ABOUT
Eleanor collaboration between the writer, Imogen Hermes Gower, the digital arts
collective Mutiny and Norwich Castle Museum is a new way thinking about history and
historical objects.
It’s also a new way of experiencing the past - a chance to walk through both Norwich now and the Norwich of more than 500 years ago.
And it’s also a new way of telling a story about a historical figure. In this case Lady Eleanor Talbot.
Lady Eleanor Talbot died in 1468 and was buried at a Carmelite Friary in Whitefriars, just by the River Wensum, near where the Jarrolds printworks is today. This is one of the key locations you’ll be visiting on your walk today.
Who was Eleanor Talbot? Well, Lady Eleanor played a rather important - if now overlooked - role in one of the most notorious stories in the history of the kings and queens of England.
When Richard the Third laid claim to the throne, he famously incarcerated the two sons of his brother Edward the Fourth in the Tower of London where they went missing in mysterious circumstances.
Richard had the two boys imprisoned because he claimed they were not legitimate heirs to the throne. Why? Because Edward the Fourth’s marriage to their mother – Elizabeth Woodville – was supposedly invalid and illegal. Why? Because – Richard claimed – Edward the Fourth had previously had an affair - and formally promised to marry - another woman. And that woman was Lady Eleanor Talbot. Essentially, for one brief moment - and well after her death in fact– Lady Eleanor was to be considered, albeit quasi-legally, a Queen of England whose children – if she’d had any - could lay a claim to the throne.
With the demise of Richard the Third and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, this claim of Eleanor as de facto wife of Edward the Fourth was dismissed and indeed actively suppressed. She is now a small footnote is history. But with this immersive storywalk that you’re embarking on today, we hope to bring her back into focus in our world, whilst transporting you back into hers.
Some years ago, archaeological excavations at the Whitefriars site, where you are heading and where Eleanor was laid to rest, uncovered a skeleton.
That skeleton now resides at the Castle Museum and when you’ve finished this walk you might like to book a visit to the museum where you can take look at some the bones from the skeleton and make up your own mind about who you are looking at. Could they be the remains if Lady Eleanor Talbot?
New forms of DNA test and carbon dating have recently become available that could help answer that question. The more we look, the more we discover - about Eleanor’s teeth, her health, her diet, her childhood. The most recent research though has brought a further twist in the tale, revealing that the bones in the Castle are most likely those not of a woman, but of a man!
And thus Eleanor eludes us once more and recedes back into her burial place. We have yet to precisely locate where she lies.
But with this walk and with the stories, speculations, objects and images that your walk will unlock, you will at least have come to a closer understanding of how versions of Eleanor – different Eleanors - have arisen and faded over the ages depending on who tells the story and what route through history we choose to take. It’s up to you to decide what to make about what you are told and what you see.
Enjoy your walk.
Tim Wright, Future and Form Executive Producer
Then, in the first or second meeting, Tim Pestell started to tell us about the bones that had come up out of the car park where Norwich's medieval Whitefriars monastery had once stood. Now everyone was on the seat of their zoom meeting chairs. These bones, part of a very high status burial, had been sitting in a storeroom for decades. Most people, he told us, believed they belonged to the mysterious Eleanor Talbot who we know was buried there. But there were so many unknowns about Eleanor. Born to an important and powerful landowning family, she had been married secretly to the king Edward IV, historians believed. Now everyone was hooked. Were these Eleanor's bones? Who was she? Why had she almost disappeared from the historical record? Why did so few people know about her? And if that marriage had taken place, did it mean that subsequent royal heirs were in fact bastardised? Imogen went to work, ordering up all the books she could get her hands on. We were away.
As the project unfolded, and as the team began to take the first of many strolls around the proposed route of the walk, we all became enthralled not only by the mystery of Eleanor, but also of the magical medieval city itself.
Professor Rebecca Stott, University of East Anglia
It’s also a new way of experiencing the past - a chance to walk through both Norwich now and the Norwich of more than 500 years ago.
And it’s also a new way of telling a story about a historical figure. In this case Lady Eleanor Talbot.
Lady Eleanor Talbot died in 1468 and was buried at a Carmelite Friary in Whitefriars, just by the River Wensum, near where the Jarrolds printworks is today. This is one of the key locations you’ll be visiting on your walk today.
Who was Eleanor Talbot? Well, Lady Eleanor played a rather important - if now overlooked - role in one of the most notorious stories in the history of the kings and queens of England.
When Richard the Third laid claim to the throne, he famously incarcerated the two sons of his brother Edward the Fourth in the Tower of London where they went missing in mysterious circumstances.
Richard had the two boys imprisoned because he claimed they were not legitimate heirs to the throne. Why? Because Edward the Fourth’s marriage to their mother – Elizabeth Woodville – was supposedly invalid and illegal. Why? Because – Richard claimed – Edward the Fourth had previously had an affair - and formally promised to marry - another woman. And that woman was Lady Eleanor Talbot. Essentially, for one brief moment - and well after her death in fact– Lady Eleanor was to be considered, albeit quasi-legally, a Queen of England whose children – if she’d had any - could lay a claim to the throne.
With the demise of Richard the Third and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, this claim of Eleanor as de facto wife of Edward the Fourth was dismissed and indeed actively suppressed. She is now a small footnote is history. But with this immersive storywalk that you’re embarking on today, we hope to bring her back into focus in our world, whilst transporting you back into hers.
Some years ago, archaeological excavations at the Whitefriars site, where you are heading and where Eleanor was laid to rest, uncovered a skeleton.
That skeleton now resides at the Castle Museum and when you’ve finished this walk you might like to book a visit to the museum where you can take look at some the bones from the skeleton and make up your own mind about who you are looking at. Could they be the remains if Lady Eleanor Talbot?
New forms of DNA test and carbon dating have recently become available that could help answer that question. The more we look, the more we discover - about Eleanor’s teeth, her health, her diet, her childhood. The most recent research though has brought a further twist in the tale, revealing that the bones in the Castle are most likely those not of a woman, but of a man!
And thus Eleanor eludes us once more and recedes back into her burial place. We have yet to precisely locate where she lies.
But with this walk and with the stories, speculations, objects and images that your walk will unlock, you will at least have come to a closer understanding of how versions of Eleanor – different Eleanors - have arisen and faded over the ages depending on who tells the story and what route through history we choose to take. It’s up to you to decide what to make about what you are told and what you see.
Enjoy your walk.
Tim Wright, Future and Form Executive Producer
AN EVOLVING COLLABORATION
The Norwich Museum branch of the Future and Form project started with a zoom meeting bringing all the partners together to throw some ideas around: the members of Mutiny, our digital partner, key figures from the Norwich Museum, our site partner, and Imogen our writer, as well as me as the academic lead from UEA. No one was quite sure how it was going to work. We had a good brief but could we work as a team to support our writer? Tim Wright who was overseeing all six projects had an idea that we might try making an augmented reality walk of some kind. Jo Warr, Head of Development at the Museum, and Tim Pestell, the Museum's archaeologist, told us about the new Medieval Gateway that was going to be opened in the Museum. Perhaps medieval Norwich might be our focus? Imogen, who has worked in museums for years, was excited by the challenge.Then, in the first or second meeting, Tim Pestell started to tell us about the bones that had come up out of the car park where Norwich's medieval Whitefriars monastery had once stood. Now everyone was on the seat of their zoom meeting chairs. These bones, part of a very high status burial, had been sitting in a storeroom for decades. Most people, he told us, believed they belonged to the mysterious Eleanor Talbot who we know was buried there. But there were so many unknowns about Eleanor. Born to an important and powerful landowning family, she had been married secretly to the king Edward IV, historians believed. Now everyone was hooked. Were these Eleanor's bones? Who was she? Why had she almost disappeared from the historical record? Why did so few people know about her? And if that marriage had taken place, did it mean that subsequent royal heirs were in fact bastardised? Imogen went to work, ordering up all the books she could get her hands on. We were away.
As the project unfolded, and as the team began to take the first of many strolls around the proposed route of the walk, we all became enthralled not only by the mystery of Eleanor, but also of the magical medieval city itself.
Professor Rebecca Stott, University of East Anglia
CREDITS
Eleanor was written by Imogen Hermes-Gowar and produced by Mutiny.
Eleanor is part of Future and Form celebrating 50 years of creative writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
CHASE Researchers are Sasha Bergstrom-Katz and Wes Brown
Academic Lead for 'Eleanor' is Rebecca Stott, Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, UEA.
Future and Form lead is Henry Sutton, Professor of Creative Writing and Crime Fiction, UEA.
Form and Form Executive Producer is Tim Wright.
Original music is by Jean-Pierre Rasle.
Soundtrack and foley are by Sandy Nuttgens.
Casting by Marcus Romer.
'Eleanor' is played by Claire Lacey.
‘Imogen’ is played by Imogen Hermes-Gowar.
'Instructional Voice' is played by Oliver Westlake.
Other Voices are Amy English, Mia Nuttgens and Oliver Westlake.
Software development is by Sophie Mellor and Dane Watkins.
Augmented reality development is by Nicolo Carpignoli and Simon Poulter.
Mutiny is Sophie Mellor, Simon Poulter and Marcus Romer.
Eleanor is part of Future and Form celebrating 50 years of creative writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
CHASE Researchers are Sasha Bergstrom-Katz and Wes Brown
Academic Lead for 'Eleanor' is Rebecca Stott, Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, UEA.
Future and Form lead is Henry Sutton, Professor of Creative Writing and Crime Fiction, UEA.
Form and Form Executive Producer is Tim Wright.
Original music is by Jean-Pierre Rasle.
Soundtrack and foley are by Sandy Nuttgens.
Casting by Marcus Romer.
'Eleanor' is played by Claire Lacey.
‘Imogen’ is played by Imogen Hermes-Gowar.
'Instructional Voice' is played by Oliver Westlake.
Other Voices are Amy English, Mia Nuttgens and Oliver Westlake.
Software development is by Sophie Mellor and Dane Watkins.
Augmented reality development is by Nicolo Carpignoli and Simon Poulter.
Mutiny is Sophie Mellor, Simon Poulter and Marcus Romer.
