Sign in

Caroline Shenton

@dustshoveller.bsky.social
285 followers 62 following 15 posts

Archivist, Historian and Author of The Day Parliament Burned Down and National Treasures. #RCEWA member. Secretary to Council at Girton College, Cambridge. TLDR: PenPusher.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Dr Mark Purcell @camlibresearch.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Of all the stone birds and animals I have seen this week, I think this handsome and sacred baboon is my favourite.
0689
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Mark Valladares @honladymark.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Just spent a fascinating hour listening to @dustshoveller.bsky.social describe the events of the day Parliament burned down in 1834.
111
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Tough choice this one. Roman road made of oreos or the little animals peering out atop the summit of Mount Ararat?
030
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Today is my last day working in the Parliamentary Archives after nearly 25 years! I am v grateful to colleagues for many cards and gifts. I have a shiny new website to support next phase of life www.maritakayanagi.com
Vase of flowers, red bottle bag, variety of small gifts on a tableBag of scones, plate of brownies, jam, clotted cream and butter on a table
4523
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Dr Mark Purcell @camlibresearch.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Very pleased to encounter this very handsome fellow enjoying summer Cambridge.
0244
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Victorian Commons @victoriancommons.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Charles Barry, architect of the new Houses of Parliament, was born #OnThisDay 1795, a stone’s throne from the old Palace of Westminster. This guest post from @dustshoveller.bsky.social looks at his background and knowledge of Westminster: historyofparliament.com/2025/05/12/c...
historyofparliament.com
A Westminster Boy Made Good: Charles Barry (1795-1860) - The History of Parliament
On the night of 16 October 1834, thirty-nine year old Charles Barry was travelling back to town from business in Brighton. As his stagecoach trundled over the top of the North Downs, and began its des...
073
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
University of Liverpool Library @livunilibrary.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Major news from our Special Collections and Archives! 📢 Our Head of Music, Prof Lisa Colton @lisacolton.bsky.social, identified that we hold the manuscript of Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass in D, which scholars thought was lost. It is now fully available on the Digital Heritage Lab: tinyurl.com/47ce8hkd
Image of Ethel Smyth smiling Image of Ethel Smyth's Mass in D manuscript
22310
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Philippa Smith @philippajs.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
And another one @dustshoveller.bsky.social , in the display associated with their excellent London in the Second World War exhibition @thelondonarchives.bsky.social
022
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Philippa Smith @philippajs.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
National Treasures by @dustshoveller.bsky.social featured in my local library’s VE display!
131
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Just in case you’re at a loose end, my book National Treasures explains how #London protected its national art, museums and archives in WWII, mostly returned to the capital from their hiding places by 1945 #VEDay80 #VEDay2025
073
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
JMcN @jmcn.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Ok #photofriday #histbookchat. @dustshoveller.bsky.social is the fascinating account of how we protected our art treasures from destruction. Morrin’s book is an account of the crash of a Silver City Wayfarer in 1958. Good books.
The Devil Casts his Net: The Winter Hill Air Disaster. Steve Morrin, 2005National Treasures: Saving The Nation’s Art in World War II. Caroline Shenton, John Murray 2021.
062
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS @bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Happy 250th birthday to J M W Turner. Such a titan of British art, I had to give him his own chapter to end my book (focussing on his paintings of the burning of Parliament in 1834). One critic called him ‘the Fire King’, as an insult - but Turner had the last laugh!
JMW Turner’s 1835 painting of the burning of the Houses of Parliament in 1835, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. On the left, the old House of Commons goes up in flames, as a crowd gathers to watch on Westminster Bridge on the right.
721030
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Yay! #VEday80
062
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Will Derham @willderham.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Devoured this, by the great @dustshoveller.bsky.social over two sittings in the last week. I would highly recommend 🤓 #History #Heritage #Books
082
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
With perfect timing for the paperback publication of #NecessaryWomen today, why not read this splendid new review by @dustshoveller.bsky.social - herself a great Necessary Woman of Parliament previously of course! londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2025/02/06/a...
londonhistorians.wordpress.com
A House of Their Own
Guest Post by Caroline ShentonReview: Necessary Women: The Untold Story of Parliament’s Working Women by Dr Mari Takayanagi and Dr Elizabeth Hallam Smith. Who do you think of when you think of wome…
21811
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
ICYMI, here I am on @bbcradio4.bsky.social talking about the St Stephen’s Chapel Westminster project and the new book which came out of it a month or two back www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Today in Parliament - 10/01/2025 - BBC Sounds
Sean Curran with the news and interviews from Westminster.
140
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Dr Mark Purcell @camlibresearch.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Fascinating - part of the archive of the great medieval historian Eileen Power (1889-1940). This box is material relating to her ground-breaking book Medieval People (1924). Was delighted to attend the once-a-decade Power Feast @girtoncollege.bsky.social with @dustshoveller.bsky.social a while ago.
1498
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
So glad you enjoyed, Will!
010
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
“Caroline is a very bossy little girl”. I was 5. Plus ça change…
000
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Liz Rees @lizarees.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Maybe more a bit disappointed than grumpy but a lovely piece
041
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Jacob Gifford Head @giffordhead.co.uk · 19/11/2024
The cold snap justifies opening a bottle of Smoking Bishop. Amazing what a year can do to the flavour—needed to add a decent amount of extra sugar. I heated it with bergamot for that lovely perfumed aroma, although I did have to pull them quite quickly to stop it overpowering everything!
A pan with the heated smoking bishop—deep red like mulled wine and slices of bergamot Two glasses of the Bishop.
4201
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Dr Mark Purcell @camlibresearch.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Just recapping a few pictures of the unbelievably wonderful painter monasteries of Southern Bucovina, Romania - this summer with @dustshoveller.bsky.social and @davidatkinson.bsky.social.
35110
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Tudorfp @tudorfp.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Gladly speaking at Gustav Holst: an archival legacy 20 Nov 1400-16.30 @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Experts from BL, Britten-Pears and Gustav’s birthplace talking about their archives, and performances of his Terzetto + Imogen’s suite for solo viola. Free tickets by emailing music-events@bl.uk
Imogen Holst’s bookplate showing her dancing with a man with Thaxted church in the background
1126
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Nice pic too…the evacuated public records from Chancery Lane in storage at The Oxford Diocesan teacher training college, Culham in WW2!
120
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Brónagh 🇮🇪🇵🇸🚴‍♀️ @beebsymca.eurosky.social · 18/11/2024
Do you know of an archive at risk of being lost? The National Archives have grants available.
nationalarchives.gov.uk
Records at Risk Grants - Archives sector
The Records at Risk Grants programme is delivered in collaboration with the British Records Association and the Business Archives Council, to provide support for urgent interventions to save significa...
15655
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
A good place to enter my 60th year…
030
Reposted by Caroline Shenton
Lucy Worsley @lucyworsley.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Hello friends! Independent bookshops really appreciate it if you buy your Christmas presents from them. There's a week left to order your signed and dedicated copies of my books from my friends at Chorleywood Books for delivery in the UK before Christmas 😃 chilternbookshops.co.uk/product-cate...
656248
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Yup, it’s taken a year but here I am…ready to roll.
082
Caroline Shenton @dustshoveller.bsky.social · 02/11/2023
Hello World!
010