Guilds Town Trail Number 9, Minstrels - Beverly, UK - Relief Art Sculptures on Waymarking.com

Just as today music played an important part of life in the Medieval World. Minstrels sang and played music in great households and Royal Courts but also in local festivals and plays.

Beverley was once a rich and important town in the area partly through the wool trade but also because of pilgrims visiting Beverley Minster.

St. Mary's Church was built in the first half of the 12th century as a daughter church of Beverley Minster, to serve Beverley's trading community.

Although the church generally frowned upon minstrels and their music, both these churches in Beverley have carvings of musicians. There is a particularly fine carving in St. Mary's Church because the Minstrel's Guild helped to fund the rebuilding of the church after a fire.

The local minstrels were particularly rich because Beverley was once the headquarters of the Northern Guild of Minstrels between the rivers Tweed and Trent.

Medieval Guilds and Crafts Town Trail

In 2010 the Town of Beverley opened a town trail of 39 pieces of art that represent guilds and crafts that operated in Beverley in Medieval Times. Each piece is located in a place in the town most relevant to that particular guild.

The type of art work varies but each one is relevant to where it is positioned. The artworks are not named in situ, so to fully understand what each represents it is necessary to refer to the town trail map, available on line link

As part of the preparations for the trail over 700 school children were involved in helping to design the art works whilst Chris Womald created them.

This particular piece depicts minstrels playing a percussion, a string and a wind instrument, though there is no information as to exactly what type of instrument. The middle minstrel is in the form of an angel which obviously refers to the connection with the church.

The Town Trail is split into 4 different walks covering 4 parts of Beverly. This artwork is number 9 on Walk 1.

Your impression of the sculpture?: Date Sculpture was opened for vewing?: 07/11/2010 Website for sculpture?: [Web Link] Where is this sculpture?: Pavement outside St. Mary's Church North Bar Within Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire United Kingdom Sculptors Name: Chris Womald

Visit Instructions:
1. Provide a tasteful picture of the sculpture, with another point of view from the original(no pictures of GPSr or yourself).

2. Provide your thoughts on the sculpture and your impression of it.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.