For all the others learning Welsh out there! Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

The ‘Pilgrim Hare’ from St. Mary’s Church at Beverley in East Yorkshire. Dating to the mid-14th century, the hare is dressed as a pilgrim, hence the title. It is thought that the carving was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit. 📸 My own. #StoneworkSunday #Beverley

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! Happy St David's Day! We're tearing ourselves away from our Welsh cakes to remind you that, although we have not (to date - never say never), published anything on Wales/Cymru, back in 1903, we had planned to do so. And still might. #HanesCymru #WelshHistory #Skystorians

Forgive this historian and editor a small ambition, but I would love to be able to expand the kind of high quality local history research @vch-home.bsky.social does a bit further west. So, if you have a suitable place-based history in mind, drop me a line. 🗃️

VACANCY - we are looking for a new early modern British colleague to join us at Warwick! Thematic focus open, with interests in religious change and/or social relations particularly welcome. Full details at warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Gawain shares another railway station to station cross-country walk, this time past a castle and a signpost to the Land of Lost Content: thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/t...

“ citizenship to the land of knowledge” #Libraries

If you are interested in medieval health, medicine and healing, broadly understood, then consider joining @leedsims.bsky.social #TheLongMiddleAges later today. The seminars are free and hybrid and you can still register to attend! #medievalsky

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

There is a public perception that copyright libraries have copies of everything published in the UK. That's never been the case. But things are rapidly getting desperate. These are among the publishers who now no longer routinely deposit print copies of their books.

NEW book published 2 weeks ago of which @br00kes.bsky.social is one of the editors.

NEW: This - on the signalling system that crossed Anatolia from Loulon to Constantinople -by @chrysoboullon.bsky.social is v cool. A 'trip wire' to alert Constantinople to the start of the Abbasid campaigning season. Tantalising hints that it 'employs knowledge of the longitudinal circumference... 👇

Our next Exploring the Past public lecture is taking place soon. William Blathwayt: Dyrham Park, its Collections and Early English Empire. 18/03/26 19:00 online Please book your place here: events.cardiff.ac.uk/view/william... @webstermedieval.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk

As it wasn't raining, we went a little further afield for this afternoon's walk. Here is the start of the Offa's Dyke footpath (or the end, depending on your point of view); and, turning around, the lovely First Severn Road Crossing, a.k.a. The Old Severn Bridge.

Cluster of pale sunbeams. Primroses #Dartmoor #Devon #WildflowerHour

... Apparently I should photograph the weighing machine at our local railway station next time I'm there. This blog post informs me that the WSG 'Classic' design weighing machines are now rare.

WORK WITH US: ScARF Research Officers and ScARF Research Manager We are looking to hire three new members of staff to help deliver the final two regional research frameworks as part of @scarf-scot.bsky.social. Find out more and apply by 11:59pm on 8 March 2026: www.socantscot.org/news/#appoin...

The full programme for the SSMLL Annual Conference 2026, Medieval Wales, is now available! Join us 25-26 April at @cardiffuni.bsky.social and online for two days of research exploring the languages and literature of medieval Wales.

The closing date for applications to these research fellowships is Tuesday 31 March 2026:

Join us next Tuesday, at the IHR, London or on Zoom for 'The Empire's treasure house: diplomatic gifts, bureaucratic indifference and the erasure of provenance in colonial India'. Free and open to the public. #Skystorians

Make Ready! 🏰 On 3 March, Isobel Barnard from @kingshistory.bsky.social will present: ‘The Castle in 14th Century Scotland: A Sociological Study of Masculine Identity'. 🗓️ 03 March ⏰ 17:30 GMT 🏛️ IN PERSON @ihr.bsky.social & 💻 ONLINE Sign up now: bit.ly/londonmedieval

An improved Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer with new features is available online. Please note: the old URL is no longer functional. Explore the new viewer: experience.arcgis.com/experience/b...

Great talk coming up @placenamesni.bsky.social with @drfranceskane.bsky.social

Forthcoming conference in Dublin 'Sacred Networks: New Perspectives on Hagiography and Saints’ Cults' great line up including @natashaamberjo.bsky.social #medievalsky #nuntastic www.eventbrite.com/e/sacred-net...

We invite 20-minute papers for our 2026 Summer Conference 'The Church and Race' #CfP #history Keynote speakers: ▪️Prof Miri Rubin, EHS President @qmul.bsky.social ▪️Prof Herman Bennett, @cuny.edu ▪️The Right Reverend Rowan Williams Deadline: 15 April ecclesiasticalhistorysociety.com/26summer/

We're hiring at Birkbeck! Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics, full-time and open-ended. Closing date March 18th. Details here: cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...

Gawain takes another station-to-station walk, this time across beautiful Scottish countryside, including a large statue which he decides shouldn't be pulled down: thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/02/18/t...

Our next Exploring the Past lecture takes place tomorrow. Book your place now! It is free and online. Basque Oak and Portuguese Wine: A Medieval Merchant Ship Reveals Her Secrets events.cardiff.ac.uk/view/basque-... @webstermedieval.bsky.social @sharewyatt.bsky.social

In memory of warmer, sunnier days, Gawain takes us on another gorgeous walk from one railway station to another -- this time across Cumbria with the Pennines and the Lakeland Fells on the horizon: thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/02/11/t...

Available Oslo PhD positions – heritage conservation, archaeological & paleoenvironmental geochemistry, & on the POLYCHROME project (concerning historical sources on changing attitudes to medieval objects after the Reformations in the Scandinavian countries) #jobfairy www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english...

#CFP #CallForPapers Es werden Beiträge für den wissenschaftlichen Blog "Patria Hierosolymitana. Conceptions of Heimat in the ecclesiastical institutions of the Middle Ages" gesucht (patria.hypotheses.org). #sfbheimat #sfb1671 @uniheidelberg.bsky.social

As an example of how difficult it can be to disprove an entirely fictitious 'fact' which gets into print, I offer the completely mythical Mountains of Kong, "a legendary mountain range charted on maps of Africa from 1798 through to at least the late 1880s": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountai...

Job Opportunity! Assistant Professor in World History, 1700-1850 (Temporary Cover) University of Cambridge - Faculty of History www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQJ490/a...

I had no idea that there are so many designs of paper aeroplane: www.foldnfly.com/index.html#/...

This is wonderful:

Gawain returns to England for his next railway walk -- but will readers be able to get past the 'rather good bookshop' in paragraph 3? thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/02/04/t...

#skystorians hivemind, can anyone recommend a good popular history or 2, readable but academically sound, on the history of the US from the revolution to just pre WW2? Feel I need to do some homework beyond my normal comfort zone of the Middle Ages.

Our February Exploring the Past public lecture is taking place soon. This fascinating and free talk will be online. Title: Basque Oak and Portuguese Wine: A Medieval Merchant Ship Reveals Her Secrets Date: 11.02.26 Time: 19:00 Please book your place here: events.cardiff.ac.uk/view/basque-...

A PhD opportunity at CCCU in History/Archaeology/Heritage. Preference is for a modernist, but proposals in other areas will be considered. Dr @davehitchcock.bsky.social is the point of contact. www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/f... #skystorians #medievalsky #archaeology

Congratulations @janmachielsen.bsky.social on the publication of The Cambridge Companion to Counter Reformation Sanctity! Great to see this come out! #earlymodern #history #skystorians

Re-upping this splendid Arts & Humanities PhD opportunity, because we really need some good news!

It's interesting that when this would-be rebel leader arrived in Kent in 1832 he claimed (among other things) to be 'a returned “Knight of Malta”': Mad Tom’s Rising by Ian Breckon: review www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fi...

Our #CfP for our Summer Conference 2026 @royalholloway.bsky.social is now open! More details: ecclesiasticalhistorysociety.com/26summer/

A day late for Freya Stark's birthday, here's a couple of images from her 1934 journey in Yemen, of which she writes: "When the Roman roads cut the forests & swamps of England, the Arabian trader built his many-storied mansion, crowned its parapet with ibex horns & saw them shine in the morning sun"

🐍 #NationalSerpentDay is dedicated to snake appreciation, understanding their role in ecosystems, and helping to overcome fear or misconceptions about them, such as this one... This #myth was likely based on #oarfish sightings. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2014/10/the-... #ILoveBHL 📖 🧪

No water, no heating, no power, -15 degree weather outside. It is not on the front pages of your newspapers, but Ukraine is living through a humanitarian disaster right now because of Russian bombardment and the world has barely noticed.

I borrowed a novel (published 1979) from the local library Stack and found this printed notice stuck inside the front cover. It offers a sad insight into the social deprivation in the local area at the time the book entered the lending library stock:

What a job! 😮 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...