Michael Nightingale Memorial Lecture 2026
The Michael Nightingale Memorial Lecture took place on Tuesday evening and it was great to welcome an excited audience of Kent MEMS staff, postgraduates and friends, as well as CAMEMS trustees, trustees and staff from Brook Rural Museum, and members of the public to first the wine reception (sponsored by CAMEMS – many thanks) and then Professor Mark Bailey’s Nightingale Lecture in the Templeman Library.
As is customary at the Lecture, having opened the proceedings, I passed the baton (mic) to Professor John Nightingale, the chairman of the Museum’s trustees, to say something about the pivotal role his father had in the setting up and organising of Brook Rural Museum in the late 14th-century aisled barn and splendid round oast house with its collection of horse-drawn agricultural equipment, small tools and early M-F tractor. As John said, if you haven’t been to the Museum, do think about going, albeit this weekend is the last time it will be open until the spring next year. However, this Sunday marks the Harvest Festival, which is a great opportunity to experience the Museum, as well as visit the church next door with its fabulous medieval wall paintings.
Now to Mark’s lecture and he started by outlining just how catastrophic the Black Death had been, especially bearing in mind the subsequent very high mortality from plague in 1361 and the further outbreaks that continued at least once per decade throughout the 15th century and beyond. Nor was high mortality the only issue that contemporaries had to contend with in the 3rd quarter of the 14th century because climatic factors were similarly catastrophic – by turns exceptionally cold, wet and hot, while livestock mortality was also an issue. Taken together with a bullion crisis, it is perhaps hardly surprising that the middle decades of the 15thcentury witnessed the deepest economic depression, known to historians as ‘the great slump’.
Yet, as Mark pointed out, for the survivors GDP per head went up, ‘ordinary’ people had money to spend as real wages rose and there was a distinct fall in the number of landless as well as the disappearance of serfdom as money rents replaced labour services. He then outlined what people spent their money on – better and more varied food, including more protein whether meat and/or higher quality grains, which was in part fuelled by the shift from arable to pasture. Moreover, in talking of fuel, consumption of that also increased – it was colder, also better and more varied clothing (hence the sumptuary laws), more household goods, more substantial housing and more on religion – see the number of parochial new west towers, for example. What I also found interesting is that archaeology is showing that cattle bones were heavier, thus it was not only the surviving human population that was better fed but the cattle too.
Mark also discussed changes in rabbit production, including the shift to commercialization and the massive growth in rabbits – as meat and fur for the London market. This idea of commoditization he sees as key to the shift to modernity and that this needs to be seen as a factor in this post-Black Death period. Alongside this the importance of the land market, the growth in the size of farms and changes in the way farmers described themselves, as well as increased literacy and the role of these yeomen in the running of their communities. Additionally, and this might be seen as especially pertinent in the counties surrounding London, the interchanges and networks between those from the capital and those from Kent, for example, including purchasing manors and building substantial houses.
An interesting comparison Mark drew out was the very different experience of this post-Black Death world between England and Egypt, in large part due to the catastrophic problems affecting the Nile and thus Egyptian agriculture. Although not nearly as extreme, he similarly highlighted the different experiences of north-west European compared to a number of Mediterranean countries, that is the differences between the two regions and within each.
This fascinating exploration of the period generated a wide range of questions to Mark and after the lecture others came to discuss matters with him too. Consequently, you could tell from Robert Pay’s vote of thanks that it had been a very successful evening. Robert, as the chairman of CAMEMS also drew the audience’s attention to the work of this charity and how it is supporting both taught MA and doctoral students within Kent MEMS. So thanks John and Robert, and most particularly Mark for making it an evening to remember!
Post provided and written by Sheila Sweetinburgh.
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