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Antonia Gransden
Antonia Gransden
	Photographed while at the University of Nottingham
Born	Antonia Morland; 7 October 1928; Compton Dundon, Somerset, England
Died	18 January 2020 (aged 91); Keinton Mandeville, Somerset
Spouse	K. W. Gransden (m. 1957; div. 1977)
Academic background
Education	Dartington Hall; Somerville College, Oxford; University of London;
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Medieval history
Institutions	British Museum; University of Nottingham;
Notable works	Historical Writing in England (1982)

Antonia Gransden (née Morland; 7 October 1928 – 18 January 2020), English historian and medievalist, was Reader in Medieval History at the University of Nottingham. She was author of works in medieval historiography, including the massive two-volume study Historical Writing in England, covering a thousand years of historical writing from the 6th to the 16th century.^[1]

Work at the British Museum fuelled her fascination with the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. She then went on to edit the records of the abbey, resulting in a two-volume History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmonds, which she completed aged 86.

Life

Gransden was born Antonia Morland in Compton Dundon, Somerset.^[2]^[3] Her father was a director of Morlands clothing company in Glastonbury, Somerset.^[1] Educated at Dartington Hall and Somerville College, Oxford, she gained a first class degree and studied for a PhD, which she went on to earn from the University of London.^[2] She spent a decade as assistant keeper in the British Museum reading room from 1952, before joining Nottingham University as an assistant lecturer in 1964.^[1] She married Ken Gransden in 1957 and the couple had two daughters. However, the marriage was dissolved in 1977.^[4] She retired from Nottingham University in 1989.^[1]

Antonia Gransden was a long-standing member of the Labour Party, and an advocate for women's rights to education, equal pay and opportunities. She died from bronchopneumonia at a care home in Keinton Mandeville, Somerset, on 18 January 2020 at the age of 91.^[1]^[2] At the time of her death her "magisterial" two volumes on Historical Writing in England remained unsurpassed.^[5]

Select bibliography

Scholia has an author profile for Antonia Gransden.

A Critical Edition of the Bury St. Edmunds Chronicle in Arundel MS 30 (College of Arms), London: University of London, 1956.
(ed.) The Letter-Book of William of Hoo, Sacrist of Bury St. Edmunds, 1280–1294, Publications, Vol. 5, Ipswich: Suffolk Records Society, 1963.
(ed. & trans.) The Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds 1212–1301, Nelson's Medieval Texts, London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1964.
(ed.) Customary of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, Vol. 99, London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1970.
Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 1307, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974.
Historical Writing in England ii c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Legends, Traditions, and History in Medieval England, London: Hambledon Press, 1992.
A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1257–1301: Simon of Luton and John of Northwold, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, Vol. 42, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2015.
(ed.) Bury St Edmunds: Medieval Art, Architecture, Archaeology, and Economy, Abingdon: Routledge, 2020, ISBN 978-1-351-57288-0.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e James Clark (16 February 2020). "Antonia Gransden obituary".
^ ^a ^b ^c Given-Wilson, C. (2024). "Gransden [née Morland], Antonia (1928–2020), historian". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000381939. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "Antonia Gransden, 91: Medievalist, watercolourist and friend of EM Forster". The Times. 14 March 2020. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
^ Murray, Penelope (3 August 1998). "Obituary: K. W. Gransden". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022.
^ Fulton, Helen (2020). "Medieval Historical Writing: Britain and Ireland, 500–1500 ed. by Jennifer Jahner, Emily Steiner, and Elizabeth M. Tyler (review)". Studies in the Age of Chaucer. 42: 413–7. doi:10.1353/sac.2020.0024.