Justin Parkes

@earlyengines.bsky.social

Still time to register via link in bio ...

The cult book that claims to unlock prehistoric Glasgow What on earth is ‘sacred geometry’? And does it have legs?

Interesting piece, published by @glasgowbell.bsky.social, on "Glasgow's Secret Geometry" and Harry Bell's leyline theory. www.glasgowbell.co.uk/glasgow-sacr...

100% Contrast the People’s Palace with another leaky Glasgow museum, the Burrell Collection

Probably compounded by Glasgow Museums’ campaign for direct govt funding along the lines of National Museums Liverpool

Printed copy of "The Ancient Town of Leith", "A New Poem by Sir William Topaz McDonagall, Knight of the White Elephant, Burmah. No 21 Lothian Street, Edinburgh. VR. Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Composed May 1899". It is an original on yellowed paper, signed in pen by the author.

Look I know there's a lot of *waves hand* going on right now, but it's come to my attention that William "Worst Poet Ever" McGonagall composed in 1899 an elegy to "The Ancient Town of Leith" in his own, inimitable style. So if you care to gather round, I shall now retell it for the whole class 🧵🗣️🪑

A large crowd of people standing on a frozen curling pond watching players in action. In the foreground a picnic is laid out and a dog has to be restrained from chasing a curling stone.

We are enjoying the #WinterOlympics #curling but can't help feeling the players could work on their attire after seeing this painting by John Levack

It shows a curling match near #Airdrie in 1857. Spot the coal mines that partly funded the players' wealth www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk/SIModes/Deta...

Photo of a boarded up old whitewashed, two storey building seen through a locked gate.

Here’s a photo I took of it in the late ‘80s

A sepia tinted pictorialist photo of an ironworks with tall blast furnaces and even taller industrial chimneys under a dramatic sky with the sun behind a dark cloud.

I love this picture postcard view of the works www.instagram.com/p/CQBIBHcDEW...

This image shows the Hunslet Steel Works in Leeds, England, which operated between 1889 and 1935. Located between Balm Road and Pepper Road, the works covered 25 acres and was a major industrial centre. At its peak, the foundry employed 1,400 to 1,500 people and was a significant manufacturer of steel tram tracks. The area was characterised by extreme industrial pollution, with estimated soot fall-out of 45 tons per square mile annually in the early 20th century. The site was serviced by the Midland Railway, allowing for the transport of raw materials and the export of finished products worldwide.

A photograph courtesy of of Leeds Museums and Galleries of the city's Steel Works in the Hunslet area dating to March 1921 when a strike was taking place. The site opened in 1889 and was at one time Britain's largest producer of steel tram tracks. 1/3

Explore the career of 19th-century engineer George Harrap with @scientistsoph.bsky.social. Learn how to reconstruct a Victorian engineer’s life using professional registers, patents & industrial records.
📅 12 Feb 2026 | 13:30–14:30 | Online via Zoom
Book your place: portal.sog.org.uk/Event/view/1...

North Lanarkshire Council Museums are looking for a full-time Site Supervisor

The post is based at Summerlee Museum in Coatbridge, closing date is 17 February

Wow, what a great photo!

A photograph of a training exercise in a mock-up mine at Coatbridge Mines Rescue. 5 men in miner's gear with helmets and breathing apparatus tend to an unconscious man on the ground.

New on our museum collections website is a 1st hand account of the operation to rescue 135 miners trapped underground following the 1950 Knockshinnoch Colliery Disaster

It was written by James Lillie of the Coatbridge Mines Rescue Brigade www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk/story/rescue...

Women of Photography Join us to celebrate the contributions of women practitioners to the history and living present of photography.

4 weeks today we will be celebrating #InternationalWomen’sDay with our 2026 online Women of Photography conference-athon on 8th March.
Join 72 speakers over 24 hours travelling across the world beginning with photography of Antarctica. Registration is open and free.
womenofphoto.com

Part of an iron mortsafe, with the cast letters "W Fulton & Sons" visible.

A few days ago in the Ramshorn Kirkyard, the sun was picking out an unexpected piece of Glasgow industrial history at the base of a mortsafe.

Site Supervisor - REQ05293 - 458024 | North Lanarkshire Council | myjobscotland View details and apply for this arts / museums / libraries role in Coatbridge with North Lanarkshire Council on myjobscotland

We are recruiting for a Site Supervisor for North Lanarkshire Council Museums. Closing date: 17 February 2026
myjobscotland.gov.uk/councils/nor...

Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life

If you like old trams and trains - and seriously, who doesn’t - then you need to have a wander through Summerlee.
#museums #museumfromhome #Scotland
mainlymuseums.com/post/916/sum...

Still time to register for our next online talk ...

'Exchanging Stereoscopic Views' on Tuesday 10th February 2026 (1900 GMT) with Rebecca Sharpe (Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy) and Julie Gibb (National Museums of Scotland).

Register via the link ...

events.rps.org/en/historica...

YouTube video by Maritime Hull Restoration of Hull's last remaining Scotch Derrick Crane

Some good heritage news - the restoration of Maritime Hull's Scotch Derrick crane. There are many things to go and see in Hull - a rather underrated city well worth a visit. @c20society.bsky.social @simonhickman.bsky.social

youtu.be/qQbm7qLyRKY?...

Exciting job opening @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social Library and Archives Manager. Details here careers.nms.ac.uk/job/827960 #museumjobs #libraryjobs 📜

Thanks, I hadn’t even considered Montagu House

Row breaks out over planned British Museum security blocks 'like a wine bar' — The Standard The landmark Bloomsbury museum wants to replace its controversial anti-terrorism marquees with two new temporary blocks

Is there a physical reason the British Museum can’t build an underground entrance in the forecourt like the Louvre, Mauritshuis, National Galleries of Scotland, etc? apple.news/AzZCuRRWyQP-...

“Supposed Killed or Drowned by Enemy Action at Sea” This book is the first complete list of the women professional seafarers in the United Kingdom’s Merchant Navy who lost their lives due to enemy action. Detailed profiles have been researched for thos...

#History
My book is now out. All about the women merchant navy seafarers who died due to enemy action in the two world wars.
www.lulu.com/shop/nina-ba...
If any museums or other shops are interested in selling this, DM me for wholesale price.

Responding to the Potteries Heritage Emergency Are we going far enough?

ICYMI: are we going far enough on the Potteries heritage emergency?

open.substack.com/pub/thefootb...

Utterly delighted to share our new look Shipbuilding Archive pages - the last of our archives to get the 2026 treatment 🥳

Interactive and intuitive with the full database. I'm so bloody proud of it, and the stepping stone to more features in the future.

Link below.

A zine documenting the National Park Service’s “Life Under Slavery at George Washington House” exhibit—removed by the government January 22, 2026 in an act of censorship (zinebakery.com/bakeshop/cen...)

A 2nd World War US female war correspondent’s uniform of jacket & shirt displayed with a Rolleiflex TLR camera in a glass case in an exhibition.

A view of a photographic exhibition in a high ceilinged museum gallery.

Absolutely loved the Lee Miller exhibition at Tate Britain. It has a tighter focus than the Edinburgh show 25 years ago & emphasises her collaboration with Man Ray rather than a muse. Here is Miller’s war correspondent’s uniform & Rolleiflex (a c1937 Automat 1) #Photography

For the delectation of posterity One of the most remarkable episodes in British archaeology was played out in the summer of 1937 in Clydebank, near Glasgow. For a short while, the Druid Temple, or Knappers, was the hottest ticket …

It’s a new #UrbanPrehistory blog post for Sunday evening. ‘For the delectation of posterity’ explores some materials from my personal Ludovic Mann collection pertaining to the Druid Temple, Clydebank.
theurbanprehistorian.wordpress.com/2026/01/25/f...

A modernist museum building that is taller than wide & is made up of multiple fscets.

The new V&A East (which opens later this year) has more than a touch of Libeskind’s Spiral about it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victori...

A detail of the side of a double decker tram which has orange paint below the lower windows and a band of green paint above. Immediately above the lower windows are narrow illuminated glass signs with red lettering reading, 'CORPORATION TRANSPORT'.

An oblique view of one end of the tram which is painted cream, green and orange. There are thre lights in the front and arrow-shaped indicators. On the front of the top deck are route and destination indicators reading, '15', 'COATBRIDGE' and 'FOOTBALL MATCH'.

Love to see the new illuminated 'Corporation Transport' lettering on 1930s Glasgow tramcar 1245 which is being restored by our amazing volunteers at Summerlee Museum

1245 was the last Glasgow tram to run before the power was turned off. See the Glasgow's Last Tram Group website glasgowslasttram.net