Katy Hoskyn

Bid to see 125-year-old ship sail again launched in Gloucester A community group hopes to raise £250,000 for urgent repairs on the Kathleen and May.

A bid to save a 125-year-old tall ship by raising more than £250,000 for urgent repairs has been launched. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Illuminated stretch of a ruined stone arcade, glowing golden against the twilight dusky sky, with the tower of Gloucester cathedral standing darkly behind it.

Here's one of the spectacular photos our professional photographer took at St Oswald's, Gloucester, showcasing the new lighting improvements that were part of the works leading to the removal from the Heritage at Risk Register. Photo copyright Historic England Archive.

The ancient Gloucester ruins saved – and the world-changing hut now at risk One of Gloucester’s oldest medieval structures conserved for future generations, but the birthplace of vaccination requires urgent repairs to secure its future

I was absolutely delighted to remove St Oswald's from the HAR register this year. Probably my favourite site in my entire patch, and a brilliant partnership with the city council. If you can get to Gloucester, go and see the golden minster for yourself - www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/glouces...

Exactly.

In most cases, very positively, and we always get a lot of people asking if we'll put their site on. It unlocks a lot of extra support and fundraising opportunities, and is intended as an acknowledgement that heritage is important to everyone, and they aren't on their own.

On a personal level, I also really love seeing people who look after important historic sites given a public platform to explain just why they care about a site so much, whether they're getting to celebrate the hard work of their team in rescuing it, or trying to get other people to care and help.

It's also one of the few times of the year when so many different stories are shared and celebrated in heritage. The variety of sites, all loved passionately by a small group of people, which are recognised in local coverage around the country is just beautiful.

With the sites being added, it's a good way to focus attention and support where it's needed. This year, we've removed what's probably my favourite site in Gloucestershire, St Oswald's Priory, so it's a wonderful opportunity to share the story of the site with the local community.

One of my favourite days of the year is when Historic England releases our annual Heritage at Risk register. There's a couple of great Gloucestershire case studies in this article.

I really hope archaeologists never pull any of those skeletons out of a site!

The skeletal zoo animals in Funnybones. Giraffe, fish, small rodent(?), sloth, snake and pig. None of these skeletons are how they should work. Archaeologists really would be baffled and confused to find any of these. Why is the snake's tongue made of bone?

Page from Ahlberg's Funnybones story, showing the skeletons meeting a skeleton elephant with bone ears and a trunk made of vertebrae and a skeleton parrot with bone feathers.

To be fair, the people designing them probably got used to the Ahlberg's Funnybones books as children. Used to get unreasonably outraged at their zoo visit when reading this to my then toddler!

Front side of metal grave marker on grass. Surmounted by a cross, with a winding river or road curving down to three architectural-style arches along the bottom. Sadly the lighting doesn't allow for the text to be read, but if you zoom in to the bottom of the central arch, there is an old-fashioned doll wearing blue facing the viewer. Somewhat creepily, I didn't see the doll until after I left site and looked at the photo later!

Rear side of metal grave marker, showing that it's been constructed by sliding the main panel into two grooved bars stuck in the ground. The metal appears to have been cast.

Just learnt about #31DaysOfGraves from a @churchmonuments.bsky.social lecture and can't resist adding this one on the final day, even if it isn't quite on theme! Photographed in the Forest of Dean, made of metal, and I've never seen any comparable examples - would love to know if anyone else has.

Love this.

The umbrella lipsync performance? Or Queen in Liveaid?

Emails are usually staggered over a few days. Mine just arrived now and I came on here to see if anyone had listed the candidates to avoid yet!

Agreed. I think the first book is the weakest, and even that holds up pretty well as a kids' adventure story, even if the others are deeper.

Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series?

Email sent. Is there anyone with enough knowledge of the rather opaque system who could say if it would help for us to copy messages to either your MP or our own to provide pressure from any direction possible? Good luck - hope you get some response soon.

Absolutely fantastic story. Would you mind if I shared a link to the first post on FB - all the real life friends I've introduced to Lehrer's music over the years who will love this are over there, rather than here?

Took my then 7 year old to see someone performing his material in Edinburgh last summer and she loved it. Would agree with all of the below, except it's got to be 4 or 5 generations now.

Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them.

tomlehrersongs.com

I didn't put it together and use the word archaeologist til my early teens, but my first TV memory is watching the raising of the Mary Rose, and then I was taken to see Lindow Man in a special exhibition in Manchester soon after he was first discovered. I blame my parents!

Together We Win | Marcus Sedgwick and Daniel Ido | Children's Bookshop Writer Marcus Sedgwick's short story uses the past to illustrate how humanity is once again at a pivotal moment in time. Is now the time for a revolution? And what part will you play in making change?...

You're probably not looking for this, but might just appreciate it anyway. A few years back a series of illustrated children's books was crowd funded under the umbrella '10 stories to make a difference'. One was Together We Win, by Marcus Sedgwick - www.childrensbookshoplondon.com/product-page...

No idea about Wiki editing but have you thought about putting them onto the Historic England list description - it's called the Missing Pieces project and anyone can add images, or other information (subject to someone checking before it publishes that you haven't just written a load of expletives).

Thanks so much for a great tour.

Although I just realised I should have said scissor beam in the alt text. Oops.

Isn't it gorgeous!

Stretch of standing Roman limestone wall in a dimly lit underground chamber. Shallow drainage gully running around the bottom of the wall but very little water in it, making a brilliant change to the first time I tried to visit it only to find 4 ft of water when we got half way down the stairs.

Medieval limestone arches from a ruined monastery against a brilliant blue sky.

13th century hammer beam roof on a mostly stone monastic building with a modern glass wall coming down on the left hand side. Part of the timber structure has been removed and replaced by thin black metal struts.

Had a fantastic day looking at bits of interesting archaeology in Gloucester, underground and overground, like happy wombles.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

My late grandfather was born on the same day as David Attenborough. This has been the one week I haven't held my breath in fear on seeing Sir David trending. Happy 99th birthday - I've toasted them both today.