I don’t seem to have heard from you ref my query of 10 Dec last year on the4 Oliver family. Do I therefore, assume that you don’t have any information?

Apologies for coming back to you.

Regards

Jackie

Although Anglo-Norman French was used in some official documents up to the 15th century, it is doubtful that it would have been widely understood by the general population, particularly in regard to bawdy plays on words, after about the end of the 13th century; Middle English would have been the language of the streets.

Both male and female genitals appear on late medieval pilgrim badges, mainly from continental Europe, and these may have a religious connection that has been lost, as so much of medieval symbolism has been lost. I believe it would be incorrect to view these with an entirely modern sense of decorum and propriety, since the people who made and used them had entirely different world views. The overtly erotic shela-na-gig figures seen among the decoration on many medieval British churches testify to this.

There are a few similar badges in the Museum of London’s collection which depict the scene of Becket’s execution. If you are interested a number of these can be found on the Museum’s website under ‘collections online’. They have also been published by Brian Spencer in his book Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges (available in our Museum of London shop)

In these scenes the figure on the far right is usually identified as Edward Grim, a Cambridge clerk who was the sole witness to the murder of Becket. The badges are quite intricate and subtle differences can be found in each, usually alluding to different details in the narrative. Grim sometimes holds the Archbishops’ staff and this may be what is depicted in the badge on my blog. However, I prefer your interpretation of Becket offering his soul to god! It certainly looks like a small figure (the soul) is being presented by a kneeling (and unfortunately headless) Becket. Edward Grim is also usually easy to identify, however our seated figure doesn’t appear to have any of the usual ‘character’ traits – so perhaps this is meant to be God?

Many thanks for your comment and I’ll pass these details onto our curator who has a particular interest in pilgrim badges. Hopefully we’ll see you at another Archaeology Up-close – every third Friday of the month in the Museum of London’s Foyer.

I was looking at it this afternoon at the object handling session and wondered if it showed Becket offering his soul as a tiny person to Christ.
El Greco’s great painting The Burial of Count Orgaz shows the deceased’s soul in a similar form. Bit of a stretch but perhaps the idea can be traced back to a Byzantine prototype.
What do you think?

Thanks for your comment on my blog: I had contact a couple of years ago with another strand of the Woolf’s, so please contact Natalie who was doing research on the family (I will email you directly with Natalie’s email address).

Good luck!

I’ve been trying to find out more about his father and siblings. Do you have any suggestions about where to search?
Regards,
Jill DeMaio

Location Latitude: 51.5120169 Longitude: -0.0795756

There IS a related publication for this site;
“Living and Working in Roman and Later London: Excavations at 60–63 Fenchurch Street”

by Vaughan Birbeck and Jörn Schuster
ISBN 978-1-874350-52-1
£10

MoLA are currently excavating a site on the other side of the street.

Regards
Rose Baillie