THE meeting on Monday, October 20 at the Abbey Hotel was opened by our Vice-Chairman Mike Taylor, who warmly welcomed all members.

We began as usual with a number of humorous stories and this was followed by congratulations from the chair to members with recent birthdays.

Business matters were speedily dealt with and our guest speaker, Chris Flower was introduced.

Members had long been intrigued by the title of the talk, An Upside Down World and within a very short space of time our imagination had been captured by the images being shown of medieval misericord carvings from many cathedrals and churches.

Clearly at this time in our history, monks and priests spent long hours in the choir stalls and the misericord, almost a shelf rather than a seat, allowed them to appear to be standing. The designs on the misericords, carved from solid blocks of oak, were not easily visible to the laity but were clearly visible to the clergy for whom the images held held significant messages, or indeed warnings.

Many of us were surprised and shocked by the bewildering variety of images, some extremely lewd, but it was stressed that the images had to be understood within the doctrinal and devotional culture of the time. We needed to get into the mediaeval mind! The images are conveying messages, the triumph of good over evil, the dangers of enticement, etcetera. They have to be understood against a background of clerical misogyny, and anxieties regarding the threat posed to clerical authority by lay people, particularly women and perhaps more surprisingly, quack doctors. The latter, symbolised in one carving by an ape hurting other animals, could be interpreted as a warning about deceiving the gullible.

In his vote of thanks Colin Roy sincerely thanked Chris Flower for his insightful and absorbing talk. Certainly, there will be a number of our members on their knees in Malvern Priory looking, perhaps for the first time, at their unique misericords. Some will be surprised, others shocked but, at least we now know something of their history. Take a torch!

Our next speaker on Monday, November 3 will be Alistair Patrick talking about The Development of the Motor Car. Why not come along and join us? For information please e-mail t.batesworc@btinternet.com

TONY BATES