iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Artist Laura Knight ❤️. Even better for me, she was born in the patch covered by Erewash Museum, so I can add her to the list of stories we don't yet tell, but will find a way!

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Oxford Archaeology @oxfordarchaeology.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Let's curl and slay! We got some curlers to share! These were found at a mid-18th cent. peruke business under what is now Magdalen College, Oxford. Results are almost ready, so get ready to sashay through the centuries! #archaeology #Artefact #wig #curler #magdalencollege #Oxford #wigslayer

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Biddulph Grange Gardens @nationaltrust.org.uk. Beautiful (and busy!) in the sunshine. The plant collection is very special and it's full of secret passages and hidden grottos. Completely different to most fancy gardens.

A bed of tulips with a dark green, clipped yew hedges behind them. The tulips are cream and lilac.

A calm pool with three ducks on the surface and blue sky above. The pool is in a formal garden and the tree line and shrubs around the pool is reflected in the water.

View over a mirror pond with a Chinese-style, wooden bridge at the other side. The bridge is painted red and green and there are people on it. The trees and shrubs around the pool are shades of red, lime green, copper and yellow-green. They are crisply reflected in the pond.

View to the sky through a Japanese Maple tree with red and green palm-shaped leaves. The light is filtering through creating a pattern of shade, lead colour and sunlight.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

The very atmospheric D. H. Lawrence museum in Eastwood, Notts. Like a time capsule inside and out - really worth a visit.

Exterior of the museum entrance. A red brick, two-storey 19th century building on the corner. The brown central door faces the corner and the building is a triangular shape with shop windows on either side of the door.

A street with Victorian terraces on either side

One side of the Victorian terraced street.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I think Friday evening cricket is my favourite of the kids' activities.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Whatever your political views, it's an interesting turnaround of First Past The Post systems to keep out smaller or newer parties.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

First week in the new job done. A place with loads of stories and potential. And, very importantly, a wisteria about to bloom (that I'm desperate to prune properly as well!)

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

A couple of years ago, the council removed trees in a wooded area of a park. It felt slightly ruined tbh. But now it's beautiful. There are carpets of wildflowers, the remaining trees aren't such twiggy specimens and it's full of birds and insects. Managing woodland well is part of the ecosystem.

A carpet of yellow flowering celandine with green leaves on the ground. The background is a blurred copse of trees.

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Dr Sue Oosthuizen @drsueoosthuizen.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

Raking shadows thrown by low sun emphasise the terraced banks of an extensive IronAge/#RomanoBritish field system on the steep N-facing slopes of Burderop Down, Wilts. ... AND the ditches of a #medieval sheepfold that cut across them. 📷 historicengland.org.uk/education/sc...

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Remains of an 18th-century flour mill, Gentleshaw.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Footprints etched into a stone slab at St Wystan's in Repton. I'd love to know why. #apotropaic #church

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

St Wystan's church in Repton is most famous for it's Anglo Saxon crypt that housed the bones of Mercia' kings. I was quite taken with the ceiling grotesques that are so high up, you need a camera zoom to see them. Who was the audience for these creepy chaps and what was the message?

Wooden ceiling. Carved into the central beam is a monstrous face with a pig's snout, two huge tongues, angry eyes and three horns coming from the forehead.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

A reminder of how much I appreciate modern sanitation. This bad boy was in use as a public loo until...1980! It's an earth closet, so you did the business then covered it with a layer of earth (ideally good loamy soil, but anything to hand). Then it was taken outside. #sharpspottery #history

A wooden earth closet. The front is painted pale blue, with two latched doors. The top is unpainted, with two, circular holes to sit on.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

In 1750, a group of German Moravians, looking for religious freedom, built a village in Ockbrook, Derbyshire. The church is still in use today and the village is like stepping into another world.

A red brick, one-storey building with three arched windows in a central row, and a green door at either end. There is a triangular top to the facade with a clock in the apex. A small white bell house is on the centre of the roof. A lawn in front with tree-lined paths on either side

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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

🚨Job Klaxon🚨 Can you help us bring the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers to a wider audience? We're looking for a project Outreach & Education Co-ordinator to help showcase this fantastic archival collection (1 year, 0.5 FTE) Find out more at warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

19th century membership register for a Yorkshire union branch.

Posters and leaflets relating to the campaign against pit closures after 1985.

The MRC's seminar room, with cataloguing work in progress.

19th century emblem of the Yorkshire Miners' Association.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

The ruins of the medieval St Mary's Abbey are casually in a field in Dale Abbey, Derbyshire.

Photograph of a field with the ruin of a large archway in a stone wall. The arch is about 20m high and intact. There are hedgerow trees in line with the arch.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Hyacinths on a glorious sunny day. This is Delft Blue and the salmon pink of Gypsy Queen four years on from being planted. The name comes from yet another Greek who got entangled in a romance with the gods and ended up dead, but floral.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

The Scala Picture House in Ilkeston must be one of the oldest cinemas still going. It's a rather magnificent Edwardian concoction decorated with swags and scrolls, that's been running for over 110 years.

Building facade against blue sky. The facade is white with architectural swags painted dark red. There are two projecting bays with a central archway entrance in the middle.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Glorious morning for a walk around some very old trackways.

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Kevin Wilbraham @kpw1453.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

12th century carved stone grave slab from St. Peter’s Church in Northampton. It was found in 1843 being used as a door lintel in a cottage in nearby Black Lion Hill. 📸 My own. #FindsFriday #Medieval #Northampton

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Long Eaton mills, still in use with loads of textile businesses. Amazing architecture, especially with a blue sky. Long Eaton was a lace making centre for many years.

A red brick mill with three storeys and a cylindrical chimney. Each floor has a run of large windows. The building overlooks a canal, with trees alongside. The sky is bright blue with fluffy white clouds.

A mill overlooking a street with parked cars. The mill building is red brick and four storeys high, running the whole length of the street. There are evenly-spaced, rectangular windows on each floor.

The rear of a mill with three rounded turrets projecting from the main wall. It seems that they held the stairwells as the windows are staggered in height as if following the path of a spiral staircase.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

I’ll find out from social media this evening whether the museum is closing permanently. So that’s a joy in this brave new world.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

I was looking for apotropaic marks on a church in Stafford 🤣

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

The intriguing Boscobel House, home of the famous Royal Oak and hidey hole for King Charles. It started life as an unassuming little woodland cottage and grew into this over the years. Really strong links with Catholicism, hidden away in the woods. The burnt timbers look apotropaic to me…

A timber with a cluster of black scorch marks, possibly apotropaic.

View of Boscobel House with the original black and white timbered structure and later brick extensions painted to fake being black and white timber.

The older part of the house, painted cream, with black timbers. A knot garden is in front, with red brick paths. The building has mullioned windows and a very large, three storey chimney stack.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

White Ladies Priory near Boscobel. Absolutely love an atmospheric ruin in a field. This was a 12th century priory, which had under 10 canonesses living in it until the 1500s. After that, it was a Manor House. Everything is gone now apart from the medieval walls of the priory church.

Stone wall in a field, with a hedge and grey cloudy sky in the background.

Decorated stone archway, with eroded corbels and pillars. View through the arch to a stone wall.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Medieval Women @britishlibrary.bsky.social was a cracker. So exciting to see the Luttrell Psalter, Joan of Arc’s signature and the birthing girdle in person. Also the forthright Welsh poetry!

Bound book, handwritten in black ink with gothic script. The margins are decorated, with the scene at the bottom of this page showing a person in a purple tunic lifting a sheaf of wheat. In front of them, a woman in an orange dress with purple shawl and white head covering is bent double, scything wheat from a field.

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Stone Club @stoneclub.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Hidden Histories: Unlocking the UK's Inaccessible Heritage amorexplore.substack.com/p/hidden-his...

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

A bit of the Midlands on display at a London blockbuster 🧡. Lichfield Angel in Silk Roads at the British Museum.

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The Folklore Podcast @folklorepod.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Today is Plough Monday. In agricultural areas this marked the return to work after Christmas. A decorated plough was traditionally dragged through the streets, visiting houses to invite donations. Records date back to the 15th century. The picture is a 19th century example.

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Sharon Howard @sharonhoward.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Here's another one for those who like #EarlyModern and #18thC paintings of working women. The Woman Shopkeeper, British School, c.1790-1800. artuk.org/discover/art...

A woman stands at a shop counter, counting out several coins. She wears a white bonnet with green ribbon and a cream dress with a high belt and neckerchief. Next to her is a bowl of lemons; perhaps she sells lemonade.

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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

The Tate Modern is so odd. Level 1 - fun interactive art experiences for children, Level 2 - enormous photographs of artists in chains vomiting blood. Level 3 - more fun activities for kids, Level 4 - mainly cocks, Level 5 - disturbing audio of a distressed dog on a loop for 2 hrs, Level 6 - bistro.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Cannock Chase. Hard to imagine part of it was a hive of medieval and early modern industry.

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The Local Mythstorian @elilewislycett.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Bridget Bostock, born around 1678, one of the few ‘white witches’ remembered to Cheshire history. Her famed ‘potion of red liquor’ was said to cure all manner of ills; she retired following repeated requests from local gentry to raise the dead! #witchcraft #cheshirehistory #whitewitch

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

A great thing about working in a community museum is offering gallery space to local groups to showcase their work publicly. We’ve just hung a display of work by a group of adults with learning differences. They’ve responded a local poet’s work I’m doing our bit of the display and loving it!

Three, drawings hung on a white wall. All three are A4 size in silver frames, with cream background and charcoal, still life drawings.

The top left shows a miners safety lamp, a shovel and letter ‘I’. The top right shows the letter ‘E’, a shovel and a silhouette portrait of a miner and pit pony. Below them in the centre, the third image shows a shovel, lamp and mining scene.

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Fishbourne Roman Palace @romanpalace.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Right - it's our last day of holidays and we're spending it making an archaeology/Roman site-themed Monopoly game. We've made a start. All suggestions for any additions gratefully received. Over to you....

It's the corner of a monopoly board with "traditional" (American) place names for each square, but the highest value square is named "Fishbourne Roman Palace". We're going to be millionaires if this takes off...

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Health and safety 1910s style! Building a settling tank at Littleton Colliery, Cannock Chase. Imagine balancing at that height with no harness.

Black and white photograph of a cylindrical scaffold. Two men are standing at the top.

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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

In 1433, the Duke of Bedford wanted some goods from London for his Calais household. He asked for a customs waiver from the king, and he got it. And what did he need? - 5 casks of porpoise - 2 casks of eels - 98 bows w/ bowstrings 'cause that's how you party. 🗃️🧪

Meme. Painting of John, 1st Duke of Bedford. He's kneeling, with his hands held up in front of him as if in prayer. Or...that's what you're likely to assume. He might, rather be standing and clapping. His expression is rather bland, and he doesn't look enthused. Like perhaps he's applauding your kid's efforts at the school talent show. He's going to say pleasant things to you, "Young Ebblert's really coming along with the trumpet!" and then, on your way out you'll hear him talking to his wife about how he's glad his kid got to follow Ebblert and not someone good like Jane Simmerson.

The Duke's hair is done in a super-bowl cut, with the back of his head shaved. He has a 5 o'clock shadow that covers a lot of his head. He's a man who will have a pronounced double chin later in life. At some point, he broke his nose, possibly in a fight over the last bit of porpoise meat.

Meme text reads:
"An eelaborate,
porpoise-drive life"

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Emily Brand @emilybrand.bsky.social · 09/12/2023

"A Gentlewoman, by a variety of Unfortunate Events, is reduced to the painful necessity of wishing for the friendship and protection of a middle-aged Gentleman of honour and integrity" If I were still on tinder I would absolutely use this as the opening line on my new profile #18c

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

One of my favourite new things in the Museum of Cannock Chase collection ❤️. This pretty, silk embroidered Christmas card was sent home from France during the First World War. Have a peaceful Christmas 🎄 #christmas #firstworldwar

Cream card with an embossed border in floral design. Centre has ‘Christmas Greetings’ embroidered in lilac silk, an embroidered Union Jack flag above and an embroidered pansy below in purples and green.

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Morwenna Rae @morwennarae.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

The fab Museum of Carpet in Kiddeminster has this work of art on display. I’d never thought of carpet as an art form, but this one changed my mind 🧡🦜 It’s a museum that’s well worth a visit. Time it to see a carpet loom demo if you can!

A vibrantly coloured carpet with a design on tropical birds and foliage on a cream background. There are five birds on the ground and four in flight.

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Citizen Dundus @citizendundus.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

I'm glad that it cleans teeth, too. Since it is, well, toothpaste. Guests: it's basically the liquor cabinet. #historyofgreatideas

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CPRE Staffordshire @staffscpre.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

What should be the priorities for protecting and managing Cannock Chase over the next 5 years? We'll be responding to this important consultation. 👇 Find out more and share your views here: bit.ly/492xDJD #cannockchase

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AONB Management Plan 2024 - Cannock Chase

AONB Management Plan 2025 – 2030 Review of Cannock Chase National Landscape (AONB) Management Plan Cannock Chase National Landscape (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) is one of England’s finest land...

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