Tell you what, this bloody cold thing that's been going around sucks. Not enjoyable, I would give it a 6/10.
09.10.2025 13:48 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0@joshbakercox.bsky.social
PhD at Bangor researching rebellions in 10th and early 12th century England and Normandy. Lover of Norman (and Anglo-Norman) History, and general fan of Robert Curthose & Robert de Belleme. https://medievalhistory.home.blog/
Tell you what, this bloody cold thing that's been going around sucks. Not enjoyable, I would give it a 6/10.
09.10.2025 13:48 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Next you'll be saying it even came with pens!
09.10.2025 13:33 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0MLGB is back!! Delighted that Medieval Libraries of Great Britain @bodleian.ox.ac.uk is now back online. We are also working had on plans for the next phase of the resource, enhancing & adding data & functionality. HUGE thanks to my colleagues for their hard & clever work mlgb.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
07.10.2025 10:19 β π 238 π 106 π¬ 2 π 12Just goes to show how everyone should go through contracts with a fine toothed comb. Maybe we could make some sort of contract prΓ©cising ai...? (I joke!)
03.10.2025 10:33 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I yearn for the day that AI being used for this purpose dies a sudden and terrible death quite frankly.
03.10.2025 10:28 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0October 2025 really going out of its way to be crap only three days in.
03.10.2025 10:23 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0You're not helping! π
30.09.2025 13:21 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0For god's sake Tom I'm not made of bookshelves.
30.09.2025 13:18 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0All fun and games until you're trying to fight off 6 cliff racers but you have low weapon skills.
24.09.2025 11:59 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Oh...
youtu.be/S-7-EYV8CVM
Question for the medieval crowd: does anyone know of a good published map of Europe in 1066? (yes, I have googled)
10.09.2025 17:22 β π 10 π 7 π¬ 6 π 0Honestly. Tattoo artists should be out there having a no ai promise in the window lol.
09.09.2025 14:02 β π 23 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Imagine going to get a tattoo and it's just so... clinical and impersonal.
No thanks, I'll stick to getting my ink done by someone who listens to stoner/doom metal and unironically uses the word "righteous" numerous times as a term of agreement.
Oh and in other news it looks like I will be presenting a paper at the next Leeds IMC with the 'Loyalty in the Medieval World' network. So very much looking forward to that while simultaneously mildly panicking.
08.09.2025 10:57 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Finally here is a video of me wandering around the inner tower and the walls of the earlier shell keep, on top of the motte. If I sound out of breath, it's because I am. Apologies for the shoddy camera work and basic commentary, I didn't expect to use this.
08.09.2025 10:34 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Launceston castle (or at least the keep/inner bailey) sits above the outer portions of the castle, in the middle of the town, on a quite frankly ridiculously steep motte. The land slopes up gently to the right as you approach the gate the remains of the gate (now just two lonely towers either side of the path), but the steps are exhausting. Well they were for me.
To give you a better idea of the height. Either side of these modern stairs are the remains of a wall that ran all the way up from the gate to the towers entrance. The tower itself is two separate parts, the remains of the inner tower, where the main bedroom was, stands above the remains of a wall that surrounded it. Best way I can describe it is imagine an upright cardboard tube, then around this imagine a slightly lower, but bigger tube.
The keep! On either side of the image you can just make out the walls of the earlier shell keep, and in the middle is the round tower Richard of Cornwall plonked in the middle. Approximately half way up are some (relatively) evenly spaced square/rectangular holes running the entire circumference of the structure. In the middle one of these holes sits a pigeon, sheltering from the rain.
A view from inside the tower of the window that looked out from the earls bedroom. Some steps or a cutaway sitting space can be seen beneath the hole where the window stood, with an almost arched point at the top. Beyond the now empty hole is a portion of the rather hilly countryside that can be found immediately around Launceston itself.
And obviously I went to the castle. I had to fight my way through a literal marathon and ended up in what I can only describe as a torrential downpour that soaked me through my coat. So don't say I never think of you all. The whole design of the castle was quite striking actually.
08.09.2025 10:28 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Narrow wall of the church, it is covered top to bottom (and so are all the walls as a matter of fact) in rows of carvings. Various tree or plant like imagery on some rows, intertwining shapes on others, and on certain rows are shields carved with different designs that repeat: some have two chevrons one above another others have a cross going from each "corner" and a single dot in each triangle formed from that division.
Some paving stones outside the church. There were various ones (further along I think I saw one that may have originally been next to this one). This particular one has writing down it's left side, and what look to me like carvings of various parts of a cadaver. On the right is what looks like the arm and part of the ribcage of a skeleton.
More floor carvings, this showing more writing in a border, the corner of which contains a cross in a circle. The paving slab ahead of it bears no such inscription.
The opposite end of the church, the wall continues with the repeating rows of patterns, but this time in the center is a figure lying face down next to a spherical object, almost like an urn. Either side of this figure are smaller carved figures, possibly representing saints? Each figure is looking towards this larger carving, so the ones of the left are looking to the right, and vice versa.
I have plenty more pictures from Tintagel, but I am struggling to choose them, so please also feast your eyes on these images from a 16th century (I believe) church at Launceston. Some of the outside paving stones look to me like they had a precious life inside a church.
08.09.2025 10:07 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Oooooh now that definitely seems up my street. Thank you so much Leonie, I'll check it out!
08.09.2025 09:49 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0A view of the ruined barbican of Tintagel from just outside the castle's main entrance. A rugged hill rises up from the valley to the right, and the sea can be seen through the dip in the landscape
The (thankfully very sturdy) bridge that joins the mainland courtyards and their collection of buildings to the island courtyards over the isthmus. The island portion rises up above the mainland part of the castle, though the buildings are somewhat harder to notice without zooming in as the stone blends in quite well with the surroundings
Looking back towards the bridge (right hand side, background) from the island courtyard are the remains of a small two storey house, the walls have been reduced to about waist high on the right length, but the width closest to my position taking this photograph goes up to (or perhaps just above) the first floor's floor level. Two straight rows of stone foundations run parallel to each other and this small building, and represent earlier stages of the castle's construction. The row closest to the house marks where an earlier, slightly larger hall once stood, and the row further to the right shows where the wall of the original (even bigger) 13th century great hall stood.
No grand sweeping vista of the castle here I'm afraid, this was just my attempt at being a bit arty. Above what is a dividing wall from the expansion of the kitchen in the castles second phase, are the remains of a window set in a very jagged wall made from quite flat stones of varying sizes, giving the appearance of almost a bed of razor sharp clams (not the best description perhaps, but there's a reason I didn't go on to do English at university). Through the remains of this window is an almost green-grey sea, waves crashing against a steep portion of coastline with a large rock sticking out a few metres into the sea.
"...no power on earth can get us to her in the stronghold of Tintagel? It stands completely surrounded by the sea and can be reached only by a narrow cliff. Three armed Knights could hold it against you, even though you had the whole kingdom of Britain at your back." De gestis Britonum
08.09.2025 09:48 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Part of me wants to watch it due to a mix of morbid curiosity and the fact that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is in it.
On the other hand I am concerned I would get genuinely irritated by it and I'm having a good weekend haha. Thank you for your noble sacrifice Leonie.
Monkeys paw curls: they are now part of the old kingdom of Northumbria
27.07.2025 20:44 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Finally on the train home after my first Battle Conference (first ever conference in fact). What a genuinely fantastic four days, and to anyone else who was there thank you so much for making it so memorable and so welcoming. Not to brag but I think my Jenga skills weren't too shabby either...
26.07.2025 14:21 β π 5 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0What is the eel to prayer ratio though? Because for 400 hundred eels I'd personally expect a decent amount of praying to be done
17.07.2025 14:02 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Thank you Lari! I spent far too long squinting at that lol while figuring out how to describe it. I feel a little bad for describing the infant Jesus as a bird now though.
17.07.2025 13:43 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0A broad gate set in an old wooden frame with floral decorations at the top. It's open, and you can see right through a long courtyard to an open gate in the distance underneath a structure. Lots of black wood and whitewashed walls that you would think of when imagining Elizabethan buildings
A slightly more zoomed in image of the open courtyard, on the left is a wood framed covered staircase.
Three images of what I thought was just a very lovely building. Called The George, it was built in the 16th century to accommodate pilgrims
17.07.2025 13:18 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0More coins! On the right four genuine coins of Coenwulf, and on the left an example of two coins minted in Winchcombe itself: one from HarΓ°acnut (1035-42) and one from William the Conqueror (1066-87)
Was the martyrdom of St Kenelm a hoax?
Me sneaking myself into images, but only reflections because I'm very mysterious. It's actually an image of the corner of a building, namely the old bakery, which existed since at least 1282!
17.07.2025 13:18 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0A display of various pieces of stonework from the abbey not at Hailes, but Winchcombe itself! The image shows faces in stonework (corbel brackets), ball flower decorations and a sort of integrated pillar. All of these date from the 12th to the early 14th centuries. At the bottom left of the image shows a map of the abbey's location in Winchcombe.
Six Anglo-Saxon coins that were found in the town, in a display case (with my reflection making me look unimpressed for some reason, I promise, I was very impressed). In order from top to bottom, left column then right column, the coins are: Coenwulf (aka Kenulf), 796-821, a moneyer named Dunn, from the Rochester mint; Ceolwulf, 821-23, moneyer named Wodel, East Anglia mint; Offa of Mercia, 757-96, moneyer named Eahlmund, London mint; the three coins on the right are all from Coenwulf and minted in Canterbury, the top one by a moneyer named Swefheard, the other two by one named Tidbeahrt. All the coins have a relatively similar design, the monarchs head on one side, and various designs of cross on the other. The exception is the coin of Ceolwulf which, in place of a cross, has the words "pod-del mo-neta" divided by three lines.
A bit of information about Coenwulf: as king of Mercia he chose Winchcombe to be his administrative centre, and his palace is thought to be at the east end of Abbey Terrace, where the building society now stands. He had the abbey built in the town, and both he and his son Kenelm were buried there.
More Coenwulf info: he died in 821 while campaigning against the Welsh, and succeeded by his brother Ceolwulf, who took succeeded in bringing Powys under Mercian control. However he proved to be an unpopular king and was removed from the throne in 823 by his replacement, Beornwulf. Winchcombe did, however, have its own mint! Coins from seven kings have been found, the earliest being Edgar (959-75) and the latest was none other than William the Conqueror (1066-87).
But, while not being able to get into the abbey itself sucked immensely (not sure I can ever forgive you, English Heritage), it did mean that we went to Winchcombe and, for the first time, had a poke around their little museum! And it was honestly really nice, had items from various eras.
17.07.2025 13:18 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0More paintings, left of the small heraldic shields, there are repeating alternating squares that seem to contain a neutral coloured castle on a red background, then a black eagle (almost reminiscent of a one headed reichsadler), and so on so forth, like a chessboard.
The windows at the far end, not fully stain glass, but with some stain glass images in the top and middle third showing saints I believe?
The right hand side of the buildings interior, more shields within squares, but also a diamond pattern between two windows that alternates between rows of red lions rampant (happy to be corrected as I'm not heraldic expert) followed by three vertical red stripes in a white background
17.07.2025 12:45 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0A view of the font from further back, showing the bell rope in front of a double window
A faded mural showing a large figure bearing a staff that is the same height as he is, there also appears to be some sort of creature or bird on his left (our right) shoulder
Damaged and faded wall painting, shows patterns of leaves and other repeating shapes
More murals and wall paintings, showing little shields and heraldry off to the left, colourful patterns around the windows, and a part of a figure to the right.
Sadly the roof was in need of repairs so I couldn't get better shots of some of the wall paintings, sorry!
17.07.2025 12:45 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 2 π 0Exterior of half the church, showing the main entrance way.
An angle looking further to the right capturing the rest of the church, with the main entrance on the left. There are some graves on the right hand of the image.
An old, plain font (possibly Norman?) standing by the door (off image to the left) and among some old tiles.
A faded mural above and left of the main door. It shows a man, seemingly a hunter, carrying a shield bearing three objects I can't quite make out. Left of him run towards a rabbit or hare that is underneath a leafless tree
So turns out you can't just go to Hailes Abbey anymore, and that I guess over COVID they changed it to a booking visit system? Either way, I still got to poke around the church which is always lovely to see!
17.07.2025 12:35 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0