Oddities and Secrets of Westminster Abbey

In this video, Jessica the Museum Guide (that’s me!) takes you on a guided museum tour of the weird and wonderful oddities of Westminster Abbey, London’s iconic thousand-year-old church.

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VIDEO SUMMARY

On today’s tour we’re focusing on the lesser-known oddities and secrets of this fascinating institution – the thousand-year old Westminster Abbey.

0:00 - Introduction to the tour
2:22 - Charles Darwin – Science and Religion Co-existing
3:23 - Ben Jonson’s Vertical Grave
6:26 - Medieval Cost-Cutting
7:33 - The Juicy Scandal of Thomas Thynn
8:43 - The Morbid Monument to Elizabeth Nightingale
10:52 - John Islip’s Play on Words
11:30 - Frances Sydney’s Porcupines
12:48 - Stolen Tiles from Henry III’s tomb
13:29 - Edward II’s Very Plain Tomb
14:30 - The Princes in the Tower?
15:25 - Blitz Bomb Damage in the RAF Chapel
16:25 - The Saga of Oliver Cromwell’s Head
19:12 - Profane Carvings on Misericords
21:10 - St Wilgefortis, the Bearded Lady
22:32 - Elizabeth Russell and her Skull
23:28 - Old (Very Old) Tom Parr
25:19 - A Repurposed Roman Sarcophagus
25:58 - Funeral Effigies
29:43 - A Very Old Taxidermy Parrot
30:31 - Mary II’s Graffitied Coronation Chair
31:35 - The Oldest Door in England
32:13 - Edmond Halley's Comet
32:35 - Martin Luther