According to some Flemish folktales, ghosts live in trees. In one story, nobody dared to go near a pile of rotten tree trunks because it was said to bite and chew. In another, you could only pass a particular tree if you made the sign of the cross first. #PhantomsFriday

Spriggan - the Cornish piskies malevolent and grotesque cousins who guard the barrows, cairns and stone circles of West Penwith. Known to conjure storms, steal cattle and terrify travellers. Most frighteningly of all steal mortal children and swap them for changelings. #folkyfriday #Cornwall

How lovely to see an illustration for a story by a good writer from a publication as old as that - all the vintage magazines I own post-date 1890.

Day 7: Box. I love this Red Polished pyxis or box from the Cyprus Museum, so enigmatic with its three human figures. #Museum30

Tonight! Drop by Room 23 if you fancy listening to my favourite visionary music, from Popol Vuh to Eno, Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Schulze, and putting a blindfold on to produce your own archetypal art.

#RodentOfTheDay Heunglin's Striped Grass Mouse (Lemniscomys zebra) "[A] species of rodent in the family Muridae. Its natural habitats are moist savanna, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, arable land, and plantations ." Ph/inf: eol.org/pages/4463012

Portrait of a Daydreamer by Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer.

A wonderful selection of ancient Roman finds from the city of Colchester in Essex, known in ancient times as Camulodunum, including jewellery, coin hoards, pottery and fresco fragments. Now on display at Colchester Castle. @colmuseums.bsky.social #FindsFriday

""Mr. Stainton pursued as fast as he could follow. Up the easy steps he ran at the top of his speed; but, fast as he went, the child went faster." Illustration To Mrs. Riddell's Ghost Story, "Walnut-Tree House."" The Illustrated London News 28.12.1878. #PhantomsFriday #Ghost #GhostStory #1870s

"Roman Remains Near Bexhill. Mr. B. H. Lucas's Discoveries at Crowhurst Park. Interesting Relics Of Hadrian Times. #Roman remains in the form of pottery and shards, which have been identified as belonging to the second century, have been excavated..." #Bexhill Observer 7.11.1936. #Archaeology #1930s

We have a book launch and signing at the museum tomorrow, November 8th, between 2-3. The book is volume 2 of the History of Bexhill Pubs by Niall McCrae and Rob Hiscocks. This volume covers Sidley, Little Common and Outskirts. #Bexhill

Wow! 😮🤩 There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓 itiner-e.org We might have to have a lie-down.

#FindsFriday 🏺 Huge askos from 300BC tomb of a high ranking man in ancient Forentum (now Lavello). Decorated w figures + polychrome, for purification rites: on body is woman's head between 2 prancing horses; topped w 3 women, central one w blue wings holds a dove and the reins. Nat Arch Museum Melfi

UK seizes Jurassic dinosaur fossils worth £12m from Chinese money-laundering suspect All three specimens were found in the Meilyn quarry in Wyoming “in close proximity to each other” “I doubt that any of us will be dealing with one of these again" www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim...

Just a reminder, that possibly the oldest piece of palaeoart dates to the Neolithic. The petroglyphs of horned characters with trumpets, recorded on the same rock as a ornithischian footprints (Zagaje Formation) in Poland, might be an early reconstruction of the Jurassic tracemaker.

Today, a friend involved in the Esna restoration project has shared with me his latest stunning photos of the restored ceiling and columns of the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper #Egypt. During a multi-year restoration project, the dirt and soot that had obscured the ...🧵1/3 📷 D. v. Recklinghausen 🏺

Sunbeam #Jamaica 7.11.1883. "In the evening we had the delight of seeing the most remarkable #sunset that I have ever beheld. In the west the sun was sinking behind a glorious pile of golden & rosy clouds, resting on a bed of daffodil sky...which melted into the most tender blues & greens." #Brassey

St. Mark's School, Little Common c.1900. #LittleCommon #Bexhill #Sussex #School #History #1900s

November 7, 1776 – The great fieldfare returns. Beetles abound every evening. Farmer Canning’s new barley-ricks smoke & ferment like hot-beds already.

The only mention of bonfire night I can find in @girlsown.bsky.social is within a serial entitled ‘The Shepherd’s Fairy’ with a splendid illustration of #LewesBonfire and a surprisingly unladylike enthusiasm for riot and mayhem, but a hefty dose of contemporary religious and class prejudice.

Sunbeam #Pacific #Ocean 6.11.1876. "...the report that the #Sunbeam had gone down with all hands was widely circulated through England, I might almost say the world, - for we found the report had preceded us by telegram to almost all the later ports we touched at..." #Brassey #Travel #History #1870s

St Mary in the Castle Church Hastings is added to Historic England's at risk register St Mary's is "a key building in the regeneration of our town "The best way to protect our buildings is to reuse them, turning them into places of local connection and joy share.google/FlcPpgzbMD6N...

Just floating and chillin'

#RodentOfTheDay Greater Cane Rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) "Thryonomys swinderianus (Greater Cane Rat) is a species of rodents in the family cane rats. They are native to Ethiopia. They are nocturnal herbivores. Individuals are known to live for 51.6 months." Photo/info: eol.org/pages/326380

Day 6: Clay. What Bronze Age Cypriot craftspeople could achieve with clay has to be seen to be believed #Museum30

Watch chain made of human hair! On display in our costume gallery. Would you wear anything made of hair? #Bexhill

Three new species of tree toads from Tanzania have been discovered. 🐸 These amphibians don’t lay frogspawn or have a tadpole phase like most other toads, but instead give birth to live young! Find out how museum specimens helped scientists to discover these species. 👇 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

@anniebrassey.bsky.social ...... watch out for those sea slugs !

"Traders' fight to open six days a week. F.W. Woolworth's Devonshire Road branch. Could this store's stand for the principal of six-day trading mark the beginning of a campaign in Bexhill?" Bexhill Observer 6.11.1971. #Bexhill #Sussex #Shop #Trading #History #1970s #ThrowbackThursday

Eothen, #Chesapeake Bay 6.11.1872. "About 5.30 we sighted the lighthouse off Cape Charles, the northern point of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which is about thirteen miles wide. At ten pm we were close in to Cape Henry, the southern entrance to the Bay..." #Brassey #Victorian #Travel #History #1870s

"Green Lane, Little Common." #LittleCommon #Bexhill #Sussex #Postcard c.1912. #History #1910s

The menhir known as La Demoiselle de Rhuis in Rhuis (Oise) is a little over 3m tall. In 1764 it was recorded as part of a group of six menhirs; by 1789 there were only two and one of those was destroyed in 1793. This card pre-1904.

St Michael's Mount nr Penzance Diodorus Siculus (60-30BC); ‘The inhabitants of Britain who live on the promontory called Belerion [Cornwall] are friendly to strangers.. they work the tin… and convey it to an island.. called Ictis… (where) the merchants buy the tin from the natives 📷 Yesterday

Happy Guy Fawkes day

"A tawny owl is looking down from its high vantange point at the great fire lit for #GuyFawkes' day. Not often does it see such a fire as this, and is astonished at the red glow and the many sparks" Art by C. F. Tunnicliffe, from 'What to Look for in Autumm' (1960) #BonfireNight

Day 5: Sharing. Object handling sessions are my absolute favourite way of sharing my enthusiasm for Cypriot antiquities #Museum30

A scene from the Totentanz - Dance of Death - in Bleibach, Germany, which dates to 1723, and still has all 34 scenes - made up of 33 couples and a skeletal band - along with the accompanying text, making it one of the most complete in Europe. This scene shows Death with the Burgher.

Staying in tonight? Watch live coverage of the Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels event. On iPlayer until 9pm. Live from Devon. 🔥

This linen dress is 4,500 years old! On display in the Egyptian exhibition at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge. fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

#RodentOfTheDay Pacarana (Dinomys branickii) "The pacarana (Dinomys branickii) is a rare and slow-moving nocturnal rodent which inhabits the forests of the western Amazon basin and the cloud forest environment of the eastern Andes." Photo/info: www.tambopatalodge.com/en/jungle-bl...

"What I Saw In The Fire. - Drawn By A. Crowquill." The Illustrated London News 21.12.1861. #WyrdWednesday #Fire #1860s

'Remember, remember the 5th of November!' 🔥 These are thought to be the earliest photographs of a bonfire. These photographs were taken in 1853 by John Dillwyn Llewelyn at Penllergare in Swansea 📷 museum.wales/articles/972... #Wales #BonfireNight #History

Other work of the Ladybird artists ‘Bonfire Night’ (1951) Artist: Ronald Lampitt

"Bexhill Wheelers resting at a country inn on a Sunday run." Bexhill Observer 5.11.1938. #Bexhill #Sussex #Cycling #History #1930s

This was #Bexhill’s first fire engine. It was purchased by the town in 1895 and was horse drawn and steam powered. It is now on display in the museum and is a popular exhibit.

In our latest blog post University of Cambridge researchers Katherine Enright and Liana Chua explore how colonial collecting reclassified Indigenous foods (such as tiger milk mushrooms and edible bird’s nests) and rituals as charms, specimens, and commodities: www.maadigitallab.org/blog/2025/11...

Andrew Wyeth, 1950. “Autumn Cornfield” #painting # #1950s #AndrewWyeth

One night a Mr Harry was making his way down the valley of the Ebwy Fawr, South #Wales, when a spectral fire leapt up in his path. He tried to dodge past it but a huge Hell Hound appeared on the other side, growling at him. He had no choice but to turn around and trudge back up again. #WyrdWednesday

"The Dreadful Story about Harriet and the Matches." By Heinrich Hoffmann from The English Struwwelpeter 1845. #WyrdWednesday #Fire #1840s