History Shorts: snippets of local history

My first encounter with the Tandragee stone idol was with a replica in the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Replica in Ulster Museum (author's photo, all rights reserved) This curious little figure probably caught my eye because of its name, Tandragee being the village best known as the Northern Irish home of Tayto potato crisps. Peering at the figure a little more closely it seemed to be clutching its left arm (so I thought) with what looked like a smile, sitting beside another stone figure of a bear-like animal. I was astonished to discover that the original Tandragee idol wasn’t in another museum but had a much more unlikely home. Beneath a plaque commemorating a late 19th century archbishop of Ireland, worshippers and visitors to St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh can see the Tandragee idol in all its glory sitting on a low stone plinth in a side aisle. The cathedral houses other pre-Christian idols in its crypt (judging by photos on Flickr, these have also been on dis...

Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire is an important historical and religious site in England, its origins dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era. St Wilfrid (c. AD 633-~710) played a significant role in the foundation of what was to become Ripon Cathedral. The church he constructed in the 660s-670s, dedicated to St Peter, was one of the first stone buildings erected in Northumbria since the Roman legions left Britain more than two centuries earlier. While much of that structure has been rebuilt many times over the centuries, ultimately becoming Ripon Cathedral, the stone crypt from Wilfrid's church remains to this day - more on that later.   The hagiographical  Vita Sancti Wilfrithi , written by Stephen of Ripon and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People ( Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ), both near-contemporary, are the main sources for Wilfrid's life and activities. Stephen's account stresses the impressiveness of Wilfrid's church at Ripon, which ...

Winchester Cathedral , a set on Flickr. A new Winchester Cathedral, replacing the Saxon Old Minster, was consecrated on April 8 1093, the project of the Norman bishop Walkelin. Much of the Norman building survives within the massive present day structure, including the crypt and transepts. It remains the seat of the Bishop of Winchester today.