Cardiff University proposes to repurpose the 2nd floor of the Arts and Social Studies Library, removing 7km of books and vital study space to make way for teaching rooms. Please help us save this crucial campus resource! Add your name here: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

The word is out... tomorrow's #CoffeeWithACodex (12pm Noon EST, on Zoom and open to all) is a 15th century folding medical and astrological almanac, in Middle English. Described and transcribed in the 19th century, it was thought to be lost. But we have it now, and we'll share it with you tomorrow.

Gawain looks out over the beautiful town of Settle from Castleberg rock. "The railway leads off to the right towards Carlisle (yes, that Settle)." thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/05/13/f...

There are only a few weeks left to apply for the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (supported by DSIT, @leverhulme.ac.uk and @wellcometrust.bsky.social). Grants are tenable for between one and 24 months. Apply now: https://bit.ly/4t0MDRl

Vikings Traded Falcons with Medieval Baghdad, Study Finds www.medievalists.net/2026/05/viki... great research by @medivalist.bsky.social and @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social #medieval #Vikings #Abbasids

As a measure of how bitterly the Senedd election has been fought, this household received 257g of election communications during the campaign. Result in this constituency: Reform & Plaid Cymru 2 seats each, Labour & Welsh Tories 1 each. Overall winner: the Council's recycling targets!

Great stuff:

Last Man Standing: Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powys www.medievalists.net/2025/05/gruf... #history

In another of his visual journeys to escape from the stresses of everyday, Gawain takes us to admire the magnificent view from Ludlow Castle (which is "not really broken enough to count as Picturesque"): thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/05/06/f...

Hoorah! The railway line to (and from) Portishead has taken another step forward:

I am appaled that a government that calls itself labour is watching without intervening in the dismantling of Humanities HE education. As a way to cheer myself up, let me introduce you to my favourite building at St Fagan's Museum of Wales. 1/ museum.wales/collections/...

Challenges in the Publishing Industry and what you need to know - The Early Career Researcher Podcast youtu.be/wwjknqb0foI?... #academia

“And I bind and conjure thee spirit that thou be truthful in all thy utterances, &c.”

Beavers returning to Leicestershire! Hurrah for beavers! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The battle for Wales in next week's elections to the Senedd is hotting up, as this household was inundated this morning by election communications. We even got two from the Open Party!

👀 Interesting opportunity for archaeologists/environmental scientists: "This role is ideal for someone wishing to pursue a career in environmental archaeology, and will include basic training in: - Archaeobotany - Archaeomalacology - Geoarchaeology - Zooarchaeology - Artefact recognition"

For those of us who grew up with nine planets, the answer is definitely 'yes': www.forbes.com/sites/jamiec...

Suffragette march, London, 1911, photo by Scottish photographer Christina Broom (1862-1939), UK's first female press photographer, who documented the women's suffrage movement.

Well organised ark The John Rylands Library, Latin MS 8; Beatus super Apocalypsim (The 'Rylands Beatus'); end of 12th or start of 13th century; Spain; f.15r @thejohnrylands.bsky.social

I gather that this year the trendy thing is to have one's photo taken with wisteria. So here is my Grams Bear in our wisteria.

New polling has revealed that the public does not support Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, and does not wish it to be forced through without the Lords’ consent.😲 Read the story here: https://righttolife.org.uk/dpde

'Protecting what matters': a new government policy paper identifies history as central to social cohesion. At the same time, history teaching and research, in our schools and universities, is at risk as never before. To ensure cohesion, we must protect what matters: bit.ly/3QyZQCO #skystorians

We are hiring! 📢 An Assistant Librarian (permanent) position is now available. This role focuses on printed material from UCD Special Collections but will also encompass print from across our repositories. universityvacancies.com/university-c... for full details & apply by 7th May. #LISjobsIE

On protecting what matters. @ihr.bsky.social @royalhistsoc.org @histassoc.bsky.social History UK www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Today Gawain takes us high up into the hills overlooking the Fathew Valley on the western side of mid-Wales, for another amazing view: thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/04/22/f...

Not for the first time, I've had a scam WhatsApp from someone who was able to obtain my phone number, the name of a hotel I'm staying in, and the date I'm staying there from my account at @bookingcom.bsky.social. in fact, this is starting to happen with pretty much every trip I book through them

Mudie's Select Circulating Library lay at the heart of the Victorian publishing system. Karen Wade's site, now at a new URL, makes it possible to explore the library's catalogues as never before, with an index of 22,000 novels by 6000 authors. curatr.ucd.ie/mudies/ #victorian #bookhistory

Continuing the theme, male orange tip on honesty, female orange tip on garlic mustard

‘Much depended on men, and it is notable that these artists had supportive fathers and disastrous husbands who spent their money, failed to nurture their careers and in the end became burdensome.’ Rosemary Hill on the work of two eighteenth-century female painters. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

A beautiful day for a walk in the Usk Valley, here viewed from the road below Coed y Bwnydd, near Bettws Newydd.

Born #OTD 1920 in Notting Hill, Rosalind Franklin’s work creating Photograph 51 was fundamental to the understanding of the DNA double helix. But her science was not properly acknowledged.Hear her story in our Women and Science podcast: tinyurl.com/mms5su69 #history #science

Francis Barber was born a slave in Jamaica. He came to England where he worked as a housekeeper for Dr Samuel Johnson. Hear about one of the first properly documented lives of a black man in Britain in our Dr Johnson Podcast: tinyurl.com/r6x2d9m7 #history

#WorldHeritageDay I have had the joy and privilege of working and excavating at the Heart of #Neolithic #Orkney #WHS since 2016. That's it... just me bragging, really 😉 📸 mine #Archaeology #Heritage

Hm, just had a strange experience: Saw an English article online that basically recounts the content of a French article I published years ago... My text is mentioned under "further reading"... Wonder what other medievalists think about that?!

Gawain takes us to another magnificent view, one I have never seen before 😶‍🌫️ ! thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/04/15/f...

Upcoming #History event: Friday, 22 May, at 7.30 p.m. Dr Tom Pickles will deliver the 2026 Jarrow Lecture: 'Bede, Providence, and Early Medieval Kingship' 📍 St Paul's Church, Church Bank, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear, NE32 3DZ Admission is free, and all are welcome.

This is such a beautiful place -- and the Calstock viaduct is stunning: thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/04/08/f...

Some good news - a new issue of Early Medieval Europe has dropped! And it's a bumper issue, with six articles, not the usual five. Here's a quick thread on the delights awaiting you: 1/9

This year's family Easter Saturday walk was from Maesteg railway station to Port Talbot ditto. The weather was grey, chilly and bracing, but the countryside was spectacular; and we wound up at an impressive mural.

We have a PhD studentship available in History or Archaeology at CCCU www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/f... - deadline 22 May. #skystorians 1/

Gawain takes us to a place where the views are always glorious! (well, sometimes ... often?) thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/f...

Gawain considers which animals should be pictured on banknotes issued by the Bank of England, "instead of celebrating dead politicians who weren’t very good for most of their careers. Much as I like having Jane Austen on banknotes": thegawain.wordpress.com/2026/03/18/n...

£37,694 - £46,049 a year (pro-rata for part-time working). Deadline 10 April.

This #MapMonday we're heading across the Irish Sea! ☘️ Our newly added OS Six-Inch maps of Ireland were printed around 1860. The 1,940 sheets update the original 1830s surveys, adding railways, new field boundaries, and more detailed place names. 🔗: maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-ire...

We have an incredible new PhD placement opportunity to help support the development and curation of our major exhibition on the Norman Conquest, opening in October 2027. Learn more and apply through the link below! www.bl.uk/services/res...

VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England. I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

We are hiring .... Because John Nightingale is retiring... for a Tutorial Fellowship in European History 400-1000... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQP650/t...

Thurs 26 March, Prof. Fiona Edmonds will deliver the 2026 John Bannerman Memorial Lecture (in-person and online), on a topic close to Bannerman's own work: 'Dál Riata and Northumbria, c. 700‒1000: Connections and comparisons'. Tuilleadh fiosrachaidh | More info 👇 hca.ed.ac.uk/john-bannerm...