Dr Gavin Hughes FRHistS FRGS

Medieval Buildings Revealed by Summer Drought in England - Medievalists.net In England, this year’s drought has uncovered medieval remains at Fountains Abbey and Mottisfont, where parchmarks reveal the outlines of vanished monastic halls and cloisters.

Medieval Buildings Revealed by Summer Drought in England www.medievalists.net/2025/08/medi... #england

"Can I call you back? I'm stuck in an O at the moment."

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 711; Abbreviatio Decreti "Quoniam egestas"; second half of the 12th century; p.18 (e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

Very much so!

Excellent- thank you!

Exactly so, Claire - I hadn't heard about those recent literacy stats but they're frightening...

And overlapping this, from UK Literacy Trust: "This survey found that 18% (or 1 in 6) adults in England had literacy levels at or below Level 1, considered to be 'very poor literacy skills'." or a reading/writing level <= 7 year old. The proposed service & app designers have a lot to think about

The report on our excavations at Cheeseman's Green, Ashord is now on our open library. A remarkable site with two Late Mesolithic cremation burials among a host of other evidence.
wessexarchaeologylibrary.org/library/repository/view/233/

They say never work with kids or animals. I’d add nieces to that list...

Robert Emmet Orpen isn’t a hero. He’s Irish, stubborn, expendable — and sent 6,000 miles west to infiltrate the Fenians. His cover is blown before he even sees a cable car. He's the man at the centre of my new book, The Red Branch.

Grainy black and white portrait of a young woman in hat and gloves.

In the 1880s, Florida Ruffin Ridley wrote for the Boston Globe, organized a national conference for Black women, & edited the newspaper, The Women’s Era. “We the women of the Women’s Era Club enter the field to work hand in hand with women, generally for humanity and humanity’s interests.”

Just a shout out to #skystorians #academicsky #historians #historyteacher #18c #c18 #georgians #history of #Caribbean #slavery people that my new book #Heiresses is out now. You can read more about it here: www.heiresses.co.uk/about-heires...

Not sea glass but fragments of plastic car tail lights, indicators and brake lights, probably washed into storm drains after heavy rain, eventually making their way to the sea. #oceanplastic

Anybody in the Stevenage area have available an accessible room or studio flat to rent?

My daughter is starting a PhD next week and the flat that we hoped she be in by now looks like it is going to fall through.

Thanks

The Reformation Studies Colloquium is April 15-17, 2026 at University College London. I'm thinking of putting a panel together on Performing the Legacies of the Reformation. I'll be doing something on hymns, but if anyone wants to do things on plays, literature, visual culture, or anything else

A tray with a green cutting board, on which are 30 or so Warlord Games' 28mm Pike & Shotte plastic figures in various states of construction - there are also some Assault Group miniatures... all part of a Thirty Years' War project!

Hullo all! A very quick hobby update on an evening off... a return to C17th & having spent a fortnightbasing and undercoating over 300 28mm ECW infantry, it's on to tackle some lovely @warlordgames.com Pike & Shotte minis (with a few Assault Group, Bicorne, Perrys) for the Thirty Years' War 🙂

This looks a lot of fun 🙂!

A photo of the cover of DEAD ENDS featuring a cartoon of a doctor zapping a patient in a coffin back to life. There are signed book plates and medical oddities all around the book.

There's a lot of bad in the world right now. But @tealcartoons.bsky.social and I have a new kids' book coming out called DEAD ENDS that reminds us that failure isn't just inevitable but essential to success. There are a limited number of SIGNED copies from @mysteriousbookshop.com - shorturl.at/1A9CS

Robert Reich Donald Trump’s New Enemy? Our National Parks

National Park Service officials have removed park signs referencing climate change, slavery, Japanese internment during World War II, and the nation’s treatment of Native Americans.

It’s the latest escalation of Trump’s attacks on our public lands. Watch: https://youtu.be/HS7IJaB5NDc?feature=shared

Simon Elliott performing a lecture

The smashing @simonelliott20.bsky.social dispensing wisdom about Septimius Severus at the Yorkshire Museum tonight

Oh absolutely! The amount of times I've almost physically ended up in the wheelie bin trying to press it all down with my body weight... which reminds me, it's bin day tomorrow!

Well said, Helen - and it needs to be said, loudly and clearly.

Just to be clear:
- Paracetamol does not cause autism.
- Sadiq Khan is not introducing Sharia law in the UK
- We do not have a massive free speech problem here.
- Britain is not on the verge of civil war.
These are not controversial subjects or contested, they're just not true.

Our conference is a month away! With many talks and seminars to choose from. Trustee Henry Spilberg will be hosting a very special session where you can listen along to the war!

STEWART: “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether— we’re the banana peel in the coal mine… authoritarians are the threat to comedy, music, art, thought… progress.”

Nailed it.

Third country’s space violated.

Come and join us for a #GlowRide! Help highlight the safety issues women face while cycling. #MyRideOurRight

Registration link below ⬇️

The time is nigh! Send in your @TRAC_conference abstracts in TODAY. We are still longing for a couple. Come and discuss the materiality of the Roman monuments. #Archaeology

📢Save the new date!📢 OHNI's 'Ask an Oral Historian' online session has moved from Thursday 2nd October to Thursday 16th October. 🗓️Please update your calendars and join us then for this free event. #OralHistory #AskAnOralHistorian #OralHistoryNetworkIreland #SharingStories

📢Save the new date!📢

OHNI's 'Ask an Oral Historian' online session has moved from Thursday 2nd October to Thursday 16th October.

🗓️Please update your calendars and join us then for this free event.

oralhistorynetworkireland.ie/event/networ...

#OralHistory #AskAnOralHistorian #SharedStories #Free

🚨Call for Papers🚨Delighted to share the CfP for next year's meeting of @frenchcolonial.bsky.social which we will be hosting in Maynooth June 25-27. The theme is "Après la tempête: Afterlives of Colonial Crisis and Conflict". Deadline for submissions is November 14 frenchcolonial.org/annual-meeti...

Two large brown standing stones in long grass with a blue sky beyond with fluffy clouds

It's a stormy #StandingStoneSunday on the west🌪️☔

Remembering better weather on a sunny, breezy ridge near Tobermory on Mull in June 2025 - at the enigmatic Cnoc fada or Dervaig Bronze Age stone row; originally five stones of which two remain standing 🤩

📷 My own