At Frank Matcham’s @everymanchelt.bsky.social tonight. I’m sure I’ve said it before but isn’t it just glorious?

Painswick churchyard by moonlight.

If early modern disease is more your thing, I’m also running this course too. 'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England Applications open lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-pl...

Vaccination Nation, a class I co-teach with @bachynski.bsky.social ,is featured in a story about innovative classes in the latest edition of Muhlenberg Magazine!

I was really ill with flu over Christmas last year, so I’m not taking any chances this year! With my history of medicine hat on, it’s just amazing to get a flu vaccine a little over 100 meters and 200 years from where Edward Jenner was providing vaccination against smallpox.

In the grand surroundings of Cirencester’s Bingham Hall for a special @cirenhistoryfest.bsky.social screening of Daisy May and Charlie Cooper’s NightWatch followed by Q&A with @joannadurrant.bsky.social.

In a token nod to Halloween I took a quick lunchtime stroll around some of the spookier parts of Berkeley. First stop, Berkeley Castle where Edward II was (possibly, but maybe not) murdered. It’s said that you can hear his screams echoing around the town every year on the anniversary of his death.

👻 We've met some characters on our Heather's "Spooky Tour of Gloucester" Albert Jones' Handlebar Moustache (and love of beer) The Watcher of St Mary's Gate Demaris Deighton and her cellars And of course Mischievous Maurice and his incontinent ghost dog 🐕 Big Thanks to The Gloucester Civic Trust 🎃

'Communities must have the right to own environmental assets' Great letter from @tomchance.bsky.social of the Community Land Trust Network to @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social, asking her to amend the Devolution Bill to strengthen Community Right to Buy: www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/news-and-eve...

👻 Meet the Ghost Slug this #Halloween! 🐌 The Ghost Slug (Selenochlamys ysbryda) is a mysterious predator that hunts earthworms deep underground. Its scientific name comes from the Welsh word ysbryd, meaning ghost or spirit - a fitting title for a rather elusive creature! #GhostSlug #SpookySpecies

That time the monarchy was toppled. UPRISING: THE CIVIL WARS My new podcast - available wherever you get your podcasts podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/u...

The last couple of days have been brilliant - meeting the inestimable Tom Herbert of The Long Table in Cirencester, doing a thought-provoking event with Mary Portas for Ciren History Festival (which is just brilliant - kudos to the organisers) and curating my very own display case for the museum.

If you like your Halloween served with a heaped helping of book history, may I recommend ✨Book Curses✨, whose pages are darkened by curses from antiquity to the present day. Come for particularised gory threats, stay for perceptions of the material text. Written by some woman.

Huge thanks to everyone who has donated and shared so far. ICYMI I’m gearing up to take a series of walks in solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers and to raise money for Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers. You can sponsor me here: www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/cotswo...

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

Welcome to bluesky @fce-cbs.bsky.social #communityenergy

My partner's new short film for Pride of Romany, funded by Historic England, was commissioned by, directed and edited by, and recorded for, British Romany people. You should watch it too, it's very good! Who We Were - reclaiming the history of Sound Common, Cheshire: youtu.be/i1H-u6240NE?...

Minnie Pallister now out in paperback. Lovely job...thanks @parthianbooks.bsky.social

Check our our exhibition at Lansdown Gallery, Stroud. BLACK IN THE FRAME 12-5pm - Wednesday 22th through Saturday 25th October 12-3pm - Sunday 26th October Love to see you there.

Sunshine and showers on today’s autumnal lunchtime stomp. I love walking these same routes through the changing seasons.

Some memorial inscriptions that caught my eye during my lunchtime stomp around the churchyard.

“I’m always the tallest person in the room,” announced the person sitting down in front of me at the gig.

The view over towards Downham (or Smallpox) Hill from the Cotswold Way this morning. I’m aiming to walk the whole 112 miles of this long distance path to raise funds for Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers. You can sponsor me here: www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/cotswo...

MUSIC IS THE KEY TO RADICAL RESISTANCE TIM LEZARD | STROUD LOVE MUSIC / HATE RACISM OCTOBER 2025 As Italian Ska Punk renegades LOS FASTIDIOS prepare to return to Stroud to play at the Prince Albert on Monday October 27, Tim Lezard catches up with Elisa and Enrico in Verona.

Our local refugee charity, which does such important work welcoming people fleeing persecution, is facing an uncertain future. Over the next six months I’m walking the 112 mile Cotswold Way to try and raise money for them. I’d be thrilled if you’d sponsor me: www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/cotswo...

Unmarked headstones at Provincetown Pest House/Smallpox Cemetery #Graveyard #Cemetery #CemeteryPhotography #photography #Gravestone #Headstone #GraveyardPhotography #31DaysofGraves #Provincetown #CapeCod #BlueskyArtShow #PhotographersUnited #PhotographersofBluesky

A simple, haunting poetry in this information from a medical musuem website.

Tomorrow: DEAD ENDS comes out in the US! Aimed at kids aged 8-12, @tealcartoons.bsky.social and I think everyone will love this grisly romp through medical history. Please consider ordering a copy, and enjoy the weird stories we've uncovered that prove failure is essential to scientific progress.

To The Regal in Tenbury Wells last night for Seth Lakeman with Benji Kirkpatrick & Archie Churchill-Moss. We now think we’ve seen all of the performing Lakemans this year (also Sean L with Kathryn Roberts, Geoff L, and Sam L with Cara Dillon) unless there are any others out there!

I’ve been away and vaguely offline in Cornwall for a few days, what did I miss? It’s been lovely to have a little break but I was so glad to make it back just in time for this amazing sunset on Friday evening.

A huge thank you to everyone who has explored LGBTQIA+ history with me at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. I had some great questions from your goers and I got to ask them some Big Questions too, like "What's your favourite dinosaur?"

Geeking out at the National Hedgelaying Championship on the Waddesdon Estate in Bucks. Around 100 competitors laying in 10 different regional styles over 5 hours on a very challenging hedge.

Enid, the surprising and eccentric owner of the brilliant Sound Records in Stroud, UK, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of jazz, soul, funk, ocean fish and wool.

Storm Amy is blowing the flags down, she's on the side of immigrants and refugees. Wind knows no borders, learn from the wind.

Keeping people in poverty is an expensive luxury. My column on the false economies of austerity, which costs us all a fortune. Despite the government's claims, austerity continues under Labour. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Spent time at Hammonds Farm, who run a social prescribing programme with farm visits. Great to see how community farming and social prescribers support local people by connecting them with nature while providing fresh, locally grown produce.

Some really interesting and important initiatives here that will make such a difference to people's lives and relieve pressures on overstretched public sector services. I'm looking forward to finding out more as the projects progress.

Happy 259th anniversary of the Nottingham Cheese Riot to all those who celebrate...

📢 REGISTRATIONS OPEN! 📢 Registrations are open for the upcoming QHCN Symposium, exploring the innovative queer heritage work being developed by cultural organisations across the UK and beyond 📆 Date: 25-26 November 2025 📍 Location: National Trust - Heelis Registration links below ⬇

Exciting post from @jonpountney1.bsky.social today. I’m a big fan of the Valleys and a big fan of Jon’s work, so I think I’m going to enjoy this.

GLOUCESTER WELCOMES REFUGEES In the wake of anti-refugee protests outside the Ibis hotel in Gloucester, an upcoming gathering in solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers is planned for Sunday 5 October. amplifystroud.com/gloucester-w...

Too much to do and not enough time. I need a

First speakers announced for Meeting the Moment, a one day event for the culture sector on speaking up in troubled times. Wed 26 Nov 10:00, @wshed.bsky.social Am very EXCITED. Shares appreciated. www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/1356...

The Boring Fund will be open for applications in November. If your small UK charity needs (up to) £200 to cover something boring like insurance or web hosting, take a look. They welcome donations too.

My favourite photo from a trip to Avoncroft Museum yesterday. The windmill was being supervised by a friendly and knowledgeable volunteer showed us videos on his phone of the mill in operation. Excited to see you could purchase flour from the mill in the shop and, of course, I had to buy some.

“Why should we fix our eyes on this spot only?” A little piece about looking outside of our current circumstances and shouting about the amazing achievements of vaccination, which have all come about despite anti-vaccination activism and monumental logistical challenges. Let’s change the story.

Innovators, thinkers and leaders needed! Our mission is to re-imagine museums for a sustainable future – by fostering wellbeing that doesn’t cost the earth. Could you bring your unique perspective, your time and your imagination for a better future – to our Steering Group? shorturl.at/b0ejo

Keir Starmer's aides are reportedly telling him not to go to the COP30 climate conference, because Reform would attack him for it. Yes, they might. And he should wear it as a badge of honour. Standing up for humanity, for science and a habitable planet. Where's the hazard in that?