Our partners at the heritage consultancy Byrga Geniht have published two insightful blogs detailing the completion of the Feretory sculpture, the BBC coverage, the solar eclipse witnessed from the roof, and the Perseid Meteor Shower. Their coverage captures the depth of this project and the exceptional circumstances surrounding it, and their work is well worth bringing to your attention.
The Erkenwald feretory sculpture now rests within the Epidaurus Court of Soulton Hall.
The blogs trace the installation of the Feretory sculpture in the Epidaurus Court, which protects the burial site of St Erkenwald, the Patron Saint of the City of London. Crafted by Tim Ashton alongside James and James beneath the flying flag of the City of London, the project became the focus of a BBC interview team for upcoming coverage.
Beyond the human activity, the pieces record a rare convergence with the cosmos.
The teams witnessed a partial solar eclipse directly from the roof of the Hall—evoking the historical spirit of Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich—followed by tracking the Perseid Meteor Shower into the night.
Ingatestone Hall Tea Towel at Soulton
Additionally, the consultancy’s travels led them to Ingatestone Hall, a property purchased from the lands of St Erkenwald’s monastic foundation of Barking in the same year Old Sir Rowland Hill completed his purchase of Soulton Hall (1556). Highlighting shared histories of religious turmoil, priest hides, and historic transport routes linked to Shropshire ironwork, the visit bridged distant estates through souvenirs, shared toasts, and the legacy of figures like Robert Petre, 9th Baron Petre.
Ingatestone Guidebook at Soulton
You can read the full accounts from Byrga Geniht through the following links:
In tandem with these updates, Byrga Geniht’s also accounted for how it’s work with us gained international attention on the ‘The Rest is History’ podcast episode titled ‘The Tudor Da Vinci Code,’ hosted by Tom Holland.
Tim represented the consultancy on air, discussing five years of collaborative research into reading Soulton Hall as a restatement of the lost shrine of St Erkenwald, and thye rightly picked out the times thier vital contribution was brought to the listeners’ attention by Tim:
We’ve been supporting some research with the Byrga Geniht consultancy for the last five years on this because once you get the key to what it’s doing, it will open like a flower and talk quite, quite well to you.
… so at the beginning of the phases of starting to read the building, James Wenn, who’s the Byrga Geniht consultant who’s been working on this, made the observation that you can very easily read Soulton Hall as a restatement of the lost shrine of St Erkenwald.
The broadcast highlighted the rediscovery of the Patron Saint of London’s lost relics and Byrga Geniht’s groundbreaking work regarding the role of the rhombic dodecahedron in the history of thought, building anticipation for forthcoming BBC television and radio interviews featuring consultant James Wenn.
You can read the full accounts from Byrga Geniht through the following link:
