This practice-based research investigates ceramics and the haptic in relation to place, through a case study of Worcester Cathedral. A two-year residency provided an analytical frame within which the practice was developed, illuminating aspects of the Cathedral. Using clay as an interface to explore the space around me, clay became an arena in which an activity could take place, resulting in a range of ceramic works. The thesis was built on contemporary contextual ceramic discourse pertaining to the haptic, and the idea that this could be expanded through an inquiry into a specific space. On a personal level a sacred space provided a catalyst for themes to do with connection, contact and communication. The research led to the formulation of a method of interpreting the space through a haptic engagement with ceramics, underpinned in part by Paul Rodaway's model of the scope of haptic systems and Bachelard's phenomenological approach to the experience of space. The subjective aspect of the practice became a component of the research, and an on-going review was carried out via a reflection on comparative practices and audience participation. Serendipitously, the residency found an unexpected parallel via a mutual interpretation with a musician. The research discovered new ways for ceramicists to explore and describe the experience of being in a sacred space by utilising what might be called a haptic language. An unexpected result for the project was the development of a studio residency as a form of research, and the collapsing of the separation between making-as-doing and doing-as-thinking.

This thesis takes a longue dureé approach to the manifold ways in which those engaging with English cathedrals have been able to physically interact with the bodies, burials, and monuments of the dead. Three themes are explored to that effect: Haptic Experiences, Haptic Interactions, and Haptic Connections. Haptic Experiences takes a fresh, nuanced look at the evolution of English shrine architecture in relation to tensions between the sight and touch of pilgrims. Haptic Interactions employs new and different data surveyed from monuments within five cathedral interiors: historic graffiti, iconoclastic damage, and haptic erosion and staining. This is explored through a lens of touch as a component of early modern masculinities. Haptic Connections explores the presencing of the absent and displaced dead through touch and bodiliness of both the living and the dead in the (late) modern cathedral. Such an approach requires a multi-strand methodology, harnessing archaeological and documentary evidence, and multiple datasets. This allows the thesis to examine both period-specific practices and recurring themes of touch and emotion, identity, and re-connection which have been central to haptic explorations of the dead in past and present incarnations of the English cathedral.

How can we approach the surviving evidence on Paliochora in order for it to become a site of cultural consciousness in a wider medieval context? Its architectural and iconographic identity is hidden in its thirty-four Late and Post Byzantine churches. This thesis constitutes the first complete interdisciplinary approach to this settlement accompanied by a detailed appendix in the second volume. The two parts of this study examine Paliochora through different perspectives which reveal different aspects of its character. Urban planning and individual architectural specificities are examined through the prism of four construction periods associated with political and economic factors. Structural variety and multiplicity raises questions concerning religious functions. The iconography, on the other hand, relies on the general Late Byzantine canons and influences, but demonstrates provincial tendencies and promotes a distinct style of fresco painting. Furthermore, the possible interference of the continuous Western presence creates new aspects for conceptual discussion in both fields. Consequently the three parameters of this comparative approach are underlined, either on an architectural or iconographic level: • Between the different examples in Paliochora • Within the vast array of Greek and Mediterranean ecclesiastical examples • In contrast to Western practices and models. Throughout the text problems of archaeological evidence and archival information are raised. However, this first effort to place and contextualise Paliochora on the map of existing late medieval cities of the Mediterranean is a call for further research in multiple disciplines. It is a survey which will be used as the basic material for any future actions related both to academic knowledge and restoration processes.

Four commissions considered cathedrals during the nineteenth century. The first two gave them their modern structure: a dean, a small number of stipendiary, residentiary, canons, a larger honorary body. But the principal achievement of these commissions was negative; their emphasis was on the removal of wealth. The second two sought to give new corporate and diocesan life to these ancient bodies. Their aspirations, however, never achieved parliamentary enactment. Thus in the early twentieth century there was will for the reform; the establishment of the Church Assembly presented more auspicious circumstances in which to attempt it. The thesis falls into two related parts. The first traces institutional change across the twentieth-century - change which can be measured by the statutory outcome of the proposals of the three commissions which sat during the century. It will be argued that all three were clearly products of their times, showing the influence of context: of social (and technological) change and of the mind-set of the Church: the first two, reflecting that Church, were conservative and respectful of inheritance and tradition. The last, in an age socially, politically, administratively, ecclesiastically, much changed, was radical. It showed less respect for tradition and a greater susceptibility to external factors: markedly to contemporary management theory. Constitutions regulate a life. The second part explores aspects of that life. All the aspects reviewed helped to form, and were in turn re-formed by, the Commissions and the consequent Measures. First among the subjects examined is the fundamental, defining, relationship, that with the bishop and the diocese. Other chapters discuss the force of external, social, change in shaping and moulding the work and witness of cathedrals, and their methods and standards of pastoral care. The ecumenical movement, though scarcely noticed by the first Commission, was already a factor in the work of a few cathedrals. The 1990s commission assumed, and its Measure provided for, ecumenical involvement. The first commission noted the fact of dissension within cathedrals and between them and their bishops; such troubles were the immediate cause of the last commission; the final chapter examines publicly prominent episodes of dissension. Throughout the century, in their witness the cathedrals responded, sometimes profoundly, to a context of change; their historic constitutions and the independence they conferred enabled the cathedrals to conduct a richly varied public ministry The, frequently decisive, force of personalities, especially of deans and provosts, in producing that ministry, is emphasised. The progress of the parish church cathedrals from, early in the century, scant institutional life to, by its end, parity with their ancient counterparts, is traced. The main text is supported by appendices, including two respectively providing biographical notes on those mentioned in the text, and definitions of specialist terms.

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