Justine Pick

#ICYMI: Save the date for our one-day conference, in association with Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, where we'll be looking at rebellion and protest across six centuries.
Find out more: www.balh.org.uk/dorset26
#WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll

Stone – Stafford Walk from Stone railway station south through the mid-Staffordshire countryside, and across the unusual surviving Stafford Common, a town common, to Stafford town centre.

This week's new walking route is:

Stone - Stafford

9.1 miles through the mid-Staffordshire countryside, and across Stafford Common, a large rare surviving example of town common land, still partially used for grazing animals

Check it out👇

walkmidlands.co.uk/2026/03/12/s...

🚨 New on Substack: In 1971, Birmingham City Council owned 464 tower blocks, built in the preceding twenty years. By 2001, through transfer or demolition, only 305 remained. This first of a three-part post begins that story.
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/s...

Post-war High-Rise in Birmingham II: ‘Get these people out of the slums!’ Last week’s post looked at some of the contextual forces behind Birmingham’s post-war volte-face – from a city proclaiming a ‘prejudice against flats’ as ‘one expression of its independence of charact...

🚨 New on Substack: the big buildings, large personalities and rampant corruption that marked Birmingham's high-rise council housing boom if the 1960s:
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

'A very nice chap, but ... a perfectionist' replaced by 'an appalling mediaeval baron of an architect, a man of zero architectural quality, a primeval creature'. How Birmingham sacrificed housing quality for quantity in its 1960s high-rise boom ...
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/post-war-h...

I've loved my time with #ArchivesWM! We're a friendly, supportive group and are looking forward to welcoming some new trustees later this year.

Female Business Ownership in Birmingham 1849–1901 Midland History Prize Essay 2011 This article uses a combined quantitative and qualitative methodology to shed light on the previously unexamined female business owners of late nineteenth-century Birmingham. Examination of the Bir...

... and in Jennifer Aston's prize winning essay on female business owners in late nineteenth-century Birmingham 👇

Check out our archive for these and many more histories of women in the Midlands.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Unwelcome Legacies: The Effects of Wardship on Widows in the English Midlands, 1616–1625 When a tenant of Crown lands died leaving a minor heir, his widow became embroiled in litigation through the Court of Wards and Liveries to retain the custody of her child. This article investigate...

... in Diane Strange's work on how widows had to fight for custody of their children in the early 17th century 👇

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

‘That so Ancient a City Should Have Elected a Woman as Mayor Is a Sign of the times’: Women and Local Government in Worcester before 1939 This article explores women’s experiences of local government in Worcester between 1907 and 1939. The city saw a limited suffrage movement, and to date has never elected a female MP. Yet while wome...

#InternationalWomensDay may have come and gone in 2026, but you can read about some of our extraordinary ancestresses in Midlands History all year round...

... like Anna Muggeridge's article on women's experiences of local government in Worcester 👇

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Free #event from #Lichfield Waterworks Trust at Sandfields Pumping Station
Learn more about the history of #water supply and engineering efforts to get the fabulous beam engine moving again
🗓️ Sat 14 March
🕰️ 10:00-4:00

Walsall – Cannock Walk from the centre of Walsall into former mining country along the McClean Way greenway, and across the remarkable surivivals that are Pelsall and Pelsall North Common, before crossing the Staffo…

This week's new walking route is:

Walsall - Cannock

9.8 miles via Pelsall's two commons, Pelsall Common and Pelsall North Common, exceptionally rare survivals of common land on the edge of West Midlands county

Check it out👇

walkmidlands.co.uk/2026/03/05/w...

For this week’s blog, to mark the centenary of ICI and as it’s British Science Week, we look at the history of its IMI metals division at the Kynoch Works, Witton: theironroom.wordpress.com/2026/03/02/i... Ref - MS1422/28/7/4/4 @ScienceWeekUK #LibraryofBham

If you’re not already, do watch Dirty Business - Channel 4’s new docudrama and take a look at the Fountain of Filth 👇

Publication day! My book Keeping Hold: A Cultural and Social History of Possession in Eighteenth-Century Britain is out now. 20% discount code KEHO2026. www.cambridge.org/core/books/k...

Join the Midland History team at the National Civil War Museum, Newark on Sat 6 June 2026 for a one-day conference: New Voices in Midlands History.
Deadline for CFPs 31 March

Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics at Birkbeck, University of London An opportunity for an academic position as a Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

Lecturer in Ancient History and Classics position
Full time and permanent 👇
#skystorians

They were Brum’s answer to The Beatles — until Harold Wilson sued them The Move were destined for stardom but a smutty postcard brought them down

www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/they-were-br...

I keep meaning to sort a research trip to explore this collection (and sanitary inspection) to expand research (included in my thesis) on Birmingham's health visitors & inspectors. This is obviously a sign to nudge me to get on with it! Thank you @erinacean.bsky.social and @dohertyta.bsky.social

Midland History Midland History publishes on the history of the English Midlands region and historical comparisons with other areas.

From Roman forts in Rutland to brutalism in Bedfordshire, nobility in Nottinghamshire to workers in Warwickshire

Whatever your interests in the English Midlands we want to hear from you

Submit an article to Midland History and bring your research to the world 👇

tandfonline.com/journals/ymdh20

Free rainy day activity ☔️🌧️ Join the #UnlockingtheVaults team today (Sat 7 Feb) at The Exchange #Birmingham for Heritage Unlocked
11am-3pm
Wander round the building and learn about its history with tours, talks, children’s trails, performances from The Rep and meet the archive volunteer team!

Just one week left to apply for this fascinating PhD project combining botany, heritage, and technology 🪴

More details about Heritage Unlocked Showcase event
this Sat 7 Feb 11am - 3pm at The Exchange
Lots to see and do with building tours, trails, performance based oral histories, and meet the #UnlockingtheVaults team and volunteer research group
(2/2)

A new walking route from @joshpallen.bsky.social
One for the @blackcountrysoc.bsky.social to share 👣 🥾

#BirminghamHistory for today’s blog, Dr Justine Pick - Research Lead for Unlocking the Vaults, looks back at how the project has unearthed the history of the Birmingham Municipal Bank (1919-1976): theironroom.wordpress.com/2026/02/02/h... Ref: WK/B11/5129 #LibraryofBham @justinepick.bsky.social

More details about Heritage Unlocked Showcase event
this Sat 7 Feb 11am - 3pm at The Exchange
Lots to see and do with building tours, trails, performance based oral histories, and meet the #UnlockingtheVaults team and volunteer research group
(2/2)

Heritage Unlocked: Birmingham’s Unique Municipal Bank Birmingham Municipal Bank (1919-1976) was unique as the first and only local authority savings bank in England. Unlike other savings banks (such as the Trustee Savings Banks), customers could borro…

The latest blog from @theironroom.bsky.social about #UnlockingtheVaults project and #Birmingham Municipal Bank.
Ties in with the Heritage Unlocked Showcase Event this week
📆Sat 7 February at
🏛️The Exchange @unibirmingham.bsky.social
All welcome (drop in) between 11am-3pm
(1/2)

📣 New #OpenAccess article on #FirstView

🚾 @justinepick.bsky.social, 'Perilous privies and public health: the nature and impact of ‘dry’ municipal conservancy systems in urban England, 1870s–1920s'

🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096... #UrbanHistory

Wellcome-funded Conference Series Thanks to the generous funding of the Wellcome Trust, through the Society for the Social History of Medicine, in 2025-26 the MWHN will run a three-part series of events. Two fo these will be in-per…

Please join the friends and members of the Military Welfare History Network @milwelfhist.bsky.social
#online
Monday 2 February 11:00 to 17:30 (Dublin time)
The 3rd event supported by Wellcome-SSHM Network Grants
For programme see 👇 & for Zoom link contact militarywelfarehistory@gmail.com
#histmed

🎉My first peer reviewed article just published in Urban History as FirstView!
Following on from my thesis, it covers privy pails & ashpits, the fly problem, public health, mortality & sanitation investment

A smooth & stress free publishing experience @urbanhistory.bsky.social
#OpenAccess #histmed