| Event type: | Open Meeting |
| Date: | 1st July 2025 |
| Time: | 14:00 |
| Venue: | Craig y Don Community Centre |
| Cost: | £2.00 |
After the departure of the Romans from Britain around AD 410 regular contact with mainland Europe ended and the British Isles and Ireland formulated their own identities and culture.
Between about AD 600-850 liturgical books of remarkable beauty and sophistication were produced in a unique style that originated in Ireland and spread to Anglo -Saxon England.
The manuscripts were inventive with a palette of rich and vibrant colours, intricate patterns and imaginative figures, sometimes playful and humorous. The decoration of the text was given equal importance to that of the illustrations.
In the middle of the ninth century this style of manuscript art ended through the destruction by Vikings of the monasteries where it was produced.
Philip Holdsworth is an archaeologist and historian of the early Middle Ages, the period between the departure of the Romans from Britain and the Norman Conquest.
He studied at the University of Cambridge, has taught at the universities of Manchester and Stirling and excavated sites in England, Scotland, Iceland and Denmark.
Since retirement he has taught at the U3A summer schools at Cirencester and Chichester and has contributed to the U3A Zoom series of talks.
He continues to research and publish in the field of Anglo-Saxon studies.
