2024: Illustrated Talks & Guided Tours

April 20^th

‘Ritual Protection Marks found in Littlebourne’s 14^th Century Tithe Barn’

Live talk for the Littlebourne Tithe Barn Society (includes a guided tour of the historic graffiti in the adjoining church of St Vincent’s)

May 11th

‘The Historic Graffiti in the church of St Mary the Virgin, Letchworth’

St Mary’s Church Fund. An Illustrated talk. In person.

Ship graffiti over a wall painting of a ship, entrance porch, St Mary’s. Photo: © W Perkins 2023.

May 16^th

‘Witchcraft in Kent: The Archaeological Evidence’

A live talk for Bexley Archaeology Group (BAG)

Thursday 16 May 2024, 8.15pm (please note that prior to this talk BAG also has their AGM which will commence at 7.45pm
Bexley-Sidcup Conservative Club, 19 Station Road, Sidcup, Kent, DA15 7EB
Details/registration: pr@bag.org.uk

https://www.bag.org.uk/events/witchcraft-in-kent-the-archaeological-evidence-by-wayne-perkins

Saturday 25th May 2024

‘Binham Priory & the Cult of John Schorne: The medieval ‘folk saint’ who conjured the Devil into a Boot‘

An Illustrated talk by Wayne Perkins, followed by a perambulation of the remains of Binham Priory.

This is a free talk open to the general public.

Sir John Schorne, Gentleman Borne,

Conjured the Devil in A Boot!

14th century pilgrim badge of John Schorn which depicts two of his miracles © Lionheart Replicas

The folk saint is referred to under many titles, such as Sir (used to address a Parish priest) / Master/ Magister (he was a Doctor of Divinity) / Dominus (Latin for ‘master’) / John /Johannes Schorne / Schorn (now usually spelt without the ‘e’).

He was the Rector at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, North Marston but his fame grew far and wide and there was a shrine dedicated to John Schorn at Binham Priory.

Folk art: Knitted kneeler in the church of St Mary. Photo (c) W Perkins 2024

John Schorn is one of England’s most enigmatic ‘folk’ saints. Paintings on Medieval Rood Screens show him carrying a boot containing a small devil which, apparently, he made appear/disappear as symbol of his power.

‘Master,’ ‘Maister’ or ‘Sir’ John Schorn(e), Rector of North Marston, Buckinghamshire, was reputed to have exhibited miraculous powers for healing sickness in both humans and animals.

During a major drought, he is said to have struck the ground with his staff from which a spring gushed forth. The spring became a holy well and water was said to be excellent for curing the ‘ague’ (malaria) and gout!

Following his death in the 14th century, his shrine became the third most popular pilgrimage destination after Canterbury & Walsingham yet, mysteriously, he remained uncanonised. A number of wayside Inns held the name ‘The Boot’ as pilgrims made their way to and from North Marston on their way to Canterbury. Schorn’s ‘Territory of Grace’ is said to have encapsulated the whole of the south-east England and beyond. His fame reached an apogee when his relics were ‘translated to Windsor to help finance the building of St George’s chapel, late in the 15^th century.

This talk sheds light upon the psychogeography of the pilgrims’ mythic landscape at and around the Shorn shrine. Both architectural and archaeological evidence is brought to bear wherein a corpus of graffiti collected at the parish church illustrates the devotion of the pilgrims.

Finally, it asks two questions –

was his reputation based upon a misinterpretation of his Cult object (the boot containing the Devil)?
and, ‘where now lie the bones of John Schorn?’

Wayne Perkins

February 2024

Details : info@norfarchtrust.org.uk