Very much looking forward to this live broadcast of choral evensong this Wednesday, featuring the sacred music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The choir’s non-broadcast evensong in August, timed for SC-T’s anniversary, was superb.

St Cecilia at rest in her basilica in Trastevere, Rome. Posted for her day today, photo taken May 2019 at the end of the final stage of the Via Francigena.

Would you like to go on retreat, but are worried about the cost? Our Bursary Fund has helped dozens of people this year. Find out more, or donate to the Fund, on promotingretreats.org/bursary #retreat #bursary

Speaking about her appointment, Chloe said: "It is an absolute honour to have been appointed as the next Clerk of the Parliaments. I feel privileged to have been trusted to take forward this historic and important role that dates back over 700 years." 📄 Read more www.parliament.uk/business/new...

Chloe Mawson has been appointed the 66th Clerk of the Parliaments and is the first woman to take up the post. The Clerk of the Parliaments is head of the House of Lords Administration and Chief Procedural Adviser to the House.

Super post about science pioneer and namesake of @somervillecollege.bsky.social

A very #Tudor time at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery yesterday, with the unexpected treat of a volunteer playing period music on the lute. I otherwise had the early galleries mostly to myself, so was able to linger trying to count the Tudor roses on Elizabeth I’s very fine outfit.

Only one more week left to visit this excellent exhibition @lampallib.bsky.social. Like all their exhibitions it is small, thoughtfully curated, no need to book and free. Highly recommended to anyone interested in choral music.

Open until 31 January (Wed to Sat) the Museum of Croydon has an interesting one-room exhibition about Croydon-born composer and campaigner Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Good selection of images, several of which were new to me. Well worth a 30 minute visit and a shortish walk from East Croydon station.

What does it mean to paint your way to freedom during the American Revolution? Prince Demah was an enslaved man, a portrait artist trained in London, and a patriot soldier. His story is nothing short of astonishing. 🔗 benfranklinsworld.com/423 #EarlyAmerica #Revolution250 #ArtHistory

Two weeks to go until History Day 2025! Take a look at some of the amazing organisations participating this year 🤩 Explore the different organisations and online collections on the History Day website: exhibitions.london.ac.uk/s/history-da... #HistDay25 @senatehouselib.bsky.social

Last night’s concert by @royalphilorchestra.bsky.social and chorus was indeed a Titan. The programme and performance were stellar and Mahler 1 and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms a memorable pairing. Outstanding solo by @westminsterabbey.bsky.social choir treble in the latter. A triumph all round.

Really unusual heron pose. One for @everyheron.bsky.social. I’ve been observing herons since school days, enlisted with a friend by early wildlife broadcaster Phil Drabble to count nests in Staffordshire. I’ve never seen this.

Despite the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes #otd 1685 many Protestants in Paris attended services held on and off at the Residences of the Dutch or British Ambassadors. Revd William Beauvoir led Anglican services in English & French in Paris c.1716-1720. Records and letters @lampallib.bsky.social

Next up in the 150th birthday celebrations for brilliant #Croydon born and @rcmlondon.bsky.social educated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a weekend of activities 18 and 19 October. A new interactive exhibition opens at Croydon Museum 18 October (to 31 Jan). www.culturecroydon.com/event/samuel...

Excitingly, this triptych has been the subject of a three year restoration and will be displayed at the Louvre before being returned to Les Moulins. The dates are 26 November to 4 March 2026.

This is a great idea by my favourite @lampallib.bsky.social. The roles really are exciting, and not ones often suggested in careers advice. They include archivist, collections care and printed book librarians. The Lambeth Palace Library collection is astounding in quality and variety. Recommend!

Happy, excited and very grateful to be a fellow of @ihr.bsky.social for 2025-26. Much has changed since I last had an academic home, in 1982, including greatly increased diversity and extensive access to electronic sources. Delighted to belong to such a welcoming and inclusive community of scholars.

Unique opportunity to handle objects from the V&A collections in the lunch break of today’s Sacred Ceramics; devotional images in European porcelain event. 5 super presentations and 3 more to go. Many thanks to all concerned.

Today is international world heart day. The 2025 theme is “don’t miss a beat”, encouraging individuals and organisations to raise awareness of how to promote heart health. The Castle at Colioure in S. France does its bit with its topiary heart, photographed last week. @bhfpolicy.bsky.social

Chineke! concerts are always outstanding and exciting, but today’s concert by Junior Chineke (age 12-22) was a 1st for us. It was a great performance, including Averil Coleridge Taylor’s Sussex landscape (1939) and well up to Chineke’s high standards. Thank you Chineke! For your brilliance and hope.

Otd 1953 piano manufacturers Pleyel confirmed the identity of the piano sent to composer Chopin for his winter in Menorca in 1838. His time staying in Carthusian cell no 4 was productive. George Sand was unimpressed. It snowed. He composed. We can still enjoy the results. Photographed last week.

Really looking forward to this. Likely to be of interest to @huguenotsociety.bsky.social as well as more widely.

#GustavHolst, born otd 1874. This is my favourite photo of him, taken when he and his wife Isobel were in the USA in 1923. Daughter Isobel wrote « he was the happiest » person she knew. Photo now at his birthplace museum in Cheltenham. Lots more to see there and excellent mss scores online.

Many happy returns for the great lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson, born in Lichfield otd 1709. This stained glass window is at his London house @drjohnsonshouse.bsky.social, a wonderful place to visit.

Two visits 6 years apart. Today’s treat was the recently restored Crystal Palace subway (opened 1865) in south London. The photo of Cordoba Mosque/Cathedral was taken in January 2019.

I was invited to write a post for the @ihr.bsky.social blog about #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems. 'The book tells a story about how England has been shaped over the centuries - and, between the lines, I think it tells a story about my working life here at the IHR...' blog.history.ac.uk/2025/09/a-hi...

An upcheering sight in the middle of a thundery downpour on London’s Victoria Street just now - @cathamclarke.bsky.social’s new History of England in 25 poems in Waterstones window display.

This is the way to do an online exhibition! Fabulous images and insights from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, superbly curated and including images from the Victoria & Albert illuminated manuscript collection. Sections on visual, physical and auditory devotion, with videos, essays and glossary.

Thorney Abbey door, little changed from when Jean Jembelin was minister of its French church 1685-c.1712. The church notice board of ministers confuses him with a cousin. Thanks to @lampallib.bsky.social for enabling me to write about his sermons in @huguenotsociety.bsky.social journal, just out.

@brixtonwindmill.org is a huge restoration success, with a thriving community centre thanks to decades of tireless work by local heroes. Several open days are coming up - it’s well worth a visit to see this inspirational success story, a short walk from Brixton underground station. Play park nearby.

So glad that you mentioned St Radegund/Kummernis. My interest was piqued by Richard Pynson printing her life as a devotional tract. One of the many saints to whom devotion has waned and who had different names in different languages. This image from Osnabruck c. 1520. Photographed in Berlin.

A challenge at today’s @womenshistnet.bsky.social conference has been choosing between the parallel panels. No choice for me after lunch as a presenter on women and performing arts, enjoying talks from @jesmyth.co.uk, Kirsty Roberts and Christina Guillaumier. So glad to talk about Vally Lasker.

Some excellent training for research historians on offer here, all free to register and all but one session online.

Need a book? Bookseller Crow excellent indie bookshop proprietor Jonathan is gravely ill and they need all the business they can get. booksellercrow.co.uk They’re on bookshop.org too.

Parking near Parliament square in London is always a problem. Unusual vehicle there just now.

Postal deliveries to South London have been an infrequent excitement over the past few years, but this delivery for @womenshistnet.bsky.social was particularly exciting. Really looking forward to getting stuck in.

Volunteering @lampallib.bsky.social is always a joy as well as a great privilege, but late this afternoon three of us cataloguers were treated to this view of Archbishop Laud’s tortoise, which survived him by many years. Inspiring to study this stellar archive so close to where the events took place

The history behind the Copley Medal is curious. It followed a bequest by Sir Godfrey Copley MP, and was his 4th largest bequest, after legacies to his wife & daughter, and to a young girl, who became Sir Hans Sloane’s ward. I’m working on telling her story from many letters @lampallib.bsky.social.

Super post about an important benefactor of the then newly founded French Hospital as well as the church in Threadneedle Street. Of interest to @huguenotsociety.bsky.social. More on this period of Huguenot history in London in the forthcoming Huguenot Society Journal.

Reposting this celebration of @judithpollmann.bsky.social’s research into how people coped with radical social change in the period 1500-1850. Her interview on the website of @somervillecollege.bsky.social (where she taught for 10 years) sets out some of the ideas which the Spinoza Prize may enable.

The BBC written archives were already the most restricted of the many I’ve researched in over the decades. But without them my research on the later career of #GustavHolst would have been seriously incomplete. Holst embraced the BBC in its earliest years, and vice versa. The BBC holds public records

Inspiring break from writing about Samuel Johnson’s words of wisdom on confidence and self-confidence today. Super visit to the London house where he lived, worked on his great dictionary and entertained, with an excellent talk on his letters by @lizison.bsky.social

A huge thank you to @choirofkcl.bsky.social and their Director @josephfort.bsky.social for a wonderful evensong featuring Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s sacred music followed by a recital of his part songs just now. Wonderful to celebrate his music so close to his 150th birthday. Both were sublime.

Today marks the 150th anniversary of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) 🎼 From published scores, autograph manuscripts, and sound recordings, read our new blog post with an overview of our Coleridge-Taylor collections: bit.ly/BLBlogColeridgeTaylor

This is an exciting post as the Parliamentary Archives are being located from within Parliament itself in the Victoria Tower to @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy at Kew. Deadline 31 August.

An elephant for today’s world elephant day from the series of frescoes in the cloisters of the Duomo at Bressanone (Brixen) in north Italy. A real elephant visited the town in 1551, too late for this artist. The Sud Tirol is one of my favourite places to see frescoes, with several stunning cycles.

Vacancy with the Royal Historical Society: Membership and Office Administrator bit.ly/46TgZNA We look to appoint a Membership and Office Administrator (0.8 FTE) to join our professional Office to help us support history and historians. £31,904 pro rata. Closing date Monday 8 September #Skystorians

This is a lovely tribute to a wonderful historian of @westminsterabbey.bsky.social and the most inspiring and encouraging tutor. @royalhistsoc.org

Hurray! For the past couple of decades I have kept a private list of exhibitions I felt I really have to see, at first in a slip of paper in my wallet, work and childcare duties permitting in case of a few free hours, latterly in a list on my phone. Looking forward to this greatly on my 2026 list.