Poppyhead in chancel of Mulbarton, St Mary, Norfolk, presumably dating from Richard Phipson's restoration of the church in the 1870s #norfolk #churches #woodcarving #poppyhead #history #heritage #foliate #victorian #1870s #19thcentury #benchend #design #carving

I'm really looking forward to speaking at the Literary Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon (one of my favourite places in the world) on Saturday 9 May. I'm also excited to be the interviewer for two other events: in conversation with Tom Service, and with writers Stephen Rutt & Rose George. Book now!

Out monument hunting today First stop St Mary’s, Watford to see these two whoppers by Nicholas Stone (made 1619 & 1628/9 respectively)

This is a CAT checkpoint. Show me your most recent cat image on your phone NB check ALT text

For the latest of our "Love Your Local Church" blogs, retired tour guide and one of our former trustees, Annette Brydone paid a visit to a mid-Victorian Gothic gem of a church in Dalkeith, St David's Catholic Church. Read it on our website here 👇 www.scotlandschurchestrust.org.uk/blog/love-yo...

A pattern among women's names gave me a reason to dig very deep into linguistic prehistory, lost grammar and language's arbitrariness. These rank among my favourite interests, along with 1990s pop music. Put them all together, and I can offer you this long read: dannybate.com/2026/02/19/m...

👀 Coffee time ☕️ ☕️☕️☕️🌺 - Penzance, Cornwall Camellia - 📷 18.02.2026 #elevensestime

How lovely to hear this historic instrument play again 🥰🎵 Dating from 1886, the Forster & Andrews two manual pipe organ was relocated from, the now closed, Partick Methodist Church and rebuilt in its new Irish home by Neiland & Creane Organ Builders Listen here: facebook.com/reel/1468593777938775/

I'm delighted to announce that the paperback of Upon A White Horse: Journeys In Ancient Britain and Ireland will be published on April 23 by @headlinebooks.bsky.social. Just in time, I hope, for better weather that will allow people to visit some of the beautiful old places I write about.

#FontsOnFriday The stone carving on the Norman font, leafy and gracefully unfurling, seemed to be in tune with the first flowers of Spring blooming in the churchyard outside the Church of the Holy Cross, Ashton Keynes. @chartresfi.bsky.social @stroudstory.bsky.social

Clovelly Bay Inn, Turnchapel, Plymouth, Devon Pub wall signs - • an enlarged copy of medallion issued by John Smeaton to workers on his Eddystone lighthouse - 1757. This was to stop them being snatched by “press-gangs” & being forced to join the navy. • South West Coast path #FingerpostFriday

Starmer’s real leadership crisis. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Fatuous media coverage aside, Starmer’s challenge is to make good on his claim that Britain isn’t the country of the Brexit years in the face of rising ethno-nationalism: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/star...

#History History of Spices: commerce, colonialism and culinary innovation You're Dead to Me Sat 10:00 BBC Radio 4 @gregjenner.bsky.social is joined by historian @davidveevers.bsky.social and Paul Sinha to learn all about the global history of spices and the spice trade www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Church of St Werburgh, Wembury #Devon #Victorian font, possibly dating to 1885. The church was restored in that year by the Plymouth architects Hine & Odgers. They designed the reredos, pulpit & font, which were carved by Harry Hems of Exeter. #FontsOnFriday

#FindsFriday Yesterday I visited the beautiful church of Belchamp Walter, #Essex. For me, the medieval paintings are among the most beautiful I have ever seen: the Virgin feeding her child and a few archers in front of St. Edmund.

The unusual 14th Century font at Ovington, Norfolk for #FontsOnFriday. The four protrusions are the symbols of the evangelists, a winged man for Matthew, a winged lion for Mark, a winged bull for Luke and an eagle for John. All beheaded, presumably in the mid 16th Century.

Taught class in Smith College special collections today and spied this pilgrim badge impression in a 13C Bible. Also curious to hear what people think--this is catalogued as French but it looks like an Italian vulgate to me. Digitized MS here: search.digital-scriptorium.org/catalog/DS307

S is for Sinner ...

The Young Apprentice, Newlyn Copperworks - 1908 Stanhope Alexander Forbes John Drew MacKenzie, instigator of the Newlyn Industrial Class, instructing Johnny Payne Cotton (who produced Newlyn Copper until the 1950s). @penleehousegallery.bsky.social Penzance, Cornwall #Art #NewlynSchool

In case you missed it, the IHR Bulletin for February 2026 is out. Read it here: mailchi.mp/a115dcbd44a0...

The fantastic 12th century South doorway to the Church of St. Michael, Toseland, Cambridgeshire 😍

Belated #WallsOnWednesday 🧱 I adore the walls of this church 😍 📍St Michael's Church • Myddfai ⛪️ #Wales #History

I've put a few original drawings from recent cartoons up for sale on my website: www.tomgauld.com/art-for-sale

For Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire #FolkloreThursday -ers! I'm thrilled to be giving my talk ‘Unfamiliar Familiars – The Unusual Companions of the Witch’ at the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby next Friday. It would be great to see some "familiar" faces! www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/unfam...

R is for peRveRt ...

East window at Hadleigh, St Mary, Suffolk. I took this photo a few years ago whilst in the early stages of recovery from a testing period of mental ill-health - I needed encounters with beauty #suffolk #churched #stainedglass #window #tracery #history #heritage #architecture #19thcentury #light

Copper flagon Newlyn Copper Works c. 1900-1920 Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle. #MetalworkThursday

#AdoorableThursday 12th C doorway with finest ironwork and "diapered tympanum" (Pevsner) St Andrew Heybridge, #Essex

Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Melrose Park connects with a long history of immigrants. It had a replica, made in Italy, of a statue of the Madonna del Carmine in Laurenzana, a southern Italian town from which many went to Chicago (and my grandparents to NY). We should remember we were once immigrants.

Details from Filippino Lippi's Martyrdom of St Peter, Brancacci Chapel, Florence. The young man looking at us is said to be a portrait of Botticelli. In the distant landscape (detail on the right), you can see soldiers leading a haloed man, maybe Paul who is in the adjacent scene with Simon Magus.

"Local Goth Caught Lurking in Graveyard By Night Claims He's About to Give a Lecture on Mediaeval Architecture in Old Church: Residents Suspicious and Outraged!"

Palma cathedral. A pair of large (~7ft high) silver candelabras. Apparently tne maker took 14 years to complete them "due to their size and complexity". Hmm. Paul de Lamerie would have had these installed a damn sight quicker than that.

Libraries are among the few public institutions that represent the kind of world we want to live in. They must be fought for.

Our joint editor Prof. Elizabeth Tingle is part of a conference on Alford, Pugin and the restoration of Wymeswold Church: 11 April, details and booking at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-rev-al...

The Herring Season - c. 1924 Oil painting Charles Walter Simpson A painting of the scene outside the artist’s studio in St Ives, Cornwall. Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle #Art #StIves

Also some nice blackletter text to decode later, one panel from 1472.

Palma cathedral. Very nice loo doorways.

Archaeology often challenges assumptions about listed buildings. This Leicestershire house was thought to be 17th century until a survey revealed evidence that it was mediaeval. On 26 Feb I'll be speaking online about Reinterpreting Listed Buildings: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reinterpre...

If you want to find out more about Biddlestone Roman Catholic Chapel, please follow this link to our website: friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/church/biddl...

The incredible layers of history at Biddlestone Roman Catholic Chapel, Northumberland.

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

For those interested in #pilgrimage and the arts, art historian Conrad Rudolph has a fascinating new article (open access/Oxford Art Journal) on features in #Renaissance and #Baroque paintings of biblical scenes that reflect accounts of the Holy Land in popular guide culture doi.org/10.1093/oxar...

I’ve rarely seen a better illustration of what happens to exposed stone 😮 Hardwick Old Hall, Derbyshire.

I keep encountering folk who doubt dendrochronology gives the construction date of buildings. They think it only gives a felling date or there is danger of dating reused timbers. Once again, here is a piece on how and why tree-ring dating works triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/mediaeval-my...

"the policing of class materials ... to prohibit alleged advocacy of 'race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity', clearly violates academic freedom, the 1st Amendment, & those colleges’ own academic missions." nursingclio.org/2026/02/18/t...

Find out more about the Scottish Stained Glass Trust's upcoming Symposium at the Robin Chapel here 👇 ssgt.org.uk/symposium-at...

For #WindowsOnWednesday, here are some of Sadie McLellan's marvellous creations in the Robin Chapel in Edinburgh, our #ScottishChurchOfTheWeek this week You can find out more about this artist, her windows and the chapel next month at a symposium there, organised by the Scottish Stained Glass Trust

“.. We could spend the whole day reacting to every buffoonish spectacle coming out of the White House, but that's exactly what they want: for us to lose focus … Don't be distracted by the noise; watch what they are doing to your rights while you stare at the screen.”

#Woodensday from St George, Orleton, Herefordshire. The north porch is dated 1686 with the initials R.S.

River Meavy, near Burrator #Dartmoor #Devon #water #nature #stone #moss