Our Criminal Past

Buzzers, blaggers and beaks A glossary of historical slang describing crime and criminals

❓Do you know what a 'stock buzzer' is? Or, a 'bit faker? This week in The Detective's Notebook, I've compiled a glossary of fabulous and colourful crime history-related slang. My favourite is 'cockchafer', what's yours? 🔗 drangelabuckley.substack.com/p/buzzers-bl...

Buses in the 1950s were specially designed to fit under Beverley’s medieval North Bar Gate, East Yorkshire.

The Long View - Criminals on the Loose - BBC Sounds Jonathan Freedland takes the Long View of presidential candidates who have stood trial.

Yesterday I was on The Long View giving historical perspective to current issues in the prison system www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Another amazing knitted postbox topper in Beverley Wednesday Market #rememberanceday #beverley

Bright but chilly at Butt Farm pumpkin patch Beverley #pumpkins #beverley #halloween

Confessions of an Early Career Researcher, Logos: The British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust.

From planning their ECR journey to top tips on wellness, tune into #ConfessionsOfAnECR where fellow researchers share their academia survival tips.

Three new episodes now available across all podcasting platforms: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/audio-video/... 🎙️

@britishacademy.bsky.social

An image of a person being buried by a monk and a nun from Roman de la Rose, c.1390 (The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, MS G.32, f. 86v)

Coroners in 13th-century England were supposed to view the body of every person who had died unexpectedly BEFORE that person was buried. However, the people of Kent frequently ignored this rule. In fact, between 1248 & 1255 they ignored it no less than 206 times!
🧵 1/3

Lovely October morning in Hull today, welcoming visitors to our great campus @uniofhull.bsky.social #criminology #politics #law

Support our Women’s Centres – Big Give Women in Prison are raising crucial funds to support our vital women’s centres in Greater Manchester and South London, to deliver specialist trauma and gender informed 1:1 support addressing multiple ...

Women in Prison - Big Give campaign please share donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Lovely autumnal knitting on display in Wednesday market #beverley

Hull Fair over the years - from freak shows to Instagrammers Hull Fair is among the largest travelling fairs in Europe and is set to open for its 731st year.

History of Hull Fair www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Industrial and Reformatory School Registers - Our Criminal Ancestors Industrial and Reformatory Schools registers contain a great deal of information about the criminal and destitute children who were sent to these institutions from the mid-nineteenth century until 193...

Found a reference to industrial or reformatory school in your family history? Useful tips here: ourcriminalancestors.org/industrial-a...

Coroners, communities, and the Crown: mapping death and justice in late medieval England

The online version is here: www.history.org.uk/publications...

If you are interested in historicising, contextualising, or rewriting #truecrime, join @lizzieseal.bsky.social, me, and our 8+1 speakers!
The conference is free and open but registration is required - see the programme and follow the link 👇
drive.google.com/file/d/1tLdN...

Medieval Murder Maps in the Classroom - Medieval Murder Maps The Medieval Murder Maps are much more than a curiosity or even the basis for research. The Maps can also […]

The Maps can also be used in teaching – whether it be in school, college, undergraduate, or postgraduate.

If you have used the Medieval Murder Maps, we would love to hear your about your experience.

Get in touch by comment, DM, or email in link below

medievalmurdermap.co.uk/blog/medieva...

Woman's Hour - Child sex abuse gangs, Older surrogacy, Ranking friends - BBC Sounds Maggie Oliver responds to the announcement of a national inquiry on grooming gangs.

If anyone wants to listen, from c.22mins
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Had a great time on BBC Woman's Hour today. Lovely to meet Nuala and the team

My paper at the ‘Narratives of Captivity’ conference @northumbriauni.bsky.social looked at narratives of the condemned in the liminal space between death sentence & execution.

To develop this work, I'd really like to work with experts in heritage or corpus linguistics.

Histories of Resistance: Disability, Agency and Embodiment in the Long Eighteenth Century

Join us next Wednesday (25/6) 5:30-7:30 in person at the IHR and online for our final seminar of 2024-5 to hear David Turner ( Swansea University) present his paper ‘Histories of Resistance: Disability, Agency & Embodiment in the Long Eighteenth Century’

@ihr.bsky.social

shorturl.at/hMRGz

A Brutal Journey: Gloucestershire Convicts on the Second Fleet to Australia, 1789-90 Two years after the First Fleet set off for Australia with its cargo of convicts, the British government decided it was now time to clear the prisons of their troublesome inmates and send another c…

New blog post: Gloucestershire convicts on the notorious Second Fleet to Australia.
gloscrimehistory.wordpress.com/2025/06/19/a...

🎨Explore the Theresa Roberts Art Collection & its new home at the Wilberforce Institute in this webinar on art, culture & collaboration.

🗣️ Featuring Theresa Roberts, Dr Emma Roberts, Prof Rina Arya & Dr Cassandra Gooptar

📅 Monday 14th July 2025 | 🕒 3pm - 4:30pm
🔗 Book now: bit.ly/43NSqQd

BBC New Generation Thinkers cohort announced for 2025 Six early-career university researchers will work with Radio 4 programme makers to bring new ideas and the latest academic scholarship to audiences.

www.ukri.org/news/bbc-new...

Could not have wished for a nicer cohort of New Generation Thinkers. Very excited to see everything that @bethmalory.bsky.social, @lrjdmnr.bsky.social, @reetiks.bsky.social, Sarah Smyth, & Ashleigh Percival-Borley get up to this year 👏🎉

We are delighted to welcome Professor Angela McCarthy, Director of the Centre for Global Migrations at the University of Otago and an Honorary Researcher of the Institute.

Angela is visiting from New Zealand as part of her research into Scottish involvement in slavery in the Caribbean.

Our latest podcast episode on "The Peasant's Revolt of 1381" is now available everywhere podcasts can be found! Take a listen to our discussion on the rebellion which attempted to stand up to the policies of the crown! Let's know what you think by leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts.

The Routledge Handbook of Jack the Ripper Studies In offering a holistic analysis of the vast array of evidence and literature pertaining to the Whitechapel Murders committed in London’s East-End in the Autumn of 1888, this volume offers a multi-disc...

Great to see a publication date for the Routledge Handbook of Jack the Ripper Studies.

The chapter by @ourcriminalpast.bsky.social and I examines the extent to which discussions of this case matched developing schools of criminological thought at the time

www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

Staffordshire Archives have a huge amount of oral recordings of #BoatFamilies. Finding out how to access those is on my list of things to do...
#OnePlaceWednesday

Looking to get started researching your criminal ancestors? Start with this easy guide #ancestors #familyhistory #crimehistory ourcriminalancestors.org/category/get...

🚨Calling all #police historians. Come in, police historians🚨

#CfP 'Policing and Public #Health' history workshop, London, 17/09/2025!

Unsure if your work fits? Get in touch. We welcome all career stages, independent researchers, #GLAM and police sector folks. Hybrid is an option.

#HistSTM

An unusual story for a boxing historian to pursue, perhaps. But hear (read) me out...

grapplingwithhistory.com/2025/06/03/t...