Saturday 10 October 2026 – Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society: The Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow by Rachel Harkes. Rachel will be talking about her recent book Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society which is an ambitious and innovative study of the social, political and religious histories of medieval England and Wales. Using the Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow as a prism, it sets out to consider the almost ubiquitous membership of religious guilds in both urban and rural society on the eve of the Reformation. With over 18,000 members recorded in the guild’s massive extant archive, drawn from across the social spectrum and spread throughout Wales, England, Iberia, Ireland and France, the Palmers offer a unique opportunity to investigate the interplay between institutions and individuals in the Middle Ages. Rachael Harkes is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Bristol on the ERC Advanced Grant/UKRI project ‘Mapping the Medieval March: Wales and England, c. 1282–1550’. Her research focuses on processes of decision-making in medieval society, with a specific interest in border regions and digital humanities. 2.30pm The Darwin Suite, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, SY2 6AH
