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Hadley Wehner 

Carving Out History: A study of space, experience, and interaction within the medieval nave of St Alban’s Abbey

My research explores the relationship between the lay and monastic communities of late-medieval St Albans, capitalising on an underutilised source: the graffiti carved into its walls by long-forgotten visitors. I aim to reframe our understanding of medieval St Albans, providing new insight not only into past interactions between its clergy and lay parishioners, but also the pervasive, yet undocumented, everyday uses and experiences of medieval religious space. I am interested in what graffiti reveals  about lay piety and devotional practices, exploring how clusters of graffiti became lasting loci of devotion, shaping individual experiences of the space over time, and serving as persistent agents in the experience of ecclesiastic space. A second aspect of my approach considers the broader socio-historical context of the medieval abbey and its communities. I am looking at the types of media both secular and religious communities would have interacted with and considering what pre-existing ideas and knowledge they brought with them into the space. My research is generously funded by the AHRC through the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH). 

Biography

Hadley completed her BA in Classical Studies and Drama at Royal Holloway University in 2021, where she was awarded the Longfield-Jones Archaeology Prize. She went on to study at the Courtauld Institute of Art, receiving her Graduate Diploma in the History of Art in 2022, before undertaking the Courtauld’s MA in History of Art on the Miniature to Monumental: Encounters with Medieval Art special option in 2023. She began her PhD in Medieval Studies in the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York in 2025, funded by AHRC through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities, and supervised by Professor Kate Giles and Dr Eliza Hartrich. Her research interests broadly encompass architecture and interactions with the built environment, late medieval devotion and the lived experience, communal memory and individuality, and historic graffiti.