And also the hall at Harlow New Town, William Charles, Salvation Army Architects Department, 1962

Very much enjoyed my visit to the Nautical Archaeology Society's Heritage Open Days event at Gosport, about studying the remains of MMS 113, a wooden WW2 minesweeper. The vessel was taken apart for its upper timbers (1950s?), but what is left is good for training students in surveying wrecksites.

Nah, that side of the Downs closed their museum 😞. (I'm really missing the museum at Beachy, too). Maybe exotic birds will fly our way! We have lots of downland to roost, too!

Printer George Horton could take some tips from John Johnson on 'appropriate ghost story woodcuts' 👇

Read about Prof Chris Loveluck’s latest work on #ancient #pollution in @antiquity.ac.uk today! 🏺🧪 #archaeology

The talented Louis Ginnett painted this mural for Brighton + Hove Grammar School Sussex in 1937 Entitled *Hollingbury Camp: Full Circle* it depicts the excavation of a Bronze Age burial The motorcyclist is TE Lawrence, who died in 1935 Did he really visit a dig in Brighton? 🤔 #HillfortsWednesday

Join us in Bedfordshire on 11 October for a one-day conference, in partnership with Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire local history associations, exploring coaching inns, canals, airships, archaeology and buses! Find out more: ow.ly/ag1M50WqnQi #WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll

The depiction of #fishweirs in art from every period reflects their role in the physical and cultural landscape, as well as their economic value in the real world. They serve as both a tangible and abstract representation of human interaction with the ocean. #coastalhistory #fishing 1/4

Update on the museum theft: www.devonlive.com/news/devon-n...

Despite easily being the most British fighting vehicle ever developed, the mock-Tudor AT-AT programme was sadly cancelled due to budgetary concerns

We still have some spaces available! It really is a special course with a great student community. Students join because they're interested in our topics and enjoy discussing them, and some end up producing publishable work that they didn't know they could do!

Maiden Castle promontory fort, Bickerton Hill, #Cheshire, 1946. You can see the impact of its use as a military training area, including on the double ramparts themselves (in the centre of the shot). The #SandstoneTrail passes through it now. #HillfortsWednesday (HE EAW000840)

“A gripping tale of all the unsung female industrialists and workers who are missing from conventional economic histories”. A huge thank you to the brilliant @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social‬⁩ for her kind words about my new book #Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth & Power ⁦- out now.

Footage of the wreck of Capt Scott's former Antarctic expedition ship 'Terra Nova'. Back in the 1990s I played Captain Oates in an amateur production of Ted Tally's powerful play 'Terra Nova', about the expedition, & the story of the expedition never fails to move me. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Goodwin Sands constitute one of the most important maritime archaeological zones in the world. The true total of wrecks could well exceed with 2,000+ quoted below, with an unknown number of potentially well-preserved prehistoric, Roman & medieval wrecksites. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A very good interview on the reading crisis in the UK. Heartily endorse bringing back sure start or some version of it.

Applications now invited for the Society's two Centenary Fellowships, 2025-26 to support PhD students complete a doctorate in #history. The Fellowships are held in conjunction with @ihr.bsky.social and are for £8500 over 6 months. Applications, by 31 May, are via the IHR bit.ly/4mybVDV #Skystorians

OMG PEOPLE! I have the BL hack of all BL hacks. Why didn't this occur to me before? It turns out the Wayback Machine has snapshots of MS metadata from the old Digitised Manuscripts site. I tried it for the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, in honor of his day, and lo! web.archive.org/web/20140305...

Today I start my research trip sailing down the River Seine from Paris to Honfleur (via a few stops) in a reconstruction of the Klåstad cargo ship built in 998. It’s the penultimate stage in the ship’s journey from Rome to London throughout the summer. I’ll post updates as we go #Saga25 #MedievalSky

I'm thrilled to share that I've received a £1,000 grant from the V&A/Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust to write a new article: ‘From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre’. Can’t wait to dive into the archives! ⚓ #VandA #TheatreStudies #CulturalHistory

In exciting news I’m being promoted to Professor of Maritime History @plymuni.bsky.social on 1 August. Some maritime rubber ducks seemed best suited to here

The stunningly intricately painted nave ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral dates to the 13th century 😍🤩 It is constructed of wooden boards nailed directly onto the structure above and is the only one of its type in Britain. More info: peterborougharchaeology.org/peterborough...

Absolute cloudburst in Chichester at the moment! Still, the plants will like it...

Very informative, and a salutary contrast to the ‘gave up its secrets’ paradigm of coverage. Explaining that research is a process, not a thing, and that it often takes extended time (as well as money) matters, especially now.

Amongst other things, I'm currently working on a #househistory in E Sussex. Most of the key sources are at the wonderful 'The Keep' at Falmer, home of the E Sussex Record Office. Rail journey involves a change at Brighton, & I never fail to be impressed by the station's magnificent 1882 canopy!

In a world worried about job security, worth restating it will be a very long time before traditional building conservation skills can be done by a robot. Meanwhile, brilliant schemes happening across UK are bringing life back to unique buildings & creating new opportunities for young people. 👇

I really think universities underestimate how true this is for a lot of students and their parents. They don’t want us to try to pretend to be cool. They want us to be a bit dusty, and very serious. Enthusiastic, definitely! But also nerdy. We’re selling them ACADEMIA.

We're restocking our bookshop! 📕📘📗 All suggestions of titles we should stock are very welcome.

A life jacket used by crewman James McGrady during the sinking of the Titanic. Sadly, McGrady’s body was found by the SS Algerine still floating in the life jacket 42 days after the sinking. The life jacket is now on display in ⁦The Rooms Museum in St John’s, Newfoundland #titanic #newfoundland

Excellent article of a sometimes-ignored aspect of mid-17th Century history. (Side note: The HMS Montagu was named after (Parliamentarian general) the Earl of Manchester's uncle, who was locked in the Tower in 1642 for supporting the Royalists – he's the chap we have to thank for Guy Fawkes Night!)

Very interesting piece on the wreck of HMS Northumberland, lost off the Kent coast during the 'Great Storm' of 1703 - well-preserved, but eroding... @danpascoe79.bsky.social historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/ne...

The water churns, the ferry rocks, and a flash of red marks a secret waiting to be found. Painted around 1814, The Mill Stream by John Constable offers one of the most atmospheric views of Flatford Mill, with the now-famous Willy Lott’s House standing quietly to the left.

Job spotlight of the week: Lecturer in Historic Environment at the IHR, Senate House, London. Fixed-term for 12 months, 17.5 hours per week, £45K pro-rata.

Excellent!

Examination of England’s only 13th-century shipwreck sheds light on the #medieval kingdom's complex trade networks and diverse livelihoods, all via their lucrative trade in a valuable stone. Find out how in this @archaeologyuk.bsky.social #FestivalofArchaeology #AntiquityThread 1/13 🧵🏺 #Archaeology

"Sanday Development Trust, said ... "Now that we have this knowledge about the wreck and how it came to rest in Sanday, the next step is very much to explore what the community here would like to see happen."" Interested to follow this decision making process. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Very excited about this! @watsonlittle.bsky.social

It'll be good to see it again. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Underwater images of a 9,000-year-old stationary fish weir off the coast of southern #Sweden from a well-preserved #StoneAge site. From fishing settlement was presented in a lagoon environment where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year. 1/5

There’s a handy chart to consult: 😂

Wow... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's not just about the broken trust between writer and reader, or all the time, energy and unfounded faith invested by booksellers, but it's also about the important stories still unheard of those living with illness and homelessness that could have been elevated by the industry instead.

We went out for a bike ride south of Chichester (UK) this afternoon in brilliant sunshine. Then... Still drying out!

'The dispute is over the university's proposals to cut up to 285 staff across a number of areas, including the Lincoln International Business School and the history department.'

Yes, and this new research development is of particular interest to me as it is precisely 40 years since I started my first academic job, working in the computerisation of Domesday Book.

‘Domesday was the product of raw, not artificial intelligence.’ (Stephen Baxter) www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-07...