In summer 1985, four Norwegian boats sailed up the Ouse into York’s King’s Staith, greeted by civic leaders, TV crews and crowds. Gifts were exchanged and the moment marked the birth of the Jorvik Viking Festival, launched to boost visitors after the 1984 success of the Viking Centre.

Tomorrow! At the Wiltshire Music Centre. Me and m’pals with 400 years of music in about two hours. Amazing musicians! Wonderful pieces! A waffling idiot! A show for noobs and lifers alike. Come and have a squizz. youtu.be/BJPcEy2V-oM

Gold foil figure from early medieval Sweden, depicting an embracing couple #HugDay A common motif in first-millennium-AD Scandinavia, they were likely made by travelling goldsmiths who reproduced the same designs kilometres apart. (£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

Lean into...

BBC News - Melsonby Hoard: Iron Age haul to be on public display in York this summer - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Vendel Helmet 1. Iron helmet with bronze fittings from a boat grave in Vendel, Uppland, Sweden, c. 550–793 AD. 📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4... #Archaeology

We made it to February! Blessings of Imbolc/Candlemas/St Brigid to everyone 🙌🌞

I don’t think I’ll watch Melania in the cinema. I’ll wait until it comes onto Prime Video and not watch it then.

Imbolc #PlaymobilInfestation

February brings us closer to the return of bumblebees – you might be lucky enough to see some this month 🤞 Bumblebee queens emerge from hibernation in spring. Keep your eyes peeled this month for early emerging Tree and Buff-tailed bumblebees 👀 Have you spotted your first bumblebee of 2026?

BBC News - Potteries Museum seeks £150k to buy Bronze Age dress fastener - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Mike Galsworthy, Chair of European Movement today. Come and join our 27,000 members and let’s put Europe back together again. www.facebook.com/share/v/1C6E... #JoinTheEuropeanMovement

No fireworks. No parties. No flags. No celebrations. No comments from the Brexit leaders. No "wasn't that a great idea." Six years after we left the EU - everyone knows it was a disaster. But....

BBC News - Cumbria hill could hold grave of Viking king Ivarr the Boneless - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Epstein files would never have been seen again if they’d hidden them in one of the cinemas where the Melania documentary is playing.

I do rather yearn for the sea.

Cake is the answer to every question I ever pose.

I spoke to the Secretary-General of NATO, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz and Giorgia Meloni. Together we stand firm in our commitment to uphold the sovereignty of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.

Another of St Mungo's legends tells how he miraculously arranged for a fish to find a ring that'd been thrown by her husband into the River Clyde, thus saving Queen Languoreth from a charge of infidelity and execution. Glass by William Wilson, 1951 in Glasgow Cathedral. 1/3

I've hidden it.

Have fun & be good and very careful of all dangers.

Winchester Cathedral Reburies Medieval Remains Linked to Royals and Bishops www.medievalists.net/2026/01/winc... #medieval #England

I'm sad to have to reveal that the prophecy has not come true. The Miami News, 1935: www.newspapers.com/article/the-...

Yes, JD. Let’s ask them if they think a stay at home mom, avowed Christian, and widow of a veteran deserved to be shot in the face and left to bleed out in her own car after dropping her 6-year-old off at school, for the crime of looking out for her neighbors. Let’s ask everyone running for office.

Stephen has a LOT of knitwear. And he's always so well dressed, which tends to support my theory that he's Patrick Grant's secret love child #TheTraitors

This is Ollie. He found a perfectly placed carrot snack on his walk. Simply can't believe his luck. 13/10 best day ever (TT: maxime_aries)

Sorry, I'd like to help with cleaning up but there's a tiny cat asleep on my foot.

The National Museum of Scotland acquired the Crosier-head and Coigreach of St Fillan from hereditary custodians the Dewars #OTD in 1876. The bronze crosier-head was made in the C11th and its silver-gilt case, or coigreach, later. They are from Glendochart, Perthshire. 📸NMS #medievalsky

Source: BBC search.app/pexX5

Christmas is a time for eating pies.....but not too many! BL Arundel 91; Passionale; 12th century; England S. E. (Canterbury); f.190r

Northumbrian thegn Gospatric was slain at the Christmas court of Edward the Confessor #OTD in 1064. His murder was reportedly the result of Queen Edith’s intervention in a dispute between Gospatric and her brother Tostig, earl of Northumbria. #medievalsky

The most adorable chess piece ever! A knight, made of antler. Dating 11/12th century Found at the Burgstein, Lichtenstein-Holzelfingen. 📷 me #archaeology

This is so touching. Source: BBC search.app/N5CQy

Thomas Hardy's 'The Oxen', composed in wartime and first published in The Times, 24 Dec. 1915.

🚨The Gov could FINALLY be about to end fox hunting for good, by banning trail hunting. But the likes of Farage are criticising the ban. We need to drown them out: sign the petition now to back the ban and tell the Government to hold firm: 38d.gs/trailhuntingdf

Let’s see if I can continue my recent hot streak with today’s bird of the day. A few photos of various Eurasian oystercatchers (haematopus ostralegus) from over the years. As my good friend calls them, “Magpies with carrots on their face”. #Birds #WildlifePhotography #UKWildlife #Oystercatcher

The Christmas Fart Roland the Farter was a jester who (according to the "Liber Feodorum") held his land in Suffolk in return for "one jump, a whistle and one fart" at King Henry II's Christmas court every year.

Raynor Winn’s new book: The Garden Path

Vole was introduced into English from Orcadian via Barry's 'History of the Orkney Islands' (1805), where he notes that 'The Short-tailed Field Mouse...has the name of the vole mouse'. Mouse was dropped and we were left with vole, which is ultimately from Old Norse vǫllr 'field', by way of Norn.

I cant be the only one who sees the last few Christmas trees waiting outside stores or tree selling locations and feel sad for them? Like I want to adopt all the lonely Charlie Brown trees?

Medieval floor tile from Eynsham Abbey in Oxfordshire. Now part of the collections at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. 📸 My own. #TilesOnTuesday #Ashmolean

From (long) Ship to Spire! ⛪️ Gilt copper-alloy weather vanes, like this Ringerike-style example from Söderala Church, were seemingly taken from the prows of elite drakkar ships and repurposed as vanes for church spires. My 📷 Ref. Historiska museet

St Bronagh's Graveyard (Kilbroney): St Bronagh's graveyard is just N of Rostrevor, Co. Down and stands on the site of a monastery or convent founded in the 5th century CE by St Brona, one of a small number of female followers of St Patrick that we know about.

Incredible footage out of Australia, confirmed by NEWS AU, of a brave bystander neutralizing one of the terrorists in the Bondi Beach attack which took place during a Hanukkah gathering. Australian authorities say multiple people have been killed. At least two suspects are in custody.

We should bring back scrolls, books are great but scrolls would be cool

Other work of the Ladybird artists Redwings in Winter Artist: CF Tunnicliffe