Backdrop...
The Norman conquest (1066, and all that) continues to cast a looming shadow across our land.
The famous images of the Bayeux Tapestry gives a vivid description of the brutality associated
with the invasion and the seizure of lands, property and assets.
The Normans shaped the land, over one thousand years since, through the imposition of a system of property rights,
enforced by enclosure and experienced as exclusion; all buttressed by the system of tithes and tribute.
The Normans arrived with powerful horses, called 'Destriers', specially trained in battle, and to contain the mob, or disperse a crowd…
The Norman system re-shaped the land and its people, and our culture.
William distributed lands as rewards for his military lieutenants. Over time, these families consolidated their own wealth
and power through enterprise and extraction. Nowadays, these families form the basis of the English artistrocracy
English radicals of the 17C and 20C identified these impositions as a Norman Yoke, forced upon the free-born population of the island,
and constraining all the potential and possibilities therein.
HOW LIES THE LAND? THE LAND LIES FEUDAL...
The Normans are credited with introducing rabbits to Britain as pests, but also as a source of food and fur.
The rabbits, it turns out, have prospered mightily, within and without this new world.
FOR TRIENNIAL No.6 in 2025
The Norman invasion, 1066 and all that, transformed Britain through the imposition of systems of command and control that
have shaped the landscape and culture of our island over the last nearly 1000 years.
Exploring the themes of command and control through the consideration of contemporary culture,
and via the powerful and consistent emotional appeal of landscape, environment, location and identity;
our project is suggestive of the deep emotional swell of history;
A sort of where we are, and why we’re here…
Karen has designed a precious ‘coin’ beermat - an ancient Folkestone treasure
It takes its name form the famous essay by the art-historian EH Gombrich that described the link between normative systems and cultural forms,
'Norm and Form'.
There’s also a postcard too with a nod to the Bayeux Tapestry and to medieval pilgrimage via Folkestone to Canterbury,
and also to the long history of power, protest and resistance.
Paul & Karen have invited talented puppeteer Elizabeth Walker ( formerly co-founder of Faulty Optic /aka Invisible Thread) to install Norman,
with some rabbits, in our shop window for your entertainment. ( we shall be installing... with flexible instructions!!!)
The captive rabbits are sketching out the map of our land.
The sketchy panel backdrop to our window evokes the Bayeux Tapestry and ancient cave paintings too.
(with some 'rogue' elements such as an endangered Indian pangolin and
a Barbara Jones inspired 'bird with bedknob eyes')
The 'tree form' people are by local artist Jackie Brown .
The Norman Yoke
The Norman yoke is a term that describes the oppressive aspects of feudalism in England, attributed to the impositions of William the Conqueror,
the first Norman king of England, his retainers and their descendants. The term was used in English nationalist and democratic discourse
from the mid-17th century, and expresses its self through the combination of radical liberties with free-spirited adventure.
The Anti-Norman
Attempts to resist the explicitly discriminatory implications of the Norman-style administration, the English have adopted an individualism
that celebrates the eccentricity, and surrealistic potential of every-day life.
For various reasons, Kent and Essex have a long and distinguished history of Anti-Norman idiosyncracy and rebellion…
as evidenced in the Neo-romantic paintings of Paul Nash, the film images of Michael Powell, and in the combinations of art and life,
proximity and isolation across our region.
It would appear that this is the
‘YEAR OF THE NORMANS’
Not only is the Bayeux Tapestry currently under wraps in Northern France while the Museum is refurbished ready for next years’ anniversary.
STOP PRESS: the tapestry is coming to London! It is going to be on loan autumn 2026 at the British Museum - HURRAH!
Meanwhile,several apparently disparate mentions of the Normans are mysteriously appearing around the country.
There is an ‘anti-feudal’ zeitgeist emerging!
A new book entitled Beneath Our Feet published in conjunction with the British Museum, written by Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson
has just been published. Much of Britain’s past lies hidden underfoot. Every day, new discoveries are unearthed
not by expert archaeologists but by amateur enthusiasts. Armed with spades and maps, these detectorists, mudlarks
and fieldwalkers scour the earth’s surface unearthing fragments of pottery,
coins and jewellery. From the pieces emerge stories of the everyday existence of our ancestors.
Laetitia Latham Jones reveals another connection with the Normans in Kent!
Whilst researching the origins of an enamel prefect’s badge, Laetitia reveals the former Danish invasion of Swanscombe…
sold
To be followed by the Normans…
The Norman invasion of 1066 brought a new landlord, Ono, Bishop of Bayeux and the Domesday survey.
A maybe apocryphal legend is associated with Swanscombe concerning the Normans which states that William the Conqueror,
having won the Battle of Hastings and having subdued Dover and surrounds , was travelling towards London.
At Swanscombe, he and his weary army were met by a moving forest. At a given signal, the branches were dropped (like a scene
from Macbeth!) revealing a Kentish army under Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury and Abbot Engelsine of St Augustine's.
The Kentishmen demanded that William respect their ancient privileges.The Normans agreed before proceeding, thus avoiding a bloody battle.
This event is commemorated by the Kentish motto “Invicta” which means, “unconquered”.
Here is a translation from an Anglo-Saxon piece of writing, by Michael Alexander (1968)
"Harsh are my sufferings
when that which makes the forest tremble takes and shakes me.
Here I stand under streaming rain
and blinding sleet, stoned by hail:
freezes the frost and falls the snow
on me stuck-bellied. And I stick it all out
for I cannot change the chance that made me."
Without sounding too pompous,
we hope that human endeavour can move towards a peaceful understanding that we are all the same,
with the same fears and hopes whatever way LIES THE LAND
Here are some other related souvenirs of bygone time, available in our shop...
