Dr Simon Roffey

Biography

I am a Reader in Medieval Archaeology. I have been Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Winchester since 2002 and became a Reader in 2013. I have also taught for the University of Reading, Oxford University Centre for Continuing Education and have worked for Southern Archaeological Services Ltd. Prior to my archaeological career I served in the Royal Navy Submarine Service.

I obtained my undergraduate degree (1998) from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and went on to complete an MRes (1999) at the same institution. I then completed PhD study at the University of Winchester in 2004 titled A Social Archaeology of Parish Church Chantries and Chapels: a perspective from the south and west of England. My main research area is in medieval archaeology, particulary the archaeology of medieval religion and belief. I also have an interest in the history and archaeology of Buddhism.  At the University of Winchester I teach on BA and MA programmes in archaeology and teach modules in buildings archaeology, the archaeology of Winchester, the archaeology of medieval religion and belief and the archaeology of Buddhism.

I was also Co-Director (with Dr Phil Marter) of one of the Department’s recent training excavations, the medieval hospital of St Mary Magdalen, Winchester (MHARP). Find out more about the MHARP project.

Areas of expertise

• Church archaeology
• Buildings archaeology
• The archaeology of Winchester

Publications

Books

• Lavelle, R., Roffey, S and Weikert, K (eds) 2021 Early Medieval Winchester: Studies in Urban Power and Authority. Oxford: Oxbow
• Lavelle, R. and Roffey, S. (eds) 2015 Danes in Wessex, the Scandinavian impact on southern England ca 800 - 1100. Oxford: Oxbow.
• Roffey, S. 2008 Chantry chapels and medieval strategies for the afterlife. Stroud: Tempus.
• Roffey, S. 2007 The Medieval chantry chapel. An archaeology. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.

Journals and contributions to edited volumes

• Urban C., Blom A., Avanzi C., Walker-Meikle K., Warren A.K., White-Iribhogbe K., Turle R., Marter P., Dawson-Hobbis H., Roffey S., A. Inskip S., Schuenemann V.J. (2024) Ancient Mycobacterium leprae genome reveals medieval English red squirrels as animal leprosy host Current Biology Vol. 34 Iss. 10, May 2024, 2221-30. Read it online

• Roffey, S,. 2021. ‘SK27: A Winchester Pilgrim’ in Lavelle, R., Roffey. S. and Weikert, K., Early Medieval Winchester: Studies in Urban Power and Authority. Oxbow.
• Roffey, S., 2021 ‘St Mary Magdalen, Winchester, England: the archaeology and history of an English Leprosarium and almshouse’ in Brenner, E., and Touati, F-O., Leprosy and Identity in the Middle Ages, 130-160. Manchester University Press. 
• Roffey, S,.2020 ‘Sanctity and Suffering:  The Sacred World of the Medieval Leprosarium.  A Perspective from St Mary Magdalen, Winchester’ inLavelle, R. and Langlands, A., The Land of the English Kin: Studies in Wessex and Anglo-Saxon England in Honour of Professor Barbara Yorke, 538-555. Brill.
• Roffey, S 2018 ‘The medieval afterlife’ in Gerrard, C and Gutierrez, A. The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology, 868-887.
• Roffey, S., Tucker, K., Filipek-Ogden, K., Montgomery, J., Cameron, J., O’Connell, T., Evans, J., Marter, P. and Taylor, G.M.? (2017) Investigation of a medieval pilgrim burial excavated from the Leprosarium of St Mary Magdalen Winchester, UK. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases? (read it here).
• G.M. Taylor, K. Tucker, R. Butler, A.W.G. Pike, J. Lewis, S. Roffey, P. Marter, O.Y-C Lee, H.H. T. Wu, D.E. Minnikin, G.S. Besra, P. Singh, S.T. Cole, G.R. Stewart 2013, Detection and strain typing of ancient Mycobacterium leprae from a medieval leprosy hospital. PLOS One open-access online publlication (read it here).
• Roffey, S. 2016 ‘Charity and Conquest: leprosaria in early Norman England’ in Hadley, D. and Dyer, C.  The Archaeology of the 11^th Century,  159-176, Routledge.
• V.J. Schuenemann, P. Singh, T.A. Mendum, B. Krause-Kyora, G. Jäger, K.I. Bos, A. Herbig, C. Economou, A. Benjak, P. Busso, A. Nebel, J.L. Boldsen, A. Kjellström, H. Wu, G.R. Sewart, G.M. Taylor, P. Bauer, O.Y.-C. Lee, H.H.T. Wu, D.E. Minnikin, G.S. Besra, K. Tucker, S. Roffey, S.O. Sow, S.T. Cole, K. Nieselt, J. Krause 2013, Genome-wide comparison of medieval and modern Mycobacterium leprae. Science 12 July 2013, Vol. 341 No 6142 pp 179-83 (read it here).

• Roffey, S. and Tucker, K. 2012 'A contextual study of the medieval hospital and cemetery of St Mary Magdalen, Winchester, England', International Journal of Paleopathology, Volume 2, Issue 4. Read it here.
• Roffey, S. 2012. Medieval leper hospitals in England: an archaeological perspective from St Mary Magdalen, Winchester. Medieval Archaeology 56, 203-34.
• Roffey, S and Marter, P. 2012. Treating leprosy St Mary Magdalen, Winchester. Current Archaeology, 267. 12-18.CBA.
• Roffey, S and Marter, P. 2012 Excavations at St Mary Magdalen Winchester 2008-2012 Hampshire Field Club Newsletter, 57. 3-4.
• Roffey. S. 2011 ‘Romantic anachronisms? Chantry chapels of the nineteenth century’. In: King, C. and Sayer, D. The Archaeology of Post-Medieval Religion. Woodbridge: Boydell, pp 67-82.
• Roffey, S. and Marter, P. 2011 St Mary Magdalen Hospital Winchester, British Archaeology 117, 22-27.
• Roffey, S. 2010a Recent Excavations at St Mary Magdalen, Winchester, Medieval Archaeology 54.
• Roffey, S. 2010b Excavations at St Mary Magdalen, Winchester. Monastic Research Bulletin 16, 43-49.
• Roffey, S. 2010 Planning for the afterlife: The chantry chapels of Salisbury Cathedral. Sarum Chronicle 9, 19-29.
• Roffey, S. with Cohen, N. et al. 2009 ‘The medieval period’ In D. Divers, C. Mayo, N. Cohen and C. Jarrett (eds) A New Millennium at Southwark Cathedral: Investigations into the First Two Thousand Years. Pre-Construct Archaeology Monograph No. 8.
• Roffey, S 2007 Constructing a vision of salvation: chantries and the social dimension of religious experience in the medieval parish church. Archaeology Journal 163, 122-46.
• Roffey, S. 2006 Devotional objects and cultural context: the medieval parish church. In V.C. Raguin (ed.) Catholic Collecting, Catholic Reflection 1538 - 1850, pp 21-30.
• Roffey, S. 2005 Recording the parish church fabric: objective and subjective approaches to structural analysis. For the Institute of Field Archaeologist Annual Conference 2005, Winchester.
• Roffey, S. with Hines, J. and Cohen, N. 2004 'Iohannes Gower, Armiger, Poeta: records and memorials of his life and death.' In: S. Echard (ed.) A Gower Companion. Woodbridge: Boydell, pp 1-41.
• Roffey, S. 2004 Reconstructing English medieval parish church chantries and chapels: an archaeological approach. Church Archaeology 5-6, 62-68.
• Roffey, S. 2003 'Deconstructing a symbolic world: the Reformation and the English medieval parish chantry.' In: D. Gaimster and R. Gilchrist, (eds), The Archaeology of Reformation. Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology Monograph 1, pp 341-56.
• Roffey, S. 2000 The rise and fall of the medieval chantry movement. Ecclesiology Today 22, 18-23.
• Roffey, S. 1999 The Southwark Cathedral Archaeological Project. Church Archaeology 3, 12-16.
• Roffey, S. 1998 The early history and development of St Marie Overie Priory, Southwark. London Archaeologist Vol. 8 No. 10, 255-26.