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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

And good grief, they’ve got Hamish in the background too!

Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Archaeologists aren’t always preoccupied with material culture from the deep past, pots and bones and tools long abandoned. Spent a wonderful morning at the last day of the current exhibition at Worcester museum and it was FAB

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I used to have a view of a car park from my previous office. The ones from the Offa’s Dyke Centre at Knighton are quite an improvement

Views from the Offa’s Dyke Centre at Knighton

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Our copy of British Archaeology magazine from @archaeologyuk.bsky.social landed this morning and features the work of the Clwydian Range Archaeology Group (CRAG).

British Archaeology magazine article on the Hanes mewn harddwch, History in beauty project by the Clwydian Range Archaeology Group

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Thank you @dbellingradt.bsky.social for dogs and manuscripts And they do kind of look like Hamish and Cavall

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Old Oswestry is also home to Mark Evans’ beautiful Janus Horse sculpture which is featured in an excellent blog post on borderland identities from @archaeodeathprof.bsky.social howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2021/06/29/j...

Janus horse head sculpture on Old Oswestry Racecourse, Shropshire

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Another thoroughly relatable article from Tim Dowling. Two archaeologists walk into a local beer garden with their Vizsla and recognise one person at a crowded table. Six people all say “Hello Hamish”

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Well, it certainly looks like our Lewes queen had had enough of the hot weather. Feeling her pain. . .

Small statue of the queen of the Lewes chess set

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I really enjoyed this piece for the @theguardian.com by Federico De Blasi on tracing the Mediterranean’s common culinary heritage. Water has defined how we have navigated our world over millennia and this is equally true for the Atlantic coast too evidenced through its archaeology 👇

Front cover of Barry Cunliffe’s ‘Facing the Ocean the Atlantic and its peoples’

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Ooh ‘The heatless whispers of the ancestral dead’ In the Anglo-Cymric borderland some of us also choose to seek shelter from most ancient of trees.

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I usually try to keep my politics off this platform, but I’m prepared to make an exception for Elon Musk. These figures are simply horrific. Everyone Hates Elon’s response can’t be improved on

Everyone Hates Elon poster at a bus stop in London

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Our starling family are so close to leaving. Two out of three chicks survived and they are now very interested in the outside world. We’ll miss their early morning chattering on the other side of the wall 🥰

A juvenile starling looks out of its nest box

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

You know you’ve got a good book when early afternoon has morphed into early evening without you even noticing. For anyone with even a passing interest in the natural environment, history and hope for the future of the Anglo-Cymric borderland ‘Hafren’ by @sarahchave1.bsky.social is one such book

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Yay, it’s Brit Arch mag day! The May June edition of the bi-monthly magazine from @archaeologyuk.bsky.social includes an account of a visit to the Roman site of Venta Silurum, capital of the Silures at Caerwent in Monmouthshire

Front cover of the May June edition of British Archaeology magazine

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Even on a very grey March morning the Shropshire Hills look great

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Strangely, I was up on Kinver Edge earlier today. We always stop at the war memorial before heading back down to the road. Kinver is unusual in having two memorials. This is the earliest where the survivors would meet to honour their fallen comrades. The second was

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

I may have mentioned how I love a good graveyard - for lots of reasons. St Bartholomew's at Much Marcle is also home to one of the most impressive yew trees in the country. @iwm21.bsky.social, Hamish and Cavall providing scale. It's breathtaking. Well worth a visit if you're in the area

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Wow, you go out in the pouring rain with @iwm21.bsky.social and the dogs and encounter three enormous gull sculptures made from recycled materials by @gulljunkart.bsky.social that are paying a flying visit to the park. They’re amazing 😱

Gull sculptures made from recycled materials being installed overlooking a bridge

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

And otters have even inspired local artists taking part in the city’s Paint Festival

Painted image of two otters on a canal side wall

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

I really enjoyed the video of @profaliceroberts.bsky.social on her restorative walk through the woods in her fight against the decrepitude accompanied by her Wirehaired Vizsla, Lupa. Here’s our Hamish with his mate Cav (an equally wirey Griffon) demonstrating the utter joy of beach walks too

A wirehaired vizsla and griffon playing on a beach

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

If anyone is looking for a present for a book lover who has an interest in the Anglo-Welsh border, its landscape, heritage and folklore I can highly recommend Sarah Siân Chave’s Hafren

Book cover of Hafren by Sarah Siân Chave

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Cavall the Spanish rescue Griffon says hi back

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

It was a day for magazines in the post. We also got our latest update from @englishheritage.bsky.social including an account of the varied uses of castles featuring Stokesay Castle in #Shropshire. It’s a truly magical setting and a wonderful haven for wildlife too

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

So excited to receive a copy of the first Annual Review of the Offa’s Dyke Association. There is so much going on. Conservation work, conferences and research all feature!

Front cover of the Offa’s Dyke Association Annual Review

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Wise words from @wwf.org.uk ‘20 minutes of nature a day can improve your wellbeing’. Even better it it’s mixed with archaeology too like at the beautiful @wtscotsocial.bsky.social site of Credenhill, Herefordshire 👍

A dog and a man walking on Credenhill hill fort, Herefordshire.

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

You did a cracking job on turning my Anglo-Welsh border over millennia ramblings into something coherent and I loved the positivity wrap up with @iwm21.bsky.social too. Definitely up for another expedition when we're next in deepest Shropshire with Hamish and now also Cav!

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

I’m revisiting Rowland Parker’s magical The Common Stream - a reminder of why I love landscape archaeology because it tells the stories of “the ordinary men and women who in their countless thousands have trudged through life and then departed from it, leaving little visible trace”

Cover of Rowland Parker’s 1975 The Common Stream

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Hamish too. He wants to be a bones specialist when he grows up.

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

#Shropshire stone circles in the sunshine. Mitchell’s Fold ❤️

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Not the Anglo-Welsh border, but archaeology and dogs. The best kind of content ❤️ In our house it would have to be ‘Destroyer of beer mats and tissues’

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Thank you to @archaeologyuk.bsky.social for this news on new discoveries in Flintshire. If you don’t subscribe to British Archaeology you’re missing out if you love your heritage. Why not make hints for Christmas and support the work of the Council for British Archaeology?

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Hamish sends paw waves in a break from rearranging the autumn leaves in the park

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 26/10/2024

Doesn’t half remind me of the replica little Chilean stone mask I brought back with me many years ago!

Replica of a prehistoric Chilean stone mask

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 19/03/2024

And if you want to see an example of some of this conservation work, here are before and after shots of scrub clearance undertaken at Sedbury, Gloucestershire

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 06/11/2023

Bodenham Arboretum doing their bit for keeping Worcestershire weird. Brilliant!

Three Jack o’ Lanterns on sticks emerging out of the lake edge

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Mel Roxby-Mackey @archaeoborders.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

Yesterday @iwm21.bsky.social had a great outreach session with a school from Brecon at the Offa's Dyke Centre. Hamish went along for the ride. How much fun can a dog have at a heritage centre on a walk with his Dad afterwards? This much, apparently. The sign says nothing about paws. . .

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