Remembering Erkenwald at Soulton - 2026

On Friday 30 April, one of several feast days associated with St Erkenwald, James W attended a meeting in Whitehall attending to the legacy of Old Sir Rowland Hill, supporting stakeholders as part of the partnership in this work between Soulton Hall and Byrga Geniht.

The event was a chance for stakeholders to interrogate and contribute to the shaping of the heritage re-presentations at Soulton, along with the welcome religious and cultural visitors to Soulton receive. The historical legacy of Old Sir Rowland Hill (such as securing the refounding of London's hospitals after the Dissolution, and the land for the theatre district that later housed Shakespeare's Globe) is inextricably linked with the material questions of the preservation of London's patrimony, as well as the rich literature that supported its identity.

James was pleased to present a diagram explaining the ecosystem of virtue archetypes in the literature connected directly to Soulton (the Middle-English poem 'Erkenwald', Thomas Lodge Jr's 'Rosalynde: Euphues' Golden Legacy', and William Shakespeare's wedding play, 'As You Like It').

This is timely, as a recent lecture by UK Supreme Court emerita Lady Arden at Soulton Hall stressed the importance of culture safeguarding the morality of a country alongside as well as inside the narrow instruments of the law.

The Whitehall meeting was unanimous in agreeing the value of cultural and arts heritage and contemporary programming in continuing and enhancing traditions of civic virtue; and the intention was announced to work towards a new phase of this work at Soulton through a future charitable foundation.