Ian Stone, historian

18th March 2019

The Thomas Sutton Memorial in Charterhouse Chapel

By Ian Stone

There is an extraordinary memorial to Thomas Sutton (1532-1611) in the Charterhouse Chapel at Smithfield in London. Standing twenty-five feet high, and thirteen feet wide, it dominates the north aisle of the Chapel. Sutton founded the Charterhouse in 1611 as both a school and as an almshouse and hospital for up to eighty inmates. While the school has moved to Surrey, the almshouse remains and its residents are...

10th February 2019

10 February 1258 – King Henry III’s Short-lived Victory

By Ian Stone

In my previous blog, we saw King Henry III attempt to purge the opposition to his rule in London in 1258. He did this by sending royal officers to the city to enquire into the assessment of a tallage in 1255. These officers were initially frustrated as the leading men of London stood on custom and refused to cooperate with the inquiry. However, the royal officers...

3rd February 2019

3 February 1258 – King Henry III Moves Against his Opponents in London

By Ian Stone

On this day in 1258 a series of inquests began in the wards of London. Starting on Sunday 3 February and continuing for an entire week, thirty-six men from each ward of the medieval city answered questions, on oath, that were put to them by John Mansel, administrator and councillor to King Henry III of England (1216-1272). The king had sent Mansel to London on...

23rd January 2019

The Yeomen Curriers of Fleet Street

By Ian Stone

In this blog I discuss a document which was drawn up by some curriers in London in 1388-9. Curriers work with leather. They clean, scrape and stretch tanned leather to make it waterproof, strong and flexible. As part of this process they use oil, wax and a special knife, called a shave. The skill is ancient and curriers first appear as a trade organisation in...

27th December 2018

The Five Skuldelev Ships at the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

By Ian Stone

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde was built in 1969 to house the five so-called 'Skuldelev' ships. In the late eleventh century, these ships were sunk in a channel at Skuldelev to block access to Roskilde in Denmark. Why the ships were sunk is unknown; perhaps to block attacks from the sea, perhaps to control and facilitate the collection of customs. Local fishermen had long known...

5th October 2018

Edward Conder and the history of the Worshipful Company of Masons

By Ian Stone

On 12 January 1893, twenty-two members of the Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company of Masons gathered at the Hotel Metropole in London. The final item on the agenda of this quarterly meeting concerned the Company’s records and the minutes of the meeting note that the Clerk of the Company, Mr R. L. Hunter, was authorized to ‘lend the records, books and documents of...

8th July 2018

Religious life on the edge of the Roman Empire

By Ian Stone

The early history of Christianity in Britain is very obscure indeed. We have sources which tell us that there were Christians in Britain as early as the second century AD, but these are problematic texts and who exactly these Christians might have been is far from clear. The population of Roman Britain at that time may have numbered 3 to 4 million people and it...

7th July 2018

Lest We Forget? Recovering the story of a little-known memorial

By Ian Stone

Located on a wall in the north-east corner of Gray’s Inn Chapel, at Gray’s Inn Square, is a small memorial to the men of the 15th and 18th Battalions Royal Welch Fusiliers, aka the 1st and 2nd London Welsh, who were killed during the Great War. In total 4,285 men enlisted in these two battalions, of whom 506 were killed in action or died of...

3rd July 2018

How did Bucklersbury, London, get its name?

By Ian Stone

In my previous blog I wrote about the newly re-opened London Mithraeum on Walbrook in the heart of the City of London. Walbrook is so named as it sits almost on top of the now-subterranean river Walbrook, which played an important historical role in dividing medieval London into eastern and western halves. It now plays an equally important role, albeit in a very different way,...

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Author:Ian Stone

The Thomas Sutton Memorial in Charterhouse Chapel

10 February 1258 – King Henry III’s Short-lived Victory

3 February 1258 – King Henry III Moves Against his Opponents in London

The Yeomen Curriers of Fleet Street

The Five Skuldelev Ships at the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

Edward Conder and the history of the Worshipful Company of Masons

Religious life on the edge of the Roman Empire

Lest We Forget? Recovering the story of a little-known memorial

How did Bucklersbury, London, get its name?

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