Steven Robb

New Orleans couple discovers ancient Roman grave marker in their yard Discovery of 1,900-year-old headstone dedicated to Roman sailor sets off effort to repatriate item to Italy

Incredible journey. This Roman tombstone has travelled further than the man it commemorates. It seems to have come to New Orleans probably through post WW2 looting.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Arab-influenced tomb in Glasgow Necropolis. A hexagonal tower with a domed top. A set of steps leads up to the entrance.

Detail of the diamond patterned carvings around the doorway of the same tomb.

Loving all the #31DaysOfGraves posts. Today's theme is #tomb and with the Glasgow Necropolis on my doorstep I'm kind of spoiled for choice. Some of Glasgow's Victorian high-heejuns probably spent a good deal of their alloted span deciding how they could outdo each other in death.

Stone table top tomb in graveyard. The light is highlighting the carving on the end showing arable work on the farm, including ploughing, breaking up the soil and sowing seeds. At the top of the panel, farm buildings and distant hills can be seen.

#31DaysofGraves Day 3: Tomb. 18th century table memorial to Straiton or Stratton family of Tower Farm, Liberton. The carving on the end displays arable work including ploughing, breaking up the soil and sowing seeds. Liberton Kirkyard, #Edinburgh. #farming #LocalHistory 📚🗃️
📷 flic.kr/p/2qEDc1j

A pleasant find in The Albion pub, Hastings. A Wm. Younger pub of yore that has this wonderful decoration. All the major Scottish clans represented with their tartans. So.... @boakandbailey.bsky.social and @rogerprotz.bsky.social was this a common thing in Younger's pubs?

Excellent work. The antiquary - and benefactor to Oxford University, Richard Rawlinson, was said to have been buried with Layer's head - after it was rescued from a spike on Temple Bar by another nonjuror (and attorney), John Pierce.

In memoriam...

Just published in the Transactions of the LCAS -a study on the pastoral staff of Bishop Thomas Deacon. A rare nonjuring artefact it passed to four subsequent Bishops before use as a Templar Masonic Staff and museum exhibit. Surviving both auctions and thefts it is now held at @lampallib.bsky.social

Glad you liked it Alanna - I made my kids dig around in that Shrewsbury churchyard - but we sadly couldn't find Cartwright's gravestone...

Its niche -but here's my article on William Cartwright of Shrewsbury -last (almost) of the nonjuring Bishops. Son-in-law of Thomas Deacon he started as a Jacobite and ended with his family as the only members of his congregation. #nonjuring #jacobite

shropshirearchaeologyhistory.org/wp-content/u...

A stone that looks like a prehistoric standing stone but inscribed with "Asda Price Promise Permanently [text obscured] prices [text obscured]. The stone is by a Drystone wall and vegetation grows around it

One for @urbanprehistorian.bsky.social - I was reading this morning about the Asda 'Price Promise' stones that were erected across the country in the 90s

loststonesofasda.wordpress.com

Some are definitely on the way to being archaeological monuments, such as this one in Trumfleet, South Yorkshire

Sir John Hynde Cotton (1686-1752) - Tory politician and Jacobite sympathiser. When told that drinking less wine would be better for his gout-affected leg, he replied 'if it would not bear his usual allowance of six bottles it was no leg to him'.

The eagle-eyed will note that two have removed their specs for the photograph !

Fire on Arthur’s Seat - still spreading

Fire on Arthur’s Seat

Ebenezer James MacRae: the man who transformed Edinburgh - Historic Environment Scotland Blog Ebenezer MacRae’s was appointed as Edinburgh’s City Architect 100 years ago. So who was the man who transformed Edinburgh?

Exactly one hundred years ago - EJ MacRae was appointed Edinburgh's City Architect - Here is a short piece on the work of MacRae and his team.

blog.historicenvironment.scot/2025/07/eben...

Image credit: Iain Masterton

💥The Bernat Klein Studio has been saved! This morning the coalition of Scottish heritage organisations secured the property at auction with a winning bid of £279,000.

The studio will now be restored and brought back into public use, creating a new venue for creative arts in the Scottish Borders.

A takeaway shop on Leith Walk reveals its ghost sign.

A takeaway on Leith Walk is getting renovated and reveals a ghost sign
#Edinburgh
#Leith
#GohstSign

It is with great sorrow that the Society shares the news of the death of Professor Andrew Saint. We deeply mourn the loss of a great scholar and a much loved companion. Read more: bit.ly/457fEQJ

An obituary will appear in the November edition of The Victorian, our membership magazine.

#heritage

A bit of Durham concrete for you.

"Newton Castle, Blairgowrie". Charles Rennie Mackintosh. 1909.
Image: Hunterian.

The new proposal also includes the stonemason's yard off South Gray Street, and is being brought forward in conjunction with a recently submitted PBSA proposal (awaiting determination) on the adjacent site on Ratcliffe Terrace, also by 56three Architects.

Renders including adjacent proposal.

This was underneath it until 1970 !

The thread about the Salisbury Arms and the famous literary association that never was My eye was caught by a claim in local news that the author Arthur Conan Doyle once frequented the Salisbury Arms. In the best spirit of Sherlock Holmes, this thread sets out to thoroughly and factually debunk this assertion. Along the way we will find out about the actual history of the building and those people and organisations who are correctly associated with it. We shall also be told a cautionary tale about the perils of the decline of factual integrity in local journalism and the dangerous potential for the propagation of machine-generated misinformation on the niche subject of Edinburgh local history.

The thread about the Salisbury Arms and the famous literary association that never was

My eye was caught by a claim in local news that the author Arthur Conan Doyle once frequented the Salisbury Arms. In the best spirit of Sherlock Holmes, this thread sets out to thoroughly and factually debunk…

Today's ghost sign discovery at The Elephant House Cafe, the self-proclaimed "Birthplace of Harry Potter", on George IV Bridge.
#ghostsign #Edinburgh

Check out this 10 bedroom country house for sale on Rightmove 10 bedroom country house for sale in Queen Marys Drive, Barlaston, Staffordshire, ST12 for £2,895,000. Marketed by Jackson-Stops, Alderley Edge

this absolutely outstanding Palladian pile is up for sale and you’re all gonna have to bear with me because this one gets a whole thread

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

Following refusal of a previous PBSA proposal, new application submitted for demolition of buildings off Ratcliffe Terrace, incl. the former Causewayside Lads' Institute (1907), and replacement with a PBSA development of 66 student beds across 3 blocks by 56three Architects: bit.ly/4jURApx

Former police box at corner of Waverley Bridge and Market Street. CC-by-NC-SA 2.0, Ian T. Edwards via Flickr.

2025 is the centenary of the appointment of Ebenezer James Macrae as Edinburgh City Architect. Dubbed "the man who shaped modern Edinburgh", his work characterised by a blend of modern form and function with traditional style. A uniquely splendid example is the Edinburgh Police Box
👮📦🧵▶️

Political campaigning in general & by-elections in particular are a great way of seeing bits of Edinburgh (& elsewhere) that you wouldn't otherwise.

Tonight, the Rosemount Buildings - what a gem!

I assume that someone knows stuff about them - @threadinburgh.scot or @stevenrobb.bsky.social?

Deadline for comments on this one -11 June. Currently 49 public objections verses 48 supporting.

Fascinating article on Gavin Stamp by Joshua Mardell in British Art Studies: main--britishartstudies-26.netlify.app/issues/26/ga...