A good crowd of members and friends turned up for our meeting, despite the change to the third Saturday of the month because of the Easter long weekend. Carol Gerrard, our Chairperson, was happy to welcome one of our most recent members, Rayma Turton, who had made the trip from the Blue Mountains to attend her first meeting with us, the first of many such visits we hope.

We were also pleased to have as our guests Diana Vale and Leona Coupe, who are members of the Campbelltown Historical Society and are very interested in Richard III and his life and times.

Diana is particularly interested as she was born and bred in Lecicestershire, and used to live a short drive from Market Bosworth in a village called Newtown Linford, a place that was also the home of Lady Jane Grey and her sisters, the great-grand-daughters of  Elizabeth of York.

Carol was sad to report the deaths of Ricardian friends: one of our long-time and most enthusiastic members Loraine Winsor, and  Margaret and Geoff Johnson  who were members in the 1990s.

The highlight of our meeting, confirmed by all the enthusiastic comments, letters and emails received afterwards, was a talk on …

MEDIEVAL ORDER AND DISORDER

The speaker was  Bosie Crawford proving once more why she is one of our favourite visitors. With a PhD in Medieval Clothing and Customs, she is also a leading light of The Wardrobe at Chatswood, the source for “dress-ups” for many of us

Bosie’s talk was titled “Disorderly Dress” and concentrated on the importance of the uses and abuses of  livery in Medieval England.   We  learned about the gradual growth of distinctive easily recognisable clothing The development of livery involved both nobility and gentry, as well as guilds and civic officials , and different colours and emblems and even quality of the  fabric  led to more accurate identification. Bosie provided a colourful and varied selection of illustrations that emphasised her comprehensive and detailed talk.

The questions afterwards reflected how Bosie’s enthusiasm  for her subject had been transferred to us. She was presented with a bottle of Battle of Bosworth Shiraz  and a copy of “The Daughter of Time” which she confessed that she  hadn’t  read.

Tags: Medieval Life, NSW Branch