Will Wyeth

Westminster Meeting House raided by Metropolitan Police again. Statement: “For Quakers, faith and action are inseparable. Peaceful protest, prayer and nonviolent action are integral parts of many Quakers' religious life. Whilst we take the planning of criminal acts very seriously, we believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place. This raid is part of a systematic stifling of dissent. That this is the second time in a year that the police have raided our meeting house dramatically illuminates the broader trend in the UK of cracking down on those who disagree with the government. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. It's a key part of how people make their voices heard between elections.” – Oliver Robertson, Head of Witness and Worship Quakers in Britain, 5 March 2026

Yesterday evening, for the second time in a year, the Met Police raided Westminster Quaker Meeting House and arrested a number of young nonviolent activists.

STATEMENT: www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Can investigating past economies help us build a future without fossil fuels? @simonmair.bsky.social and I believe the answer lies in a closer investigation of early "social metabolism".

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... into

Screen grab of a call for papers at Leeds IMC. The text reads: TIME FOR CHANGE: TEMPORALITIES & CASTLES Call for Papers - Leeds IMC 6-9 July 2026 - 'Temporalities' What is a castle in time? Is there a time of castles, for castles? Can castles be atemporal? What does a castle studies engaging with questions of temporality look like? Whose castle temporalities matter? Can we call time on the castle studies of yesterday, yesteryear? Can the lens of temporality challenge castle knowledges and interpretations? This panel welcomes proposals which examine temporalities and temporalities in castle studies as a field of inquiry at the intersection of (among others) medieval studies, architecture, archaeology, history, heritage and medievalism. Papers of between 15-20 minutes, by researchers at all career stages, discussing any aspects of castle studies research including but not limited to the following, are welcome: • Temporality in castle studies; • Remembering and memorializing in castle Obscured history, identities and heritages in spaces, communities, themes: past and castles past and present present; • Medieval temporalities and the heritage • Temporally situated antiquity, novelty and innovation in castles; • Planning, timing, scheduling, recording in • castle communities, lives, societies; • Ruined, lost and fictional castles in time Parallel and contradictory times; • Time and temporality in the reception of castles; Please send proposals (a title and abstract of no more than 200 words; short biography of 50 words or less), or any questions, to Dr William Wyeth (william.wyeth@english-heritage.org.uk) by 15 September 2025. This session is organised by Emma Fearon (Nottingham Trent University) and William Wyeth (English Heritage)

Please share: due to withdrawal I have a space on my castles panel for #LeedsIMC.

If you’ve an idea needs airing on time and temporalities in castles, give me a shout/submit via link! imc-leeds.confex.com/imc/2026/pre... @imc-leeds.bsky.social @castlestudies.bsky.social

Original CfP below ⬇️

They say:

- the government must not weaken copyright law, and should instead strengthen licensing, transparency & enforcement
- the government should stop prioritising large multinational tech firms

3/5

Screenshot of of Berthold Woltze’s painting, ‘The Irritating Gentleman’ (1874). The scene depicts a train carriage, on which a woman in black clothes sits in the foreground, clutching a napkin or tissue and a black hat on her lap. Behind her, leaning over the back of the bench seat and towards her ear, is a man in a grey suit and hat, holding a cigar and smiling towards her. The woman’s face is turned towards the viewer. She appears uncomfortable and irritated by the attention of the man. She may be in mourning dress.

Something of a painterly motif emerging 🤔

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Be...

The last photo of third-grader Mikaeil Mirdoraghi, waving to his mom before he left for school. He was killed shortly after in the U.S./Israeli strike on a primary school in Minab.

I briefly attended a clown training school.

Screen grab of a call for papers at Leeds IMC. The text reads: TIME FOR CHANGE: TEMPORALITIES & CASTLES Call for Papers - Leeds IMC 6-9 July 2026 - 'Temporalities' What is a castle in time? Is there a time of castles, for castles? Can castles be atemporal? What does a castle studies engaging with questions of temporality look like? Whose castle temporalities matter? Can we call time on the castle studies of yesterday, yesteryear? Can the lens of temporality challenge castle knowledges and interpretations? This panel welcomes proposals which examine temporalities and temporalities in castle studies as a field of inquiry at the intersection of (among others) medieval studies, architecture, archaeology, history, heritage and medievalism. Papers of between 15-20 minutes, by researchers at all career stages, discussing any aspects of castle studies research including but not limited to the following, are welcome: • Temporality in castle studies; • Remembering and memorializing in castle Obscured history, identities and heritages in spaces, communities, themes: past and castles past and present present; • Medieval temporalities and the heritage • Temporally situated antiquity, novelty and innovation in castles; • Planning, timing, scheduling, recording in • castle communities, lives, societies; • Ruined, lost and fictional castles in time Parallel and contradictory times; • Time and temporality in the reception of castles; Please send proposals (a title and abstract of no more than 200 words; short biography of 50 words or less), or any questions, to Dr William Wyeth (william.wyeth@english-heritage.org.uk) by 15 September 2025. This session is organised by Emma Fearon (Nottingham Trent University) and William Wyeth (English Heritage)

Please share: due to withdrawal I have a space on my castles panel for #LeedsIMC.

If you’ve an idea needs airing on time and temporalities in castles, give me a shout/submit via link! imc-leeds.confex.com/imc/2026/pre... @imc-leeds.bsky.social @castlestudies.bsky.social

Original CfP below ⬇️

Nineteenth-centuryists (#C19th) - I'm looking for novels in the first half of the century where the rural English poor are racialized as "savage", "dark" etc. I know English rural examples from journalism/non-fiction, and fiction about the urban and "Celtic" poor, but fictional examples useful!

Photograph of tue ground-floor entrance to a 1390s tower house at Dunottar Castle.

Photograph of the Dunottar Castle promontory, which is surrounded on three sides by the sea, and rises high on a broad platform of rock. The tower house is visible as the tallest building on the rock. In the background and to the sides is the churning North Sea.

Tower House action for #ADoorAbleThursday, the entrance to Dunnottar Castle’s late C14 stacked residence. Above the door is a niche for an armorial panel.

The TH was a very posh and cosy home in its day, giving warmth and comfort from the *chilly* North Sea winds.

Witches of Dirleton Castle Podcast Episode · Historic Scotland Podcast · 3 March · 39m

Check out the first series of Historic Scotland podcasts to be available to everyone! Good to hear interesting details about this period, but also care in telling what is actually a really horrible story. Please share!

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

Probably, yes. I have a vague recollection of Roman practice of using human hair or blood, but it might also be antiquarians talking nonsense.

Blood and hair were quite common as binding agents in pre-modern buildings, pretty grim stuff.

Before 1066: how England’s elites lived, ruled, and showed off Podcast Episode · The English Heritage Podcast · 5 February · 47m

Bit late to this but just found this interesting @englishheritage.bsky.social podcast with @willwyeth.bsky.social & Duncan Wright talking about the transition of power between Anglo Saxons & Normans, partly based on our series of projects on Laughton en le Morten

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

Only a small and comparatively recent element of UK archaeological research is purely academic. Today, the overwhelming majority is conducted within professional archaeology. Meanwhile UK avocational archaeology has 200+ years of national and regional associations, publications, and collections.

Conference on storage in castles. Niche topic!

Photograph of part of the old parish church in Stenton, East Lothian. A door with segmental arch is in the centre of the image, with a plain square window to the left of it. A tall stone tower rises on the far left. The whole building is made of reddish sandstone. The building is dated from 1561.

Still thinking about this little stone doorway from the old parish church at Stenton I saw last week. Lovely mouldings.

As a professional military strategist, I just wanted to make sure everyone has a full understanding of the American strategy in Iran, thank you for your attention to this matter

Photograph of a colourful sunset, seen from a path on cliff tops by the sea.

Cracking sunset on the walk this evening.

Poor Matt Goodwin. All he ever wanted was to be a hard working MP/academic/tv presenter/commentator/writer/pollster/wealth adviser/women’s health guru and you all ripped that away from him. A shame

Excited to announce the launch of the LEIZA Journal of Archaeology (LJA), a new #DiamondOpenAccess, double-blind peer-reviewed online journal of world #archaeology.

More Info: www.leiza.de/forschung/pu...

Panorama - Our Man in Moscow Panorama follows a year in the life of the BBC’s Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, and his work reporting from one of the most hostile places in the world to be a journalist.

Interesting watch. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

“It’s all Bourdieu?”

“Always has been.”

I thought Wuthering Heights (the big house) looked like a Roman fort gateway too. Or one of the ones at Hadrian’s Wall.

Just had that cürsed moment of feeling like you’ve already read the report you’re reading for a project and you’ve already extracted the info you need from it and put it in a spreadsheet.

And it turns out you have.

👎

Love the sense of movement in this image.

History Workshop in Turbulent Times Podcast Episode · History Workshop Podcast · 18 February · 50m

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h... listened to this while making soup this morning. Worth a go.

Freelance Work Transcription, scholarly editing, archival visits Joanne is available for freelance work: transcriptions and editions of late medieval and early modern Latin, English and Anglo-Norman manuscript te…

A reminder that I do freelance work: transcription, archival visits and more. My rates are here (subject to surcharges or discounts):

joanneedge.co.uk/freelance-wo...

‘Decolonising’ medieval Irish history? The (im)possibility of challenging existing practice The ‘Decolonial’ turn has come to the discipline of Irish history. How will it be used? As a liberal metaphor or decolonial praxis? As the turn proceeds through the discipline to pre-modern studies...

New article out by Stephen Hewer et al on decolonising medieval Irish history www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #history #medievalsky #ireland

This sounds cool!