The Rochester Cathedral Research Guild is a network of experts, professionals and students contributing to the research and public interpretation of the Cathedral and collections. To get in touch and find out more about contributing contact Rochester Cathedral Heritage Officer Jacob Scott.

Graffiti Survey

Major projects have included the Graffiti Survey, with preliminary results published in the Kent Archaeological Society Archaeologia Cantiana, volume 138 (Pictorial and Symbolic Graffiti at Rochester Cathedral), volume 139 (Alphanumeric graffiti…) and volume 140 (Mason’s Marks…).

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Virtual Cathedral Project

The new Virtual Cathedral allows staff, visitors and academics to investigate and share the stories of our Cathedral heritage in a new way. The Research Guild has turned attentions to providing access to its growing wealth of data and producing content for the Cathedral website and interpretation programs. Focus is on redressing imbalances or previously underappreciated collections, persons or episodes.

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Textus Roffensis

The Research Guild is privileged to work with Dr Christopher Monk in publishing online a series of transcriptions and translations of texts from Textus Roffensis and Custumale Roffense, two of the most significant manuscripts in the Cathedral collections, and in the production of multimedia content for exhibitions and the Cathedral website.

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Dr Christopher Monk is a cultural historian and manuscript specialist working with heritage professionals and also individuals and teams in the creative industries. His focus is the interpretation of medieval texts and medieval visual media for public audiences. He has worked with Rochester Cathedral since 2013, contributing to its multimedia content on Textus Roffensis, including the transcribing and translation of the laws, charters and other records in the 'Rochester Book'. Christopher continues to publish within academia where he is known for his interdisciplinary studies of medieval texts and manuscript artwork in leading journals, edited collections, and an ebook.

Dr Alexander Thomas is an independent historical and archaeological researcher of the Early Medieval period. He holds a PhD in archaeology and anthropology from Bristol University. Alexander's research interests focus on the landscapes and texts of Viking Age governance, especially within England. He is currently writing his first book for Amsterdam University Press, which will reappraise the historical and archaeological evidence for the Danelaw. The book is due to be published in early-2025.

Interpretation and studies of particular texts are also available from Beverley Dee Jacobs, Randolph Jones, Revd. Lindsay Llewellyn and Joseph Miller.

We are also indebted to generations of previous researches, not least Colin Flight’s previous transcription and study of the codicology of Textus Roffensis available online at durobrivis.net

Recent studies

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Sarum Missal, 16th century
Sarum Missal, 16th century

Chapter Library volunteer Beverley Jacobs leafs through the 16th-century Sarum Missal, a remnant from the final days of the Priory Library.

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The Danelaw, 9th-11th century
The Danelaw, 9th-11th century

Dr Alexander Thomas introduces the Danelaw; an 11th-century name for the areas of Northern and Eastern England in which the laws of the Danish Viking empire from the late 9th century until the early 11th century.

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Animals and food at Rochester Priory
Animals and food at Rochester Priory

Dr Christopher Monk explores details about animals and animal products consumed at Rochester Priory emerging from a section in Custumale Roffense concerning the monastery’s lay servants (folios 53r-60v).

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Elizabeth Elstob’s excerpts from Textus Roffensis 1712
Elizabeth Elstob’s excerpts from Textus Roffensis 1712

Elizabeth Elstob made a facsimile of Textus Roffensis (c.1123), in two parts. Here, Dr Christopher Monk explores her handwritten copies of the three Old English Kentish law codes, unique to Textus, and her copy of the foundation charter of Rochester Cathedral with its marvellous decorated initial.

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The Rochester Bible, c.1125-1140
The Rochester Bible, c.1125-1140

The Rochester Bible is a richly decorated manuscript produced by the monks of St Andrew’s Priory, Rochester. Now part of the British Library’s Royal Collection, the manuscript is on loan to Rochester Cathedral and features in the Beauty and the Beasts exhibition in the Cathedral Crypt.

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Infirmary Herbary
Infirmary Herbary

Head Gardener Graham Huckstepp explores the herbs growing in the Infirmary Herb Garden.

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Food rents c. 1235
Food rents c. 1235

Dr Christopher Monk explores the role of animals and animal products at the Priory of Saint Andrew at Rochester, for everything from manuscripts to candles and transport to food.

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High Treason and A Wicked Contrivance?
High Treason and A Wicked Contrivance?

Library volunteer Myra Amor explores the stories of three successive bishops of Rochester each accused of treason.

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Mary Elizabeth and John Griffith, Canon of Rochester 1827-1879
Mary Elizabeth and John Griffith, Canon of Rochester 1827-1879

T. H. James introduces Rev. Dr John Griffith and his wife Mary Elizabeth Griffith, benefactors to the Cathedral in the 19th century.

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Sarah Baker and her Kentish Theatres, 1737-1816
Sarah Baker and her Kentish Theatres, 1737-1816

A brief outline by Dr Jean Baker of the life and times of a remarkable but little-known woman (not an ancestor of hers) who played a significant role in the political, social and cultural evolution of Kent’s rapidly growing towns at the end of the eighteenth century.

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The EXPLORE pages link to the history and archaeology of the Cathedral, the medieval City and the Diocese of Rochester, and explore the heritage of the Cathedral collections from around the world.