Main gates to the #CoalbrookdaleFoundry, closed in 2017 after 300 years of ironworking on the site. Aga Rayburn were the final operators, from 1946 until closure. #Thursgate #Shropshire #IndustrialHeritage 📷 My own from Feb 2020, just before the world changed.

#OTD 18 June 1941, the Bren Carriers at Brodgar photo #Orkney.

The northern bank at Eddisbury viewed up close. It is a steep wall of earth, still quite the obstacle. This is the feature visible from the car park at the #DelamereForest visitor centre. #HillfortsWednesday #Cheshire 📷 My own

The East Tower at #Helmsley Castle. Originally 12th century with later alterations - the most dramatic being the catastrophic slighting after the Civil War / Wars of the Three Kingdoms. (It looks surprisingly intact from the other side.) #TowerTuesday #NorthYorkshire #Castles 📷 My own

Yesterday a group of us ‘Beat the Bounds’ of #StHelens Borough for the 10th consecutive year, raising £ for Mind. At 44 miles it is a fair old challenge, and I'm proud of everyone who took part. Thanks to all our sponsors, and especially The Masons in Billinge. #MentalHealth #Lancashire #Walking

I'm proud to say that Mark Williams presented me with my MA certificate at the graduation ceremony at Brum Uni. Being a pro, he didn't grace the occasion with a catchphrase, but we more than made up for it. The hall then pub afterwards were like a Fast Show convention.

Newport Arch, #Lincoln. Built in the C3 as the north gate to the legionary fortress, repaired & altered many times. The building on the left has been replaced, leaving a gap beside the arch. Undated, Historic England's 'England's Places' archive, 2857_004. #RomanSiteSaturday #RomanBritain

#RomanSiteSaturday A week on, the scale & achievement of the 49m-high Pont du Gard is still ringing in my head..🤯 Absolutely nothing prepares you for the size - see figures on the C18th bridge which adjoins it 🧐 The view shows the enormous main span of the arches across the gorge 😮 📷 My own

Reposted almost exactly a year on, as this is on the #BeatingTheBounds of #StHelens route - we're walking all 44 miles this Sunday. See my other posts for details. All welcome, for as much or as little as you fancy. #FingerpostFriday #Walking

For a couple of exciting, misguided moments, I thought that BR had deployed a railway gun. Shucks. #Artillery #Railways

This is great! A free, easy to follow mini-course on reading agricultural landscapes (specifically North Yorks but other counties have fields too).

Proof that you couldn't see the sea at #Southport in 1957, either. #Lancashire

Rustic simplicity at The Masons, #Billinge - my favourite pub, & where we will end this Sunday's #BeatingTheBounds walk. Thanks again to Dan and family for hosting us there, and generally supporting our efforts. We appreciate it. #AdoorableThursday #Lancashire #Pubs

I'm proud that @sthelenstownafc.bsky.social is associated with Hope United. They are a living example of football as a force for good.

What he said. Freelancers are an important part of the heritage secor, & taking some of these points of basic fairness on board would go a long way. (I've sat on various groups often as the only person not either paid to be there as an employee or retired; I want to contribute but have limits.)

Ratcliffe-on-Soar, in happier times. #CoolingTowers #TowerTuesday 📷 My own, 2012

Thank you to our latest sponsors for #StHelens #BeatingTheBounds, coming up this Sunday - a 44 mile walk raising £ for the local branch of Mind. It is the 10th edition, so I think we've successfully recreated a tradition. #MentalHealth justgiving.com/page/sthelensbeatingthebounds2026

Reposted for the anniversary of the raid. The image remains its power to shock, all these years on. #Lindisfarne #Vikings

Detail from a window at St. John the Baptist Church, Nash, south #Shropshire, commemorating the relationship between the church at the National Association of Boys Clubs Training Centre at nearby Nash Court, which ran from 1949-77. I like it. #StainedGlassSunday #ChurchCrawling 📷 My own

The view south to the #RiverIrthing from #Birdoswald / Banna. This was taken just a few yards from the fort's southern edge, and gives a clue as to how much of the broader site may have eroded down the cliff over the centuries. #RomanSiteSaturday #Erosion #RomanBritain #HadriansWall 📷 My own

As a member of @musdevnorth.bsky.social's Open Grants panel it is great to see the difference the £ is enabling in #museums around the North - as this case study video from the terrific Towneley Hall illustrates. Congratulations to the team there & at MD North. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Io...

Can someone tell #EnglishHeritage they'd better close #Lindisfarne Priory early today, please? Or at least get Terry Butcher in as security?

Pointing the way to King Alfred's Monument, by #Athelney Farm, #Somerset. The River Tone cuts behind the camera, with many other drains and ditches criss-crossing the scene. Even on a summer day, it isn't too difficult to imagine the Isle of Princes as an island again. #FingerpostFriday 📷 My own

'The England that never existed is always more powerful in our imagination than that which was there and now isn't.'

The @vindolandatrust.bsky.social team hard at work, excavating a well at Magna on Hadrian's Wall (by the Roman Army Museum). It came to protrude above ground level due to the field drying & the land subsiding. See ALT text for more. #RomanFortThursday #HadriansWall #RomanBritain 📷 My own, 2024

Flower's Barrow #IronAge hillfort, #Dorset, pictured in 1957. Once inland, it is a spectacular example of coastal #erosion affecting a historic landscape feature. (I love the glimpse of wing in the corner.) #HillfortsWednesday 📷 Cambridge Air Photos, CUCAP UL78

Less than two weeks to go to this year's #BeatingtheBounds - the 10th edition, no less! As always, we're raising funds for #StHelens Mind. Please sponsor us if you can, but no worries if not - we appreciate that not everyone is in a position to contribute £. www.justgiving.com/page/sthelen...

The replica watchtower at Senhouse Roman Museum, #Maryport, and the view across the #SolwayFirth (the hills are 10 miles away). It is a fine spot for a fort. #TowerTuesday #RomanBritain 📷 My own

Mosaic depiction of King Edgar being rowed upon the #RiverDee at #Chester by a crew of sub-kings, in 973. If it happened, it would have been a vivid and highly visible way to emphasise heirachy. The work is on a large stone in Edgar's Field, Handbridge. #MosaicMonday #Cheshire 📷 My own

I was born in 1976 and heard endless stories from my Mum about the trials of looking after a new baby in that remarkable heat - it remained her idea of a shocking heatwave, to the end of her days. How things have changed, and will continue to change. Yikes. #ClimateChange

I just walked 8 miles alongside the #RiverWeaver and Trent & Mersey Canal, as part of my buildup to #BeatingTheBounds in a couple of weeks. Here is the western entrance to the Saltersford Tunnel on the canal, with a vintage British Waterways sign. #Canals #Cheshire

Staircase window in #Manchester Central Library, featuring the city's arms supported by those of Victoria University (with its motto from the Aeneid), & prominent #Lancashire roses. 1930-4, George Kruger-Grey, restored by Recclesia of Chester. #StainedGlassSunday #Libraries 📷 My own

Ted has lived through seven Prime Ministers since he turned 90. 😯

Looking east along the Roman road from #Chester to #Northwich (and ultimately #York), Margary 7a, just east of where the A54 diverges from it at Stamford Bridge. It is clear on the ground at this point, but less so further along. #RomanRoadsFriday #FootpathFriday #Cheshire #RomanBritain 📷 My own

I reckon I'd be much less hostile to AI if they'd named it 'oh aye'.

Good old #Manchester Central Library, earlier this afternoon. It's a key venue for @mcrhistories.bsky.social Festival next week. Check out their page for the programme, there is a lot to see and do. #Lancashire #Libraries

The west doors of #StHelens Parish Church, which was this week redesignated a Minster. #AdoorableThursday #Lancashire #ChurchCrawling 📷 My own

The magnificent west front of #BylandAbbey, with part of its colossal rose window (model for York Minster's marvel) remaining. It gets a fraction of the attention of the other #Cistercian houses, but has many fascinating features. #WindowsOnWednesday #NorthYorkshire 📷 My own

The 14-15th century tower at #HowdenMinster - or to give it its Sunday name, the Minster Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. (I visited on a Saturday, just to save on syllables.) #TowerTuesday #EastRiding 📷 My own, 2024

Sunset over Acton Bridge, #Cheshire. #RiverWeaver 📷 my own

Pendle Hill, viewed across #Clitheroe from the castle, on a day not quite as ridiculously hot as today. #PendleHill #Lancashire 📷 My own, 2019

Worked flint, one of 15+ made from a single block 24,000 years ago & found in the 19th century at Volgu, Saône-et-Loire, France. It is rather a showpiece, without practical use. British Museum St.582.a 📷 my own, at the 'Ice Age Art Now' exhib. at Cliffe Castle museum, #Keighley. #FindsFriday

'KEEP THIS DOOR CLOSED. USE OTHER DOOR.' #AdoorableThursday #StHelens #Lancashire #Signs 📷 my own, 2025

I'm chuffed that we'll be #BeatingTheBounds of #StHelens Borough again on Sunday 14 June, raising funds for St. Helens Mind. This is our 10th consecutive year, and it is always a cracking day. Please consider sponsoring us if you can, but no worries if not. 1/2 www.justgiving.com/page/sthelen...

Perhaps my favourite graffiti, ever. Snapped on a walk near Ashurst Beacon, 2017. #Lancashire #Walking 📷 my own

This is a shocking example of one of the big reasons why, right now, there is no way I’d use AI for any of my historical work. If you don’t look at the documents yourself, and if you don’t know how the AI you’re using was coded, you have no idea what it may be leaving out – or adding in.

I'm chuffed to say that James is coming to The Salty Dog in #Northwich, on Monday 9th November, as part of #TheBuildingsArchaeologist book tour. More details in due course, but definitely one for the diary. #Archaeology #Cheshire

@sthelenstownafc.bsky.social I took this on what I now know to have been Liam Diggle's debut, in December 2017. I was that cold and wet I can't say I remember his contribution, or anything else much about it (though I do remember him playing later that season). Crikey, it was a grim day. #StHelens