Face of Simon of Sudbury revealed by forensic artist
A forensic expert has reconstructed the face of a 14th Century Archbishop of Canterbury who met a grisly end during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.
Simon of Sudbury was seized by insurgents after they stormed the Tower of London. He was dragged to Tower Hill and beheaded.
His face was reconstructed by Adrienne Barker at Dundee University.
The forensic artist used skeletal detail from the part-mummified skull to build up his facial features.
She then made a series of 3D bronze resin casts of his head. The project was carried out as part of Ms Barker’s MSc at the university’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification.
The skull of the controversial figure has been kept at St Gregory’s Church at Sudbury in Suffolk for more than 600 years.
Sudbury, who was Chancellor of Salisbury and Bishop of London before being made the archbishop in 1375, was unpopular with the rebellious peasants because of his role in introducing the third poll tax.
Ms Barker said: “I hope people in Sudbury like what we’ve done but he’s a strange looking fellow so it’ll be interesting to see their reactions.
“The first thing we had to do was carry out an initial assessment of the skull to determine its age, sex and ancestry.
“We then sculpted each muscle of the face and built this up on the cast we made of the skull before adding a final layer which represents the skin.”
One of the casts of the head will go on permanent display in St Gregory’s Church.