Love the sense of movement in this image.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h... listened to this while making soup this morning. Worth a go.

A reminder that I do freelance work: transcription, archival visits and more. My rates are here (subject to surcharges or discounts): joanneedge.co.uk/freelance-wo...

New article out by Stephen Hewer et al on decolonising medieval Irish history www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #history #medievalsky #ireland

This sounds cool!

open.spotify.com/track/0uP15Q... this song is 23 (twenty-three) years old. Still slaps.

To appease bosses UK govt plan to increase youth minimum wage may be delayed. Young workers pay full cost of essentials. Their output is not sold at a discount but are denied full minimum wage. Govt can help. Adopt Scottish policies. Abolish uni fees, provide free bus travel for young people.

In a heartbreaking day for those of us who appreciate nominative determinism, this C17 account of works at Chester Castle lists a carpenter named Richard Plumm, a plasterer called Thomas Cooper, and a stonemason named William Woods.

Can historians benefit from creative works for historical research? In this @hsnatsci.bsky.social short piece, I share how I worked w/ different types of making to research and write my recent book on 17th-c. florilegia. Thank you @dominikhhh.bsky.social & @mbaldwin.bsky.social for the invitation!

"Nobody dies to defend multiculturalism." Tell that to the people of Sarajevo and Tuzla.

Hey UK archaeology. Let's all just cash in our years of knowledge, understanding, professionalism, trust, integrity, stakeholder partnerships, land owner networks, Professorial privilege, university accreditation. Buy a metal detector and make some (more) money. 🏺

🚨 We have heard that the County Archaeologist for Hampshire is being made redundant, with no plans to replace him. 🚨 If you live in Hampshire please write to your MP and Councillors. If you live elsewhere treasure and support your County Archaeologists, and stand by to protect them. 🏺

Come join our Ecologies of Governance team: we have a 30 month fieldwork based PDRA advertised @newcastleuni.bsky.social as a part of our AHRC funded project. Will work at Rendelsham, Dunadd, Navan Fort, Llangorse, Milfield royal palace sites for project. Pls RT: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQM271/f...

Conclusion: Ratcliffe is both racist and wrong, and the indicators of relative UK decline he chooses reflect the negative impact of Brexit, which he supported, rather than migration. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

Extremely cold and windy visit to this fantastic castle, mercifully no rain. A fascinating complex of buildings, rather unusual survivals (blacksmith’s, cemetery, enormous cistern). A real palace in C16-C17 (except for Covenanters). Solid and interesting interp too.

I read this and came away thinking…is that it? Are these pearls of insight all the Monacan has to offer? Less coherent than the slurring bloke propped on the bar at a pub.

This is pretty menacing. Sarah Pochin wrote to Bangor's university student run debating society requesting that she attend to "answer questions from students." When they said "no" Reform rolled all it's tanks onto the lawns and said they'll cut funding to the entire university if they win.

I've had a number of exciting abstracts for the Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present conference but I've decided to EXTEND the deadline to 22 Feb, as I'm away the prior week so won't be reviewing apps then! www.northampton.ac.uk/research-blo... Please share. Ask Qs below! 🗃️

'Brockwell Kiss’, Brockwell Lido Swimmers, Brixton Beach (2005) by Ed Gray edgrayart.com

It’s live! Many thanks to Dr Duncan Wright of @newcastleuni.bsky.social for taking part in this pod. What came before castles? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

It’s live! Many thanks to Dr Duncan Wright of @newcastleuni.bsky.social for taking part in this pod. What came before castles? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Spotted a bit of ?C18 epigraphy on my morning walk. No church/graveyard nearby AFAIK. Thoughts, anyone?

Well, that's a wrap on an absolutely fabulous open day at Whitekirk St Mary's Church, in East Lothian. This was the second day of heritage activities we organised with our colleagues at @socantscot.bsky.social, as part of our collaborative @churchheritage.bsky.social (ReACH) project. (🧵 1/3)

Two nice castles in upper Clydesdale: Abington, a motte built into an Iron Age earthworks, by the service station; and Bower of Wandel, a late med tower in a hilly loop of the river.

Action shot!

Gearing up for a members’ tour of this great not-so-little castle this rather chilly Sat morning on the West March. There’ll be a side quest of ‘spot the Roman masonry’, too.

Every instance of "AI democratizes the arts, you're classist and ableist and a gatekeeper for trying to stop it" is a slap in the face to the literally centuries of poor, disabled people making art on the margins and a crass lie in service of a machine that strips down and regurgitates dreams

For the FES, I wrote a short brief about how mainstream party strategies have fueled far-right success. They move toward more anti-immigration positions to win voters back. This does not work, but shifts public opinion to the right. Parties then react to shifts in public opinion. A vicious cycle.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

One of those days where I reward myself w a cup of tea every hour or so. Onwards!

The thing that most infuriates me is that students in England with loans pay a higher marginal tax rate than CEOs.

In modern Poland, the Teutonic Knights built strongholds to facilitate Christianisation. Not just fortresses, they played a key role in colonisation, enforcing the implementation of a new social system to subjugate the pagan population 2/2 🔗 from 2019 (£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

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Occurs to me now that the outer surface of the door has graffiti (arrowheads) v similar to another door from this space, on display. That door is v likely 15th c in date. This door has iron strips overlying the graffiti, and the strips align w the hasps and jamb-set loops. Good phasing here.

A strapping iron-strapped door from Carlisle Castle’s keep for #ADoorAbleThursday. 2-skin post-med interloper, from what has been called a ‘Prison’ (probs not in medieval era). Inner face has poss stock lock (replaced), outer face had 4 loops fitted w hasps secured to jamb-set loops & locks. Oh my!

2026 Ceræ Call For Papers We are pleased to announce that the theme for Volume 13 of Ceræ, as well as for our 3rd annual online Conference, is Fame and Fortune. We invite submissions to both the conference and the journal on this theme. Fame and fortune are slippery things. They can be welcome or…

Blown away by the ceiling at Carlisle Cathedral. A starry firmament.

Appel à contribution – Conquête et créativité : les dynamiques de l’innovation en contexte de conquête dans les mondes normands médiévaux (Xe-XIIIe s.) rmblf.be/2026/01/28/a...

Out today: THE CROWN'S SILENCE I'm delighted to share that my new book is officially out! It traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery over hundreds of years. Please buy a copy, tell your library, & spread the word. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

CfP: 26th Annual Cambridge Heritage Symposium. Theme: The Role of Heritage in Shaping Ontological Security in the Contemporary World. Submissions Deadline: 15 February 2026. Full details: www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/files/media/...

There really is. If anyone cares to write an academic article for our Journal or a short less-formal piece for our Magazine on the topic of building sites, do message us.

This piece is great. For all I’m pleased that castle studies has broadened its field of operation to beyond art history and architectural history, there is something to be said for dwelling a lot more on the building site.

"[Barn] raisings are a model for examining the entirety of building as a relational practice, and the ways architectural work is embedded in, dependent on, and facilitated by structures of the economy, family, labor, and risk."

Angelic C15 portal for #ADoorAbleThursday from The Courtauld Gallery. An apparently frame-built door w ledges & studs as ornamentation. A pull-ring is visible on the middle ledge. While the door is square-headed, the masonry doorway has a more ornate shouldered arch. The door swings away from us.

This is official Reform Party policy. 👇🏻