A little bit of interesting history

This casket is a rare and possibly unique example of high-quality Anglo-Saxon woodcarving from around 1050. Decorated with scenes from Christ’s life, it was likely made for an ecclesiastical purpose and may have housed relics. On one long side, the baby Jesus rests in the manger, while above, the Crucifixion is depicted with mourners and angels surrounding it.

The lid of this remarkable object was discovered in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire in the early nineteenth century and was later donated to the Society of the Sacred Heart Convent in Hammersmith around 1902 by Maria Pollen, the widow of John Hungerford Pollen, an architect and decorative artist, who mingled in Pre-Raphaelite circles. 

According to the Bodleian Library, Pollen's daughter Anne, sat for Burne Jones.  Anne later became a sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart and interestingly, in 1914 she published a biography of the Society’s Superior General, Mother Mabel Digby. Our Director of Comms and Development, Alex, quotes extensively from Anne Pollen's book in her talk The Story of the Sacred Heart Organ. The book records the actual dialogue at the convent in Paris when Mother Digby confronts the liquidator who arrived to start listing their possessions to be seized. It feels like a fitting and rather lovely coincidence that this same figure connects both our society's broader history and the stories we continue to share through our heritage events.

In 1937, the lid owned by the Society, was passed into the collection of the antiquarian Philip Nelson, who had previously acquired the base of the casket. The two parts were reunited for the first time in at least a century. The complete casket is now housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States, where it is recognised as an exceptional survival from Anglo-Saxon England.

We only became aware of the casket’s connection to the Society of the Sacred Heart after seeing it featured by the museum on Facebook! What a lovely and unexpected link to our own history.