J.T. Smith’s Ancient Topography of London
J.T. Smith published the Ancient Topography of London in 1815. Within it, I discovered a “sunken building”.
Read More J.T. Smith’s Ancient Topography of LondonFlower’s Barrow
This is a hillfort with a limited future”, says a reviewer talking about Flower’s Barrow, an Iron Age hillfort on the Dorset coast. Its life is limited. It seems appropriate to look at something falling into the sea this month, as last September I wrote about Dunwich, a medieval town that has slowly disappeared into […]
Read More Flower’s BarrowHeatwave
The heat did me in this week. I am usually OK with high temperatures, or at least I thought I was. I have often worked outside in soaring temperatures. As an archaeologist I worked in wide open fields during heatwaves and remember the sweat dripping off my nose like a leaking tap. I developed a […]
Read More Heatwavelondon wall
What is London Wall? It is many things including a main road. It is archaeology, history and mythology. But above all, it is a boundary, that, although no longer here, is still ever present.
Read More london wallCorhampton
The yew tree in the Corhampton Church graveyard appears to predate the church.
Read More CorhamptonOld Winchester Hill
Iron Age hillforts have an impact on the landscape. In this blog I look at Old WInchester Hill in Hampshire.
Read More Old Winchester Hillthe last gravestone in dunwich
Jacob Foster’s gravestone is the last in Dunwich. To us, it represents so much more than just Jacob.
Read More the last gravestone in dunwichThe Hand of John Snow
The Mode on Communication of Cholera is a scientific publication by John Snow, the doctor, physician, and, unbeknownst to him, early epidemiologist. It contains his findings on Cholera and how it was spread, or, communicated. Up to the late 1850s the theory of disease contamination was one of miasma. To ensure disease was not spread, […]
Read More The Hand of John SnowA Wall Will tell a 1000 Stories
Walls have so much to say. All the scars, knocks and scrapes tells of a wider story.
Read More A Wall Will tell a 1000 StoriesDark Earth
Dark Earth is an amorphous, bland and unremarkable archaeological deposit. but it represents so much more.
Read More Dark EarthA Fossil Shell Trapped Within a Rock
A fossil shell trapped within a rock. It was formed maybe a 100 million years ago. So innocuous, but it will outlive me.
Read More A Fossil Shell Trapped Within a RockRivers, Bridges and Boundaries
Rivers are more than simple flow of water to the sea. They are means of travel and transport, ecology, religion and boundaries.
Read More Rivers, Bridges and BoundariesAncient Towns, Ancient Teeth
We are always surrounded by our past. we walk through it without even realising how connected with it we are.
Read More Ancient Towns, Ancient TeethWuffingas
Sutton Hoo is only the burial ground of King Raedwald. His Manor was a few miles north.
Read More WuffingasLondon is a Roman Creation
I don’t know exactly when the realisation dawned upon me, but for most of its history, London was really, just the “square mile”, the City of London. That City is a Roman creation, and still is very much Roman. The present boundary of it mirrors the Roman town, Londinium. But I am thinking of this […]
Read More London is a Roman CreationThe Silence and the Noise
The last thing I was expecting our lockdown to bring was a serene and eerie atmosphere. It is something I am not used to, and it leaves me unsettled. I could not put my finger on it, until I realised it was a lack of modern noise that was unnerving. It is the thing science […]
Read More The Silence and the NoiseThe Coffee House Ships List
A 1772 list of East India Company ships, from the Jerusalem Coffee House.
Read More The Coffee House Ships ListCesar Picton
Cesaer Picton. Slave, servant, gentleman.
Read More Cesar PictonMinerva and the Water God
Minerva and the Water God. I thought There was nothing between Minerva and the Water God. But I was wrong…
Read More Minerva and the Water GodWater God
My very first archaeological dig was on a massive Roman farm estate, located right in the centre of the wheat production area of Roman Britain. It was a huge excavation and I spent a wonderful summer living in a tent. The Roman owner of this estate would have been a business “magnate”, as opposed to […]
Read More Water GodAnother dirty book
The Metorpolitan Commission of Sewers, surveryors report, Soho, 1855 Thinking of my previous article on dirty books and manuscripts, I once worked on a book that was covered in very different kind of grime, and a very different context. This could be some archaeology I discovered in the archives? One area of history I have […]
Read More Another dirty bookDusty and Dirty Books
As soon as you walk into an archive store, you can smell the dust. 100,000s of books and documents dating back hundreds of years, all carry dust and dirt they picked up along the way. They are encrusted with it. As you open a book or the lid of an archive box, it hits you […]
Read More Dusty and Dirty BooksPostcards, Woolwich Arsenal, 1917
Many years ago, I found a box in the attic of my auntie’s house. She had just passed away and I was clearing the place. It was odd, as the whole of the attic was empty apart from this one box in the centre of it. The box was full of postcards, photographs, a piece […]
Read More Postcards, Woolwich Arsenal, 1917The Gard’ners Almanac cont’d; Orange Trees
Kalendarium Hortense; OR THE Gard’ner’s Almanac, Directing what he is to do MONTHLY throughout The YEAR. AND what FRUITS and FLOWERS ARE IN PRIME. By John Evelyn. Esq; Fellow of the Royal Society Evelyn’s Kelendarium Hortense for May. It is very hot this weekend, so time to move your Orange trees from the Conservatory. […]
Read More The Gard’ners Almanac cont’d; Orange TreesThe Gard’ner’s Almanac
The Kaledarium Hortense is a classic gardening book by John Evelyn. It takes the gentleman gardener through the year, detailing what he is meant to do in the garden with fruit vegetables and flowers. Much of his advice is straight forward gardening knowledge and logic, and something you may well hear on TV, radio or […]
Read More The Gard’ner’s AlmanacSHOCKING ACCIDENT
“On Saturday morning, an accident which has unfortunately terminated fatally, occurred to a man named Dobson,” starts a news article from the 1850s. “The deceased sat upon the stone while it was being raised, to prevent it shaking the scaffolding”. I read this out loud to an audience as part of a talk on the […]
Read More SHOCKING ACCIDENTThe Abbey
The meaning of historic places has very much changed in recent years. People have been using them in very different and personal ways, above and beyond the usual interest in architecture and historical events. I’ve seen this developing at Creake Abbey, an historic site I’ve been visiting for the past 15 years or so. It […]
Read More The AbbeyVisscher’s People
Claes Visscher’s panorama of London is one of the most famous images of the City for many reasons. We see the various landmarks across London, such as the churches, Leadenhall and the Exchange, all of them labelled. Architecturally the panorama is superb, with the buildings drawn in great quality, detail and precision. It shows us […]
Read More Visscher’s PeopleThere are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…
I don’t really believe in ghosts, or the supernatural, but I am fascinated by it. Rationally, I don’t believe in ghosts. Emotionally, I want to, or rather, want to be left with a feeling of mystery. I am caught between two worlds. Rational logic and emotional desire. I am not looking to explain, nor indulge […]
Read More There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…The Treaty of Kingston – on this day and on this spot?
An important peace treaty and charter was agreed and sealed at the beginning of the 13th century, that isn’t talked about that much today. It is tantalisingly possible to track down the exact place and the day it all happened on. The treaty of Kingston was agreed on an “island on the River Thames at […]
Read More The Treaty of Kingston – on this day and on this spot?A glimpse of the past London Underground through the means of Vertical Archaeology
The London Underground has given me high expectations. As soon as I set foot on the platform, I expect the train to arrive instantaneously. Once left the station, the train whisks me to my next destination, where I catch another to take me home. Everything is rushed. I can’t afford to miss that connection and […]
Read More A glimpse of the past London Underground through the means of Vertical ArchaeologyThe Hand in Hand Birds
This doodle of two entwined birds was drawn in May 1670 while recording the names of an illegal gathering in Kingston Upon Thames. The image is on the back of a document held in the Kingston upon Thames archives. It is a simple line sketch, using one stroke of a quill and ink pen, creating […]
Read More The Hand in Hand BirdsStandon Puddingstone
Engineering is a thing of beauty.
There used to be a joke. Look up Engineering in the Yellow Pages – it says “See Boring”. A whole generation, or more accurately, the post modern generation, labelled engineering as being something for the un-adventurous, for those without passion or compassion. The subject has no style, taste or philosophy. It is an occupation not […]
Read More Engineering is a thing of beauty.“Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.”
A few lines and quotes from a blog I wrote a few years ago on Seething Wells. Hot Bubbling Wells at Seething Wells? ‘About half a Mile from the Bowling-Green at the West End of he Town [Kingston], is a Spring that is cold in Summer, and warm in Winter; it bubbles up, and is […]
Read More “Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.”Flanders Fields
Soften your tread. Methinks the Earth’s surface is but bodies of the dead, Walk slowly in the air, so you do not trample on the remains of God’s servants. Abu al-Alaa al-Maarri It has a romantic ring to it: Flanders Fields. The Fields make up a beautiful, peaceful, rolling landscape. There are long lines […]
Read More Flanders FieldsHawksmoor
Archive documents are dirty. They are especially so around the edges. Historians love the phrase “patina of history” and it is this you can see in the years of dust, dirt from fingers, smoke (fire places, tobacco) and from just being in a room where they were stored. Archive documents are also imperfect. There are […]
Read More HawksmoorShakespeare in London
Shakespeare’s life in London has always intrigued me. It’s 400 years since he died this weekend. I know something about the man, less about his work, although I enjoy regular visits to the Globe. Where was he, where did he live, eat, drink? The Tudor city is gone, but you can draw together many glimpses […]
Read More Shakespeare in LondonThis Tudor Man
It is dangerous to get interested in history, so hard core archivists claim. “Don’t get carried away by what’s in the archive, don’t become interested. You won’t get any work done.” As I stare at the paper, I feel dangerously interested. Luckily, I am not an archivist, although I work in libraries and archives. My […]
Read More This Tudor ManWhat is an Historier’s Miscellany?
The Historier dates back at least to the mid-1400s. Around 1449, he is mentioned as “Sithen historiers dwelling in thilk same cuntre..kouthen knowe better the treuthe of the deede than othere men.” In 1490, Caxton in his Boke yf Eneydos wrote “Wrytynges and dyctes of olde and auncyente cronycles or historyers.” In the next century, […]
Read More What is an Historier’s Miscellany?
An Historier's Miscellany 