Research Fellowship: The Collected Works of Mary Wollstonecraft University of York - Department of English and Related Literature #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL782/r...

Thinking the STP guy and the Tinned Fish bloke should form a voice overs agency together. Such sonorous voices.

Portakabin has a visitor centre! Sadly, it turns out to be for sales enquiries, not an exhibition centre showcasing the history of metallic sheds. I would so be up for visiting a Portakabin exhibition.

Always embarrassing when there's a baptism during Mass so the extended family sit at the front suited and booted, while the rest of us regular parishioners turn up in our gardening clothes or athleisure...

Found a teatowel

My love for Elizabeth Gaskell's novel 'Mary Barton' only increased when I discovered that the London County Council had banned it from schools because of its depiction of trade unionism and riots. (Liverpool Daily Post, #OTD 10 May 1907)

Tindersticks haven't had much of a legacy in today's music it seems. Completely forgot about them. Beautiful.

This is awful news.

A London park is hard to beat this time of year.

DON'T JUST TELL EVERYONE YOU'RE IN CROYDON KATRINA

Nope.

Ennio Morricone is, of course, Italian for ’Eric Morecambe’.

Before and Hereafter!

The General Strike in Croydon This is an amended version of a talk by Daniel Frost, which was given to a Unite the Union GPM&IT Sector event celebrating the centenary of the General Strike, held at Ruskin House in Croydon on Saturday 2nd May. On 4th May 1926, workers in many key industries –…

In light of closures of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences courses and departments across the UK in the past 2 years, what does that commitment mean? The University of Hertfordshire's announced closures of Humanities offer a case study for hard-edged reflection. 2/9 @victoria-collins.bsky.social

We know for SHAPE subjects what's lost to UK higher education by current HE policy. (No one seems to be minding the STEM shop by the way). Cold spots for SHAPE subjects now abound. The data are clear: this disproportionately affects disadvantaged students. 8/9 @helenhayes.bsky.social

Think studying English has no impact? Have a look at Dr Maunder's research into 20th-century theatre, recovering forgotten plays & authors. It 'reached audiences amounting to 2,600 people across 68 performances and c.9,500 via online streaming'. That's just the tip of the numerical iceberg. 7/9

Then there are the 3 Hertfordshire historians, working with 3 museum partners, two artists, volunteers, and the public. whose @leverhulme.ac.uk funded research led to an exhibition that attracted over 45,000 visitors. Quite literally magic. 6/9 @hannahdevlin.bsky.social

What have Hertfordshire historians done for industry? Well, Prof. Morris's collaborations with international partners from the coffee industry have facilitated capacity building through staff development & ' achieved a documented media reach in excess of 13 million'. 5/9 @david-batty.bsky.social

So much is so very wrong with UK Humanities at this time, but here's a ray of haunting illumination. If you missed Professor Sasha Handley's Royal Historical Society lecture at the University of Warwick, you can now catch yourself (& your students, this or next year) up with the video. #Skystorians

Going to vote. Who knows what the result of the Croydon mayoral will be. As usual my polling station us the wonderfully named Aerodrome primary school.

And now for the open access link! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pleased to see an article by Bob Shoemaker and myself now out in Social History: The geography of Old Bailey crime prosecutions, 1720–1820 www-tandfonline-com.sussex.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.... The underlying work was supported by @londontopsoc.bsky.social

Great QMCBS reading group today of the wonderfully stimulating Contested Commons by @katrinanavickas.bsky.social. Send a DM if you're interested in coming future discussions at Mile End

It's crazy that "the authorities" don't seem to realise that 12.5k followers and daily engagement is the best publicity they could ever get for a historic site in the UK. Considering the amount of cash Sussex Archaeological Society needs, this is a poor decision... /1

With @romanpalace.bsky.social apparently being told to knock it off, it quietly seems @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social had also gone dark. If this is a wider trend in the museum space it's to be regretted. Museums don't just exist to hold stuff. They tell stories about the past - and ourselves now.

😭Sad news😭 The authorities have finally caught up with us so this will be our last post on BlueSky. It's been a blast and we love you all. Especially our BFF @merchantshallyork.org 🥰🥰 Keep up with the posting, everyone. Together you can conquer the scourge of work-based productivity...

I've been reading @katrinanavickas.bsky.social Contested Commons recently (including about how the National Trust is itself an encloser of land), and what do I find up the Long Mynd?

The second part of my mega essay/work in progress is now published, though it's ongoing and not finished. historyofpublicspace.uk/draft-essay-...

Post your warning sign.

Venn diagram here with migraineurs. I am super sensitive to fluorescent lights, artificial smells, layers of noise in a room, and certain textures. Migraine = brain shutdown reaction to multiple sensitivities

The second part of my mega essay/work in progress is now published, though it's ongoing and not finished. historyofpublicspace.uk/draft-essay-...

‘Hawthorn’ Trees, 1963. Artist: SR Badmin May Day Bank Holiday Monday

New fav insta account. I do this all the time. www.instagram.com/01_for_londo...

The lesson here, if any local authorities are capable of learning it, is that attempting to defuse controversy over traffic management by making big concessions to local motor lobbyists DOES NOT WORK: instead it just empowers & emboldens them to dig in & fight you for even more regressive outcomes

Good thread up and down. Again, my mantra that everything in British politics boils down to #bins and #parking

In every neighborhood, even the densest urban communities where space is at the highest premium & a most households do not own cars, there will be a hard core of car brained residents who will implacably, hysterically oppose each & every tiny thing that affects their freedom to drive & park anywhere

Extremely bleak to me that hymnary.org, an online database of Christian hymns in the English language, now features a "Pair with other hymns" button which offers "AI Hymn Recommendation." Give me strength.

I would like a version of #GardenersWorld without any dialogue. Just Monty planting etc with birdsong in the background. For an hour.

“Belfastmen: An Intimate History of Life before Gay Liberation” @cornellupress.bsky.social featured in the Guardian! 🥹 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

3/ A Live Architecture Exhibition down the Thames at Poplar centred on the new, purpose-built Lansbury Estate - a 'neighbourhood unit' showcasing the best of modern planning.

Bird check in on a hot May Sunday afternoon

1/ 🧵 The Festival of Britain opened this day in 1951 - according to its official guide a 'united act of national reassessment, and [a] corporate reaffirmation of faith in the nation’s future’.

Perhaps this was the last moment when cultures met on the same terms? youtu.be/uMPEUcVyJsc?...

Went to the actual Bleak House yesterday. It was delightful.

#Chartism The Second Petition for the People’s Charter, with 3,317,702 signatures, was taken to Parliament in procession #OnThisDay 2 May 1842 www.chartistancestors.co.uk/presenting-t...

Dr Vic Clarke @vjctorianist.bsky.social recently delivered a talk on Joshua Hobson, his radical publishing, and work on the Northern Star newspaper for the annual Luddite Memorial Lecture in Huddersfield. Find out more about the event and their future plans here: sslh.org.uk/2026/05/01/j...

I love the sound of churchbells on records, and this one is my favourite.