Dr Ian Friel

A very good interview on the reading crisis in the UK. Heartily endorse bringing back sure start or some version of it.

Image of University of London with the text: RHS Centenary Fellowships, for PhD completion, 2025-26. Closing date for applications: 31 May 2025

Applications now invited for the Society's two Centenary Fellowships, 2025-26 to support PhD students complete a doctorate in #history.

The Fellowships are held in conjunction with @ihr.bsky.social and are for £8500 over 6 months. Applications, by 31 May, are via the IHR bit.ly/4mybVDV #Skystorians

Screenshot of the Wayback Machine capture of the old entry for BL MS Add 49598

OMG PEOPLE! I have the BL hack of all BL hacks. Why didn't this occur to me before? It turns out the Wayback Machine has snapshots of MS metadata from the old Digitised Manuscripts site. I tried it for the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, in honor of his day, and lo! web.archive.org/web/20140305...

Today I start my research trip sailing down the River Seine from Paris to Honfleur (via a few stops) in a reconstruction of the Klåstad cargo ship built in 998. It’s the penultimate stage in the ship’s journey from Rome to London throughout the summer. I’ll post updates as we go #Saga25 #MedievalSky

I'm thrilled to share that I've received a £1,000 grant from the V&A/Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust to write a new article: ‘From Fo’c’sle to Footlights: Maritime Imaginaries in British Musical Theatre’. Can’t wait to dive into the archives! ⚓ #VandA #TheatreStudies #CulturalHistory

Sailor duck

Nelson duck

Captain Smith from Titanic duck

Pirate duck

In exciting news I’m being promoted to Professor of Maritime History @plymuni.bsky.social on 1 August. Some maritime rubber ducks seemed best suited to here

The stunningly intricately painted nave ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral dates to the 13th century 😍🤩
It is constructed of wooden boards nailed directly onto the structure above and is the only one of its type in Britain.

More info: peterborougharchaeology.org/peterborough...

A back garden and furniture in heavy rain, photographed through glass. The fuzzy patches on the image are caused by rain on the glass.

Absolute cloudburst in Chichester at the moment! Still, the plants will like it...

One thing that occurs to me, as a former museum curator, is how one ensures that finds are properly conserved, stored & displayed. It can be a real conundrum with shipwrecks- well-preserved wrecks can contain thousands of items & not every wreck collection can become an @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social!

Very informative, and a salutary contrast to the ‘gave up its secrets’ paradigm of coverage. Explaining that research is a process, not a thing, and that it often takes extended time (as well as money) matters, especially now.

Amongst other things, I'm currently working on a #househistory in E Sussex. Most of the key sources are at the wonderful 'The Keep' at Falmer, home of the E Sussex Record Office. Rail journey involves a change at Brighton, & I never fail to be impressed by the station's magnificent 1882 canopy!

In a world worried about job security, worth restating it will be a very long time before traditional building conservation skills can be done by a robot. Meanwhile, brilliant schemes happening across UK are bringing life back to unique buildings & creating new opportunities for young people. 👇

I really think universities underestimate how true this is for a lot of students and their parents. They don’t want us to try to pretend to be cool. They want us to be a bit dusty, and very serious. Enthusiastic, definitely! But also nerdy. We’re selling them ACADEMIA.

A celtic lady is reading a book (not an actual celtic lady, you understand, but someone dressed in celtic costume). The book is a Haynes manual-type of book called "Roman Soldier operations manual". Looking over her shoulder is a Roman soldier (or someone dressed as a Roman soldier, obviously). He looks slightly concerned.

We're restocking our bookshop! 📕📘📗

All suggestions of titles we should stock are very welcome.

A life jacket used by crewman James McGrady during the sinking of the Titanic. Sadly, McGrady’s body was found by the SS Algerine still floating in the life jacket 42 days after the sinking. The life jacket is now on display in ⁦The Rooms Museum in St John’s, Newfoundland #titanic #newfoundland

Excellent article of a sometimes-ignored aspect of mid-17th Century history.

(Side note: The HMS Montagu was named after (Parliamentarian general) the Earl of Manchester's uncle, who was locked in the Tower in 1642 for supporting the Royalists – he's the chap we have to thank for Guy Fawkes Night!)

Dives Reveal 320-year old English Warship in Remarkable Condition | Historic England

Very interesting piece on the wreck of HMS Northumberland, lost off the Kent coast during the 'Great Storm' of 1703 - well-preserved, but eroding... @danpascoe79.bsky.social
historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/ne...

Oil painting of a river scene with agitated water in the foreground, flanked by trees and buildings. On the left is Willy Lott’s House, with a ferry boat nearby. A boy fishes on the right-hand bank. Above the river, a kingfisher is just visible in flight.

The water churns, the ferry rocks, and a flash of red marks a secret waiting to be found.

Painted around 1814, The Mill Stream by John Constable offers one of the most atmospheric views of Flatford Mill, with the now-famous Willy Lott’s House standing quietly to the left.

Job spotlight of the week: Lecturer in Historic Environment at the IHR, Senate House, London. Fixed-term for 12 months, 17.5 hours per week, £45K pro-rata.

Excellent!

A diver examining a stone slab engraved with a cross. Maritime Archaeologist, Rachel Bynoe, examining a Purbeck Marble grave slab underwater (credit: Bournemouth University).

Examination of England’s only 13th-century shipwreck sheds light on the #medieval kingdom's complex trade networks and diverse livelihoods, all via their lucrative trade in a valuable stone.

Find out how in this @archaeologyuk.bsky.social #FestivalofArchaeology #AntiquityThread 1/13 🧵🏺 #Archaeology

The site of Chitty and Vernon's former 1740s shipyard at Itchenor on Chichester Harbour. Nothing of the yard is now visible, but it lay between the house on the left and the laid-up yachts in the distance. The yard had at least two launching slips.

HMS Hind was built at Itchenor on #ChichesterHarbour, W Sussex, one of 4 warships constructed in the 1740s by Chitty & Vernon. Nothing of the yard is now visible, but it lay between the house & yachts. It was used intermittently until early 1800s & in 1780s built 2 huge Eastindiamen #MaritimeHistory

Archaeologists identify 250-year-old Shipwreck in Orkney Scientific analysis and community-led research led to the identification of the Earl of Chatham, which was found last year.

"Sanday Development Trust, said ... "Now that we have this knowledge about the wreck and how it came to rest in Sanday, the next step is very much to explore what the community here would like to see happen.""

Interested to follow this decision making process.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Very excited about this! @watsonlittle.bsky.social

Bayeux Tapestry to return to British Museum on loan after 900 years Bayeux Tapestry will be shown at the British Museum, which will lend treasures to Normandy museums.

It'll be good to see it again.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Picture of wood fishweirs on seabed From Hansson, Anton, et al. "A submerged Mesolithic lagoonal landscape in the Baltic Sea, south-eastern Sweden–Early Holocene environmental reconstruction and shore-level displacement based on a multiproxy approach." Quaternary International 463 (2018): 110-123.

Underwater images of a 9,000-year-old stationary fish weir off the coast of southern #Sweden from a well-preserved #StoneAge site. From fishing settlement was presented in a lagoon environment where Mesolithic humans lived during parts of the year. 1/5

There’s a handy chart to consult: 😂

Archaeologists discover 3,500-year-old city in Peru Researchers believe Peñico served as a trading hub linking ancient Pacific coast communities with those living in the Andes and Amazon.

Wow...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's not just about the broken trust between writer and reader, or all the time, energy and unfounded faith invested by booksellers, but it's also about the important stories still unheard of those living with illness and homelessness that could have been elevated by the industry instead.