Today’s challenge: locate (and cite) the best, earliest possible definition of the thread - gimp, a silk floss core tightly wrapped with contrasting silk floss - that was couched to make this delightful little caterpillar on the circa 1600 Bacton Altar Cloth. #TextileTuesday

Explored All Saints, Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and admired the effort put into carving the mail on this effigy. Probably represents Sir John de Verdun (1299 - 1376) first Baron Verdun, Lord of Brixworth. If only I could see it in its original brightly coloured paint. #MonumentsMonday

Archaeological artifacts gain context when paired with historical depictions of them in use, and come alive when practitioners recreate and use them. Bone tablets for weaving narrow wares (Roman Britain) and an illuminated detail of a girl weaving with tablets (N Germany c1320-50). #TextileTuesday

Modern artists recreating historic textiles set themselves impossible goals, like trying to find washable inks to wipe away the patterns drawn on to guide embroidery. They didn’t do it - why should we? Detail of an early 17th century English jacket at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This #SaintGeorge with the family of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York is a missed opportunity. Nothing wrong with the saint and dragon–that’s dramatic enough–but the utterly generic, stylised royal family in formulaic fashion saddens me; I want detailed portraits and contemporary clothing. 1/2

I travelled Shropshire last week absorbing springtime to the rhythm of this Robert Frost poem: Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

Admired the carved beams of this gable helpfully dated 1570, now in the Shrewsbury Museum. The sinusoidal pattern with pairs of leaves above and below, here with grape clusters between the leaves, is also commonly found decorating carved effigies. Was this a carvers pattern or also used on textiles?

The kids jousting with hobby horses and pinwheels are absolutely delightful. I love these little treasures preserved in churches, and also the magic of stumbling across them unexpectedly.

When I go to churches, seems like I take photos of everything. But today I needed a photo of someone wearing a medieval hood, and so this little bedesman from the side of the c.1502 tomb to Richard Croft and Ann Fox in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, just made it into the slide show of my next talk.

This delightful door from St Mary’s, Goudhurst, Kent, apparently needed to be rehung to swing the other direction, but not replaced, leaving an artistic shadow from the iron hinges. One of the very first parish churches I visited, February 2013, and still such a happy memory. #ADoorableThursday

Some daffodils for a seasonal #FlowersonFriday, taken three years ago in front of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, following a visit to that and the Queen’s House. Plus a lovely view taken there of the Isle of Dogs, viewed through the twin spires of the Old Royal Naval College.

Tombs survive for such interesting reasons. Take John Dudley: after he died in 1580, this fine tomb was erected. His widow Elizabeth remarried Thomas Sutton, but when she died in 1602, she too was buried here, in Old St Mary’s, Stoke Newington. That’s not so unusual, asking to be buried 🧵

Is anything more whimsically delightful and anatomically questionable than a medieval elephant? Maybe one with a castle on its back, like this 15th century misericord in Manchester Cathedral. I love how the carver felt compelled to give it horse’s hooves and bat-wing ears. #WoodcarvingWednesday

The mid-15th century silver-gilt Foundress’ Cup from Christ’s College, Cambridge (bequeathed by Margaret Beaufort, though originally made for Eleanor Cobham and Humpfrey, Duke of Gloucester) and its ornate lid, refashioned by the King’s Mother to include the Tudor Rose on top. 1/4

When I visited Canterbury Cathedral for the first time in 2013, I stared at the ceiling and said “wow”. When I visited in 2019 (as part of a conference) they were restoring the roof and cleaning the ceiling, and I said “wow” much closer up. Still can’t believe I got to do this. #ChurchCrawling

When I admired this 17th century cushion in Westwood Manor, a National Trust property in Wiltshire, they tried to tell me it was a pincushion, which it most certainly is not - those are silver spangles held with a single stitch threaded through a tiny bit of silver purl. #TextileTuesday

Was seeking the most ridiculous possible medieval hat picture to pair with a #CallForPapers for the Medieval Dress and Textile Society conference ‘Topping it off: dress and textiles above the shoulder’. Found it. www.medats.org.uk/events/cfp-t... #MedievalSky #ManuscriptMonday

Detail of a 1471 window from Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York. The Holy Trinity blesses the Virgin, but her head is replaced with that of a donor figure. Her body faces us, hair falling over her shoulders, while her head looks to the right, hair hidden under cauls and a veil. #StainedGlassSunday

I haven’t been inside St Edmund, Holme Pierrepont, though I would like to - there are alabaster effigies and a brass that I have not photographed - but one stormy evening I did catch this atmospheric shot from the gardens of the adjacent hall. #SteepleSaturday

Join us on Friday 7 February for the first Society lecture of 2025: 'Dangerous Journeys: Framing Women’s Movement in the Medieval World', with Dr Natasha Hodgson (Nottingham Trent University) bit.ly/4gLj28g. Booking is now open, for in-person & online attendance #Skystorians #medieval

Contemplating #FlowersonFriday in Elizabethan textiles. When were they just pretty patterns, like the quatrefoil in this pillow border, and when did they represent known species? What did they mean to the people who commissioned these textiles and then these tombs? #ChurchMonuments (1/4)

Today’s quest: locate a violet - flower not colour - on a mid 16th to early 17th century English textile or an artistic rendering of fabric. So far: nothing. Plenty of wild pansy flowers, like this detail of the ‘Rainbow’ portrait of Queen Elizabeth I located in Hatfield House, but no violets.

The censorship algorithm on Twitter reduced our audience by roughly 95%, and seriously, who does that to a wildlife biology & advocacy group ? So we moved 😇 over here to BlueSky If you could, please help us regain our following Follow Retweet and Repeat ;-) Together we can change the world.

Contemplating the idea that the holidays are “over” and we should “return to normal work” with the same sceptical energy as this tiny eared owl. Book of Flower Studies by the Master of Claude de France c. 1510-15, photo provided by The Metropolitan Museum of Art #ManuscriptMonday

I love this so much, I even have a t-shirt with the three joined rabbits motif on it.

I pulled this image for #FlowersonFriday, intending to muse over whether the pack animal was dining on thistle, but I became stumped describing the animal itself. I think it is a cow - cloven hooves, rounded ears, tufted tail - but it doesn't have the horns or bulky body that I expect. 1/4

This is the oldest surviving crown known to have been worn by royalty in medieval England 👑 First worn by Anne of Bohemia & then by Blanche of England, this crown saw the overthrow & deposition of one king, the rise & rule of another, & the marriage of an English princess🧵 1/

May you ring out the old year in style - spend New Year’s Eve partying like it’s 1399! Or stay home in your nightclothes, if you prefer. Dream sphinx won’t judge. 14th century carved capital, Carlisle Cathedral.

If I cannot remember why I photographed this expressive little wyvern, it must be just that it made me smile, and I wanted to share it with you. Wycliffite Bible, London?, England, around 1390-97. British Library Egerton MS 617 f. 164v #ManuscriptMonday

If you enjoy looking at details down to the level of examining stitches, you are going to love this new interactive view of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Got nothing to do Monday evening (Europe) or afternoon (North America)? Now you do! Join this online talk about windows to puzzle over architectural details you probably never stopped to study before, but certainly will after you learn about them.

17th c. coats of arms make delightfully over-the-top stained glass windows. With a reference book and time, I could decipher the blazon, but what about the fruits below and flowers around the shield? Do they have significance, symbolism, reason? St John the Baptist, Penshurst, Kent. #ChurchCrawling

Call the midwife, turn the cattle out to pasture, and sweep the barn, we’ve got guests coming! And for goodness sake, Janice, remember to look under the bed before you put fresh sheets on it this time. (Alabaster panel c.1350, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk)

A silver leaf. Detail from a crimson velvet binding for a book of sermons from 1596, front and back covers embroidered in silver thread and silk with the arms of Elizabeth I. SSS.24.32 @theulspeccoll.bsky.social @theul.bsky.social

For #FlowersOnFriday, a detail of one of the fantastical #embroidered silk and gold creations found on so many 15th and early 16th century ecclesiastical vestments. This “water flower” once adorned a cope but is now reworked into an altar frontal in the chapel of St John’s College, Oxford. (1/4)

On the tomb in Albrighton, Shropshire, Frances Giffard (died 1558, wife of Sir John Talbot died 1555) wears different bracelets on each wrist. I can see faint traces of yellow paint and suspect that this part of the effigy was once gilded. A tiny moment of #ChurchCrawling joy. #ChurchMonuments

I was a biology major, but took New Testament History to fill a humanities requirement. In the "what do you already know?" first day quiz I couldn't even correctly name the four gospels.

The utter whimsy of #Tudor #woodcarving delights me, especially finding this wild, secular art in churches. What is the creature dancing with the pig? Who is frowning at them? What odd shape emerges from the barrel on the right? Are those flowers meant to be real? St Mary, Fawsley, Northamptonshire.

I pulled up this photo of the Sudbury Pall, now housed in Ipswich Museum, when looking for details of circa 1500 fringes. I hadn’t noticed before how consistent the fringe colours are across many hearse cloths and vestments I have seen: green, golden yellow, and (often faded) pink. #TextileTuesday

Visit little museums. They are full of unanticipated delights, like silver spoons with handles that look like a swan’s head and neck. This was buried during the mid to late fifth century in a hoard by the gate of Durovernum Cantiacorum, or Canterbury. My 📷, Canterbury #Roman Museum. #MuseumMonday

A window of rearranged glass fragments containing the face of a late 14th or early 15th century woman in a frilled veil. There was probably once a monument here raised to her and her husband or her parents, and this window was part of the commemorative scheme. #StainedGlassSunday #Medieval (1/3)

I can confidently assert that the medieval artisan who painted this never saw a lion and probably hadn’t spent much time around felines of any size, but that didn’t stop them from packing their work with energetically confident character and a generously indecorous blep. #Caturday

For #FlowersonFriday, a detail of the Hardwick Hall Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I with iris, lily, pansy, strawberry and other plants worked amongst waterfowl, sea monsters and snakes on her petticoat. Is it an embroidered or painted or imaginary skirt? What do you think?

I go to churches looking for women so that I can ask: what are you wearing? What are those who raised this memorial telling us about who you were and what you valued? But when I see mothers with twelve children I just think “You poor, exhausted woman. Rest now. You deserve it.” #ChurchCrawling

I go to churches looking for women so that I can ask: what are you wearing? What are those who raised this memorial telling us about who you were and what you valued? But when I see mothers with twelve children I just think “You poor, exhausted women. Rest now. You deserve it.” #ChurchCrawling

Despite the need to keep light levels low, the way the artifacts at the Mary Rose museum are displayed is fantastic, and the textile finds are incredible. Highly recommend a slow, careful visit. And then visit again after you've had time to absorb the first experience.

Many strange faces peer down from the roof of St Mary de Castro, Leicester, but this jolly jester is my favourite. The south aisle was built in the 16th century - presumably post-Reformation, if they’re mocking mitre-wearing bishops like this - but restored in the 1930s. #ChurchCrawling

#CFP for 'Topping it off: dress and textiles above the shoulder' an online conference Sunday, 27 April 2025 hosted by The Medieval Dress and Textile Society. Twenty minute papers on #medieval (400-1600 CE) hats, head wraps, hair styling, eyeglasses, jewellery, cosmetics, or related topics sought.

A peaceful #angel for Sunday morning, remarkably whole and unbattered considering its age, from the canopy over the tomb of Sir John de Strelley, who died in 1501, and his wife Sanchia Willoughby, who died in 1500. I love that even this tiny figure, only about as tall as my hand, displays details

I usually don't indulge in cemetery tourism, but I'm slightly tempted to go see this, which I hadn't even realised existed. The George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol is the one I grew up watching again and again. www.bbc.com/news/article...