Thank you to all who joined us for Choral Evensong on 26th May, which was followed by a St Olave Lecture. This month we welcomed Professor Brycchan Carey to speak about William Turner, a parson naturalist known as ‘The Father of English Botany’ who is buried here. Turner moved to the parish after retiring as Dean of Wells Cathedral.

After excellent music by the choir we were treated to Brycchan’s engaging talk. The son of a tanner from Morpeth, Northumberland, William Turner rose from humble origins. Brycchan showed us some images from his many published works – which all aimed to disseminate knowledge about plants and birds to a wider audience in English (rather than Latin or Greek). 

It was fascinating to hear of Turner’s connections to many of the other personalities whose lives also intersected with this parish at the time. Do join us in September for our St Olave Lecture on the Tudor Spies buried here! 

This year we revived our “St Olave Lectures” – fascinating insights and conversation on diverse topics from engaging speakers. Details of forthcoming lectures are at this link.