Hello all, the Oxfordshire History Centre is now on Bluesky!

This #MapMonday let us take you back in time ⌛ We've just added first edition 6-inch to the mile Ordnance Survey maps of England and Wales to our website, published from the 1840s to 1880s. These maps are all from bound volumes. Explore the maps > maps.nls.uk/additions/#188

Ep. 1 of @hallierubenhold.bsky.social’s #IntimateHistories podcast really resonates. “History is the story of people, & people’s lives are meaningful & profoundly messy.” Social history, she says, is the counterweight to ‘great man’ history — I think family, local & house historians would all agree.

So much of Cymru/Wales's heritage lost in a single theft.. ...Items from Llanwrthwrl, Powys, Capel Isaf, Carmarthenshire, Heyope, Powys, & the spectacular Early Bronze Age gold lunula from Llanllyfni, Gwynedd. 😞 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Inside the Roman Catholic chapel at Biddlestone in Northumberland is an intriguing remnant from life on the home front during the Second World War. 1/6

Alice Huyler Ramsey 1909 1st woman to drive car across US, 3800 miles #NewYork to #SanFrancisco in green 4-cylinder, 30-hp Maxwell DA. 59-day trek w 2 sisters-in-law & friend who couldn't drive. Arrived to great fanfare on 3 wks later than planned. b #OTD 11 Nov 1886 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_H...

Let's play Bucks Name or Name Name

Teigh (pronounced 'tee'), Rutland, has what at first appears to be a war memorial. But in fact it is one of the 50-odd parishes dubbed 'Thankful Villages' by Arthur Mee in his 'The Enchanted Land', 1936, which got back all the people they sent to the First World War. 1/2

Lengthening autumnal shadows - Easthall Manor, #Denver #Norfolk #BluePlaque - Captain George William Manby Born 1765 Inventor of a portable fire extinguisher & apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks. Manby’s mortar fired a line from the shore to a wrecked ship so people could be winched ashore.

What a poignant find

Help please! This is a PCC copy of a handwritten codicil to a Will with lovely phonetic spellings. Unsure of 2 underlined words. Is it 'ankel/Oonkle [Uncle] Daniel'? (but looks like Dankel!) I don't have the original unfortunately. See Alt Text of 1st version for transcript & source. #palaeography

Given that the Orionid meteor shower is taking place at the moment I thought this my be appropriate. The Wold Cottage meteorite (also called the Wold Newton meteorite) fell near Wold Cottage farm on 13 December in 1795, a few miles away from the village of Wold Newton

#31daysofgraves • Social Group 🪦 The gravestones of paupers who died at Lampeter Workhouse 🪦 Each gravestone is inscribed with the initials and 'inmate' number of the person buried there. 📍St Peter's Church • Lampeter ⛪ #Wales #History

Two of my favourite things — gravestones and #fungi at St Bartholemew’s, Nettlebed

Had a nice surprise today — I was relaxing to the Mindful Mix on BBC Sounds (26/9 episode) and heard my own choir! Track 10 is Song of Proserpine by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. It’s from an album that Excalibur Voices recorded in January, now on Spotify.

Today we had an interment service for my mum at St Dunstan’s, Monks Risborough, where she was married, did local history research (when registers were still in the parish chest), taught Sunday School & baptised her firstborn (me). It was a perfect spot — peaceful, historical and buzzing with nature.

1934 Jeanie Dicks undertook 1st permanent electrification of Winchester Cathedral. Electrifying nave meant removing & reburying coffins except Jane Austen’s (moved gently to side). Press called her the "girl engineer" - she was 40! b. #OTD 25 Sept 1893 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanie_...

I've added a little countdown clock to the 1926 census release on my website. cbgenealogy.ie #IrishGenealogy #AncestryHour #GenHour

🎟️ Tickets for our next concert are now on sale! 💘 Love’s Philosophy 🍂 Saturday 18 October 🕢 7:30 pm 😇 All Saints Church, Headington www.ticketsoxford.com/events/loves... #Headington #Oxford #Choral

BBC News - Citizenship: How ancestry DNA tests can lead to a new passport - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The story of the restoration of St. James's Church, Llangua, Monmouthshire. The church which started as a small stone monastic cell dates back to 1150 & became a parish church in the 15th century. 👇 BBC News - How human hair helped to save a crumbling medieval church www.bbc.com/news/article...

A while ago I wrote a blog about an ancestor who lived in a ‘gypsy caravan’. I was recently contacted by someone who could not only add more details to my research but sent me pictures of a Romani caravan that is still in storage just around the corner from her house! #GenHour

I'm finding the updates about this archaeological project very poignant, especially as last week at the RBA I read 3 police reports about fatal air training accidents that happened near my home in 1942. www.facebook.com/CotswoldArch...

‘The church… is not distinguished for any architectural details of importance’. This is what Samuel Lewis wrote about St Mary’s, Penllech in 1833. 1/6

Really interesting, especially with the links the research has found to literacy

This memorial in Trinity College Chapel may look medieval at a glance but it was made in 1868 for Rev. William John Beaumont. A chaplain to the Forces Hospital in Sebastopol, he died suddenly aged just 40. The #ArtsAndCrafts brass is beautiful but the name has been misspelled as BEAMONT.

A detail from the 25" Ordnance Survey Map of Cerne Abbas, published in 1888. Is it just me or have they missed out an important detail...?

16 September 1936 | A French Jewish girl, Suzanne Mol, was born in Paris. She arrived at #Auschwitz on 21 Aug 1942 in a group of 1,000 Jews deported from Drancy. She was among 817 murdered in gas chambers after the selection. --- Children at Auschwitz: https://lekcja.auschwitz.org/dzieci_EN/

Join us this Saturday 20th for our annual #heritageopenday this year celebrating all things architectural from our #archives & #localstudies collections. Meet the experts on #househistory & #familyhistory and why not drop in for a cuppa at our pop-up Heritage Café. See poster for more details.👇

Ascott Estate in Bedfordshire, just before the rain poured down

Today I visited @berksarchives.bsky.social for the first time, to do some house history research. While wading through 18th-century indentures I chortled when I came across one of the most bombastic names ever: *Lady Mary Appolonia Scholastica, Countess de Rohan Chabot*

UK Disability History Month is 14 November to 20 December this year. The theme is 'disability, livelihood and employment'. Do you know where I might submit a piece to highlight forgotten family members, please? #GenHour #DisabilityHistory #AncestryHour #FamilyHistory #Genealogy #Disability

I'm having a lovely time researching the occupants of my house in 1921. One of them was Reginald Brewer, born in my village in 1905. In the 1911 census he is described as a 'LOVE-CHILD'! He was counted in the children of that marriage but born 1 yr before. I assume Frederick wasn't his bio father.

Opportunity to help support a really lovely local museum — a hub for the local community and for the rich history of Wantage and the Vale of White Horse #heritagejobs #freelancejobs

Thinking of you, Clare. 😊 @digupyourancestors.bsky.social

Love this idea! What #FamilyHistory AI fails can you find?

'As 1891 was more than a century before 1987' 'To access the 1910 census for the UK, you should search the National Archives ...' #familyhistory #AIFail

Wantage marked the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 today with a small gathering in the market place, heralded by the town crier. While the trumpet played the Last Post and silence was observed, the hush that fell over everyone, even in cafes on the square, was very moving.

Fertile fizzogs I've met along the road - so much diverse variety in our material culture. 🎭

This 12th-century 2-story tower in the old cemetery of Sarlat-la-Canéda is known as a Lanterne des Morts (lantern of the dead) but there are many legends about its origins. Was it built to record a visit by St Bernard in 1147? Or lit to warn citizens of the Plague? Or simply a light for lost souls?

#OTD 1892 • 112 men and boys were killed in an explosion at Parc Slip Colliery near Tondu. The disaster left 60 women widowed and 153 children without fathers. nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/ac... #Wales #History

Agnes, daughter of Stephen, was accidentally killed when she was struck by the sail of a windmill in Herringswell, Suffolk, sometime around the year 1240. Accidents such as these (death by the arm of the windmill) are not common in the records I use in my research🧵1/3...

Historic graffiti is a common yet often overlooked feature of medieval churches. On 13th September, join us at St Helen’s, Skeffling in Yorkshire for a graffiti recording workshop to learn how to investigate, record, and analyse these fascinating etchings and symbols. 1/5

Another outstanding documentary available on iPlayer: *Hunt for the Oldest DNA* The story-telling through a combination of interviews and animation is really effective. #DNA #AncientDNA #paleontology oldestdna.ca

William Wilberforce was born in Hull, OTD in 1759. The Yorkshire School for the Blind was founded in 1833 (closed 1950s) in memory of the abolitionist and Yorkshire MP and two years later moved to King's Manor, York which was originally the Abbot of St Mary's house, and later

Repairs are commencing at Old St Matthew's, Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire. In this short video, our Director, Rachel Morley, provides a brief history of Old St Matthew's and an overview of the repairs.

PLEASE REPOST 🥺🙏 The Canadian Letters & Images Project is an online digital archive of Canadians’ experience during wartime at home & in battle. It contains thousands of personal letters & photos that reveal people’s experience through their own words & eyes. www.canadianletters.ca/content/abou...

I’ve just watched this on BBC iPlayer. I had never heard of these mega-structures before and found it really fascinating. The people who made them were truly ingenious. #archaeology www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

I’m having a hard time packing for my holiday. My long-awaited week in the sun is now forecast to be 20 degrees and rainy. ☹️ And I’m completely baffled by @ryanairofficial.bsky.social baggage sizes. Each checked bag can be 120 x 120 x 80cm, which is HUGE, but it can only weigh 10kg. 🤷‍♀️