Jon Iveson, Alison Cummings and Martin Crowther from Dover’s flagship Reawakening the Maison Dieu project were delighted to take part in the prestigious Burges & Friends conference held at Worcester College, University of Oxford, on Monday and Tuesday this week (19 and 20 June 2023).

The conference explored the life, career and cultural networks of Victorian architect and designer, William Burges and included a prestigious line up of speakers from across the UK, as well as the USA and Canada.

The content provided many fascinating insights into Burges, his friends and networks, that will be incredibly useful to the project, including his links with Edward John Poynter, designer of six fabulous stained-glass windows in the Maison Dieu Stone Hall.

It also provided a wonderful opportunity to meet and build links with Burges experts, including academics and curators from Burges sites and collections across the UK.

This included Worcester College, the conference venue, where the interior of the college chapel, stunningly re-modelled by William Burges, was the subject of an excellent talk by William Whyte; and Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, where Burges’ Great Bookcase will be the star attraction in the ‘Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion and Design’ exhibition this autumn, and has been the subject of ground-breaking research by Professor Charlotte Ribeyrol.

As a young man, from the late 1850s, Burges played a key role, together with architect Ambrose Poynter in restoring the Maison Dieu’s medieval Stone Hall, and at the end of his career returned to Dover to design the Connaught Hall and Mayor’s Parlour, for which he also created the interior decorative scheme and furniture.

As part of the programme, Maison Dieu Engagement Officer Martin Crowther spoke briefly to conference about the Re-awakening the Maison Dieu project, and invited partners to help set up a William Burges Society and online archive of images and information about Burges, and the sites and artefacts associated with him. Both form important strands of the Maison Dieu’s ambitious Activity Plan.

This received a positive response and prospective partners will be invited to take part in an online meeting next month to take these ideas forward. Please contact martin.crowther@dover.gov.uk if you’d like to be involved.

Many thanks to the team at Worcester College and the Ashmolean Museum for putting on such an inspirational and thought-provoking conference, to the excellent speakers, and all who took part. We really enjoyed meeting you all.

We look forward to welcoming visitors to a similar event at the Maison Dieu (Dover Town Hall) and showing off our newly conserved building once restoration work is complete.