall's gate towers. The weather remained cool and misty all day, but it wasn't enough to keep us tourists inside.

A lot of tourists were there, actually. The shopping streets were crowded like US malls at Christmastime. They had good reason, though. The shops were great, as was the bustle and seeing all the people. I encountered three street music performers - a guitarist, a violinist, and (I kid you not) a pianist on an upright piano. They were worth stopping for (especially with my rose-colored glasses on.) The piano man treated us to a rendition of the "Family Guy" theme song.

As 4:00 approached, students returned to their seats on the coach, and headed back home to Harlaxton. The countryside that was bright blue that morning became a dark indigo as the sun set. Most people fell asleep. It was a good day.

On Tuesday 16 February Dr Taylor will present a paper entitled ‘‘Divers singinge bookes’: Homogeneity and Identity in the Paston Music Manuscript Collection’ at a conference held at Chawton House Library, Hampshire. The paper pursues questions arising from Dr Taylor’s doctoral research on the Paston manuscript collection, an important collection of musical sources from the turn of the seventeenth century.

The conference, on the subject of Music, Literature, Illustration: Collaboration and networks in English manuscript culture, 1500 – 1700, is hosted by Southampton University and further details may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/cmrc/news/conferences/2009_10/music_literature.html

Discovering British Culture through Art and the Theatre

By Kathryn Cesarz

Harlaxton Theatre Classes broke the tedium of the unusually long five-day school week last week with a Wednesday evening trip to London. The destination was the world-renowned National Theatre's production of "The Pitmen Painters" by Lee Hall.

A 3-stage theatre complex that hosts 20 Theatre productions and various presentations and speakers throughout the year, the National Theatre makes an excellent destination for anyone looking to get a taste of the London stage. It is located on the West Bank of the Thames river right near the London Eye and the Tate Modern art museum, so it is at the center of London's excitement.

The Harlaxton coach arrived in London a little after 4:00pm. This early evening arrival allowed students lots of time to grab dinner somewhere before the 7:30 curtain. Students enjoyed getting another chance to wander London (as many had been to London already with the first weekend school trip) and explored the exciting, complex city even deeper.

As show time neared, we reassembled in the lobby of the Theatre. After splitting up from when the coach had first arrived, it was a warm little comfort to happen upon other students we'd not seen for a couple of hours.

We were seated (everyone was entranced by the colorful, well-designed ticket stubs,) and after the house filled up (and it was FULL!) the house lights dimmed and the play began.

The play was a true story about a group of miners from Ashington, Northumberland who, although not formally trained in the visual arts, created paintings that advanced British art of the 1930's and 1940's. They are historically referred to as The Ashington Group. The play was less about the historical men themselves, though, and more of a forum to discuss the changing definition of art in the 20th century.

Professor Bruce Woodruff, in charge of organizing the trip, said he wanted his students to see this play for the insight it gives into British cultural identity. The themes of class tensions and regional disparities made it easy for students to get a glimpse into English and British identity through this play.

One Harlaxton student commented that he liked the play because it was "unpretentious" - the curiosity and earthiness of the miners while going through their art classes invited the audience to lose any inhibitions toward the hefty discussion on art. Other students were interested in the rapid pace of the play: dialogue moved quickly and the scenes ended and began abruptly.

I was particularly interested in the play's discussion on the changes in art in the 20th Century because I am taking a class on 20th century literature, with a focus on works from Great Britain. The play illustrated how English people of the thirties might really have been reacting to the changes that surrounded them. It helped me get a sense of how the people we take for granted today, like Picasso and Cezanne, really were revolutionary in their ideas, as were smaller contributors like the Ashington group, who I'd never heard of before this play.

Since I am a Theatre Performance major working towards a career in the art, it is inspiring and encouraging to experience a piece of Theatre that energizes and enlightens the audience (in this case, myself,) in some way. I was grateful to have had this opportunity to see an essentially British play that tied right into my studies here this semester.

My Experience of Morris Dancing

by Kathryn Cesarz

Last Monday we had a lively and entertaining cultural experience here in our very own manor. As students gathered in the Great Hall to wait for the performance to start, Dr. Kingsley announced the Forest Morris Dancers and in they came. The colourful bunch included a man wearing a rainbow fringed jacket who played the accordion, followed by a crew of men in socks with jingle bells on them, funny crossed ribbons over their chests, and straw hats encircled with bright silk flowers. The energetic dances involved lots of hopping to maximize the sound of the jingle bells, as well as hitting sticks together (usually involving two people) and waving handkerchiefs in the air.

The mood was cheerful and humorous. During one of the first numbers, a man came around with, what we found out later, a dried sheep's bladder on a stick, bopping women on the head. He told us that anyone who had been hit with the bladder was guaranteed to get pregnant in the next year. This news was received with chuckles and groans. One song involved a "virgin sacrifice" of a Harlaxton student from the crowd, who was escorted to the center of the circle of dancers. For the final pose of the dance, she was lifted above their shoulders, which the crowd received with whistles and cheers of delight. The dancers had their final dance and proceeded out of the Great Hall.

The audience was then ushered into the Conservatory where a group of women in green wool skirts and clogs performed clog dances for us. The dances were linked historically, they told us, to clogs worn to work in factories during the industrial revolution.

After the clog dancers were finished, the men who had earlier performed the stick-and-handkerchief dances for us entered, one at a time, as silly characters - as in a traditional English Panto play. The story involved a doctor, a farmer, a soldier, and a couple of gaudily dressed "women". The play ended with a sing-along of some folk songs, a couple of which were familiar to American ears (most of us knew "A Bicycle Built for Two".)

After the performance, students and performers met in the Bistro to continue the musical festivities late into the night.

The visit from the Forester's Morris Dancers was an enjoyable evening of English culture.