The Medieval Studies Forum will be hosting their first in-person meeting again in over two years with a full study day devoted to pottery studies, looking at its historical, technical, social and economic aspects.

The speakers are lined up but the details of the programme are still being finalised. so please make a note of the date in your diaries and watch out for further details, which will be made available soon - for now, save the date!

The Medieval Studies Forum have arranged a special lecture by Professor Alexandra Sanmark (University of the Highlands and Islands) on 'Medieval Sites of Power and Assembly in the Thames Valley', which includes a look in detail at the sites of both Kingston and Runnymede.

After Prof Sanmark's lecture, the National Trust team will provide a short presentation and update on the Runnymede Explored project.

This talk will be held online, via Zoom.

Although welcome to all, the event is free for SyAS and MSF members, with a fee of £2 from non-members.

On Thursday 16 December at approximately 19:00, the MSF AGM will be preceded by an online Zoom lecture from James Wright FSA on ‘The Folklore and Archaeology of Historic Buildings’. James, a buildings archaeologist and historic stone specialist, will explore some of the most common misconceptions surrounding historic buildings, outlining the legends, explaining the origins of the myths and revealing the underlying truth behind each story to understand a little more about their former occupants.

This year's annual Surrey Historic Environment Research Framework will be held jointly with the Council for British Archaeology South-East annual conference and themed around the subject of church archaeology. The event will be a one-day virtual conference held online, via Zoom video conferencing.

In recent years, the early inscriptions and carved artworks in churches have become the subject of large-scale surveys, not least for the fascinating pictures which are represented - heraldic designs, word puzzles, ships, architectural plans, figural scenes and cartoons, etc - and the insight they shed on the artists themselves. This online study day will look at recent studies of medieval graffiti in both Surrey and Kent, focusing not only on some of the captivating scenes which have been discovered, but the methodologies involved in undertaking such work.