Catherine Clarke
@CathAMClarke
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Doing #history a bit differently. Professor & Director @CHPPC_IHR , Director @vch_london . Visiting Professor @SotonEnglish . Mum. Beach hut owner. Own views.
Bournemouth, England
Joined March 2018
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I'm so excited to share this news! Between the Lines: A
#History
of
#England
in 25
#Poems
, coming autumn 2025. Thank you to
@gordonwise
& the team at
@PenguinUKBooks
/
@AllenLaneBooks
.
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BREAKING: Johnson to bring back Old English letterforms for the Platinum Jubilee! The PM said:
Many of þese letters Ƿere lost after 1066 due to “Norman red tape”. Ƿe’re delighted to bring ðem bæck todæȝ. ᚦ ᚫ ᚾ ᚳ ᚴ.
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So, I can reveal that, controversially, the correct answer is 3. SATs hate the Oxford Comma. Dedicating this thread to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
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#Historians
have long wondered why so many houses of the earlier twenty-first century have bricked-up windows. This was, of course, so no one could look in and see their
#meat
, thus avoiding the
#MeatTax
.
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Good afternoon Twitter. This question is on my daughter's practice KS2 SATs test. There is one correct answer only. Thoughts?
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So I found a pack of paper doilies... and this happened.
#ElizabethI
#SievePortrait
#gettymuseumchallenge
#gettychallenge
#twitterstorians
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So, for no particular reason, I asked an AI ChatBot to write a train cancellation announcement in the style of the Book of Revelation...
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Today I have resigned as incoming External Examiner for the MA
#English
Studies
@uniofleicester
.
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I'd also just like to add that my daughter's brilliant teacher, Mr H, apparently said that this is the rule for commas in SATs, 'but out of school you can do whatever you like' 😎
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Train delayed indefinitely here at York, due to an earlier incident: "A cow striking a train on the line near Darlington". This wording seems spectacularly unfair on the cow.
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A perfect profile of my son - an avid
#philatelist
- on his 9th birthday 'postage
#stamp
' cake.
(Made by his dad - I don't have the skills!)
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Over Christmas, my parents gave me some bits and pieces in this old
#PastTimes
carrier bag: a now somewhat poignant and meta piece of crumpled plastic.
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My beautiful boy is 5 today! Of course, we're still in
#lockdown
, and we've had to cancel what would have been his first proper birthday party. But if anyone would like to wish Thomas a
#HappyBirthday
, he would be so pleased.
#StarWars
gifs especially welcome :)
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My 12yo daughter, Ellen, drew this beautiful picture of
#Salisbury
#Cathedral
as a Christmas present for her Grandma,
@GillGreenstead
, who was recently installed as a Lay Canon. Happy Christmas,
@SalisburyCath
and all!
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"For your safety, please do not touch the items in the Saxon burial or attempt to climb into the grave."
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The genuine horror of a Londoner when I, a 14th-century migrant from the east Midlands, use 3rd person plural pronouns beginning with 'th' (their, them), reflecting Old Norse influence, eventually displacing the local London pronoun forms (hier, hem).
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When you go to school
#ParentsEvening
and discover your 8-year-old daughter is a totally badass, brilliant
#feminist
. Feeling proud and inspired.
#Adventurous
#SwimmingInDeepWater
#HerbivoreDung
. ❤️❤️❤️💪💪💪
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As this tweet is getting, er, more interest than I expected, I should clarify that by SATs I mean the tests which children in the UK take at the age of 11. (Not the U.S. SATs. They may have totally different comma ideology.)
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Important breaking news this morning on
@BBCr4today
: the song of the
#Bagpuss
mice was consciously based on the
#medieval
English song 'Sumer is icumen in'. ('We will mend it...')
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The excited and slightly disbelieving face of someone inside their very own
#beachhut
! Ten years on the Bournemouth residents' waiting list for a site, and totally worth it ❤️
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#Heatwave
reflection... In both my past two jobs (elsewhere), my office was on the 'hot' side of the building; now my office is on the 'cool' side. This is basically the greatest achievement of my entire career.
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My husband and I never baby talk to our kids. We use early medieval insular Latin and wide vocabulary including the hermeneutic style.
My daughter is 9 and can translate Aldhelm. My son isn't even 5 and provides discreet interlinear vernacular glosses.
My wife and I never baby talk to our kids. We use full sentences and a wide vocabulary including complex words.
My son is 3 and can carry a full conversation. Adults at family gatherings are shocked at his social aptitude. My daughter isn’t even 2 and she uses 4-syllable words.
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Every single day during
#lockdown
, my parents posted a letter to each of my children. My Mum found old unused postcards, and my Dad chose
#stamps
from his
#collection
, with pictures which would interest them. We now have an amazing archive which we'll treasure forever ❤️❤️❤️
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When I was 6, I missed half a term of school with
#WhoopingCough
. The prospect of
#selfisolating
brings a rush of memories: the quiet house, schoolwork sent home, walks across frosty fields in my stripy coat, when no one else was about. (Pictured with my sister, who also had WC)
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Your regular reminder that enlarging and deepening our understanding of the past - from brilliant stories right through to the deeply uncomfortable or traumatic - is not cancelling history, but in fact *doing*
#history
.
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This morning my little boy (5), still sleepy-eyed and loaf-warm from bed, came and found me to tell me that he was counting up to 1000 and was on 228. He's now up to 740. These are the important things, people. ❤️
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A real treat to see the newly-restored
#medieval
#Doom
painting in St Thomas's
#Salisbury
, at the weekend. Particular details I loved: the motley devil on the RH side, his clawed foot breaking the frame, & the lady on the left side checking her hair as she climbs out of her grave
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My grandmother, Mary, as
#MayQueen
,
#HoylandCommon
, South
#Yorkshire
, c.1938.
#MayDay
#MayMorning
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Best ever phishing message. We get a lot of these, purportedly from university 'management' figures asking us to respond. Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, is the University of London Chancellor, here dropping me a quick email, as per.
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Off to an event in No. 10 Downing Street this evening.
My outfit?
Oh, I hadn't noticed...
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I did it! 💪💪💪
#ImmodestWoman
Literally the greatest thing about the last 24 hours is all the incredible woman changing their handles to show their authority.
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
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I'm extremely proud, privileged and excited to be leading this new research centre
@IHR_History
. Please follow us as we start to share our plans and projects for the coming year!
Welcome to the Centre for the History of People, Place and Community
@IHR_History
: bringing together IHR expertise in
#urban
/
#metropolitan
#history
and
#local
history. Home to projects including
@LayersofLondon
&
@VCH_London
. Please keep in touch for news, research & events!
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Ready with my
#IMC2023
#medieval
#manuscript
nails, courtesy of
@cypriotartleeds
😍.
#manumani
#manicule
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I would like to to add my story, even if some may feel it’s oversharing. When I had my daughter, I was pretty vulnerable: she was premature, and I was alone (my husband worked away) through almost all my labour. A short thread.
#BirthTrauma
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Why did nobody tell me? Absolutely blown away by the
#Romanesque
beauty and powerful stillness of the Chapel of St John,
@TowerOfLondon
, today.
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I remember the wonderful medievalist Helen Cooper once telling me that she'd been trying to find out when the last wild boar in England was killed. She unexpectedly spotted the information on a tray in a motorway service station cafeteria, but was unsure how to cite it...
@CathAMClarke
Fabulous! I now have much more historical knowledge of where I live & all from your photo of a tray! This is the very best side of Twitter.
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I see my resignation letter is featured
@BBCNews
but I'm unhappy about the headline. To clarify: I fully support the urgent, important challenge of diversifying & 'decolonising' curricula and antiracist work in our unversities. Please read my letter 👇
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An unfortunate resident of 12th-century
#Winchester
was called Alfred Toadbollock. (Source: Winton
#Domesday
).
#medievaltwitter
One of Oxford's coroners in 1327 was called William de Wetwang.
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@ThreatNotation
Is this actually a thing? My (elderly, strict, very accomplished) piano teacher spent exasperated hours trying to get me to do this. She claimed that you could hear a difference, but I was a total sceptic. Was she... pranking me?
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@Anna_Mazz
The 19th-century replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, in
@readingmuseum
, has little pants embroidered in all the necessary locations, to preserve modesty...
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It's exactly one year to the day since my daughter went off-message on the Children's Activity Table at church, and produced this:
#Tolkien
#Sauron
#SundaySchool
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My 7yo just found a bottle of Windsor & Newton ink in vermillion and was trying to write with it using a Playmobil medieval lance and has now spilled it all over his cream bedroom carpet how is your day going?
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Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
Four Seasons Total Landscapinga þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
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If you'd like to learn about the work of the
@ColonialCountr1
project and
@corinne_fowler
directly, without misrepresentation, you can watch this fascinating seminar from our
@CHPPC_IHR
series (
#free
#online
). Please take a look, and make up your own mind.
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This was a bit of a niche joke, linked to the UK news (PM Rishi Sunak referred to a non-existent Meat Tax). It's now being read more widely & many comments / reposts taking it seriously. I don't wish to inadvertently spread Fake History! Thanks for sharing your jokes & knowledge.
#Historians
have long wondered why so many houses of the earlier twenty-first century have bricked-up windows. This was, of course, so no one could look in and see their
#meat
, thus avoiding the
#MeatTax
.
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Trying to write about the Middle English poem
#Pearl
, and the opening stanzas are just destroying me. The way loss and grief can resonate across the centuries. My heart breaks for anyone who's ever mourned a child.
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Delighted to share the news that I’ll be taking up the new Chair in the History of People, Place & Community
@ihr_history
@UoLondon
from Feb 2019. So excited to help shape our new research centre & join the brilliant team, including
@VCH_London
&
@CMH_London
The IHR is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Catherine Clarke to head our new research centre for the History of People, Place and Community. Read more about Catherine's appointment here:
@SASNews
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On my birthday, here's a gift for you. My Grandma's amazing
#wartime
'Economy
#Chocolate
#Cake
', baked on birthdays over 4 generations now. It's v small (
#rationing
), so we now double / triple + add DairyMilk on top & sometimes choc buttercream inside.
#foremothers
#WomensHistory
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@lucyinglis
When I develop projects, I work hard to create RA posts which offer career development (including publication credits) & properly salaried work to early-career colleagues. Also: collaboration. Research isn't lone scholars in ivory towers - we work in teams in the Humanities, too
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@anooshka_rawden
Historians have also investigated the phenomenon of the vast underground basements created for many elite dwellings in this period. It's likely these spaces were required for the numerous bins - seven intially, increasing by another dozen each year - mandated for domestic refuse.
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@QuintinLake
Gravy is the correct sauce when it's chips only; when fish is involved then this should be replaced with mushy peas. HOWEVER mushy peas should not really be classed as a sauce; they are clearly a vegetable side and thus one of your 5-a-day. Thank you.
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Oh my goodness. I popped out this morning for some milk and spotted this tiny felted
#dragon
on a lady's craft stall - and bought it for my little boy. But now I'm not sure I can part with it... Should I keep it?
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Using only a gif, what's it like inside your head?
Using only a gif, what's it like inside your head?
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Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King under the Mountain.
#Tolkien
#TheHobbit
@TolkienSociety
@JRRTolkien
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Thrilled with my acquisition from the
@IMC_Leeds
#medieval
craft fair today - both a miniature book AND a necklace!
#IMC2019
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'Eye contact'?
'Smile'?
'Hands away from face'?
Are you kidding me? No wonder we're driving more and more neurodivergent children into breakdowns or school avoidance. Personally, as a grown woman, I'd feel crushed in an environment like this. I'm angry.
Also great to see that the site continues to develop. These posters were designed by our excellent librarian, Mr Harris, and are in every classroom - and now on the corridors to reinforce our message and ethos.
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It was a dehumanising, dangerous birth experience and I'm reclaiming it by telling the story. I know I'm lucky to have been uninjured, healthy, with a healthy (in the end) baby. NHS staff are under huge pressure. My 2nd
#birth
, at another hospital, very positive. Thank you. 10/10
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How it started.... how it's going.
Celebrating my amazing daughter's birthday - 10 years old today!
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The kids are squabbling and I hear the 6yo say to the 11yo "Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth".
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Nine years ago, I had a busy day in work, went home - and had a baby that evening... Can't believe that very tiny, unexpectedly early arrival (held here by her Grandma) is 9 years old today!
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For
#Christmas
dinner today, our ages ranged from 3 to 90. And my stepmother-in-law, who sadly has advanced-stage dementia, sang along to all the carols in her lovely soprano voice, remembering all the words and the descants.
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Fellow
#map
-lovers! Look at my £2 CHARITY SHOP FIND! It's only John Speed's Hampshire (with plan of Winchester) on a tray! And because it's the historic county, where I live just squeezes in at the west! I await your expressions of envy below.
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My daughter wrote this note at school a few years ago and I've always loved it. In particular, "swim in deep water" has been an inspiration whenever I've taken on something challenging or outside my comfort zone. Today my new necklace arrived, in my daughter's handwriting ❤️
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One night away in a hotel, and this is the reading my daughter brought in her overnight bag...
#books
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@Louiestowell
I'm also still waiting for the children's book / CBeebies series based on these buddies - a medieval hare and hound (stone corbel) from Kilpeck, Herefordshire.
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So, as requested, I'm starting a thread about
#MedievalChristmas
. How did people celebrate? Traditions to bring back (or leave well alone)? Myth/
#medievalism
/reality? Misrule, boars' heads, mumming, carols... Pls contribute & RT!
#medievaltwitter
@FernRiddell
#Christmas
#medieval
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Very excited to see that the
@StThomasWay
book now has a page on the
@AmsterdamUPress
/
@ArcHumanities
website. Coming 30 April 2020, in the 'Places & Spaces,
#Medieval
to Modern' series.
#place
#heritage
#DigitalHumanities
#pilgrimage
#medieval
#Wales
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Nipped into a local charity shop today (on annual leave) and couldn't believe my luck. Someone had just given their collection of
#Bournemouth
guidebooks, dating back to 1890. What a treasure trove! Take a look at a few with me... 1/3
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At Waterloo, and just had a shaming conversation with my bank (suspicious transaction / card blocked). "That's all sorted for you, Prof Clarke. So you can go ahead and buy the *checks screen, long pause* McDonald's and chocolate". 😳 (It's been a long day.)
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In which I finally meet my (lovely) medievalist doppelganger, Catherine Clarke
@monasticshrop
- having been given each others' conference packs and come perilously close to sharing a room! 😂 Great to meet in real life.
#IMC2023
@IMC_Leeds
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Huge congratulations to the new Dr Whalley
@beth_whalley
on her superb thesis, Waterways & their Communities in Early
#Medieval
Culture & Contemporary Arts - passed with no corrections today! Pleasure to examine with
@ETreharne
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Today is... just my wedding anniversary, as usual. A lot has changed in 11 years, but I'm very pleased I was prescient enough to include plenty of yellow and blue in my bouquet... 💛💙🇪🇺 🇪🇺
#VoteNo29March
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Please allow me a little brag. Just got the peer reviews for my chapter 'Thinking with
#Mud
: Dirt, Imagination & Early
#Medieval
English Culture'. One typo to fix, &
#Reviewer2
calls it 'a compelling piece of writing developing a kind of cultural philosophy of mud'. Very happy!
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This post 👆 was a bit of a niche joke, linked to a story in the UK news in the past few days (PM Rishi Sunak referred to a non-existent Meat Tax). I see it's now being read more widely and wanted to clarify. I don't wish to inadvertently spread Fake History. Thanks.
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When you discover your 8-year-old daughter has secretly been working on a
#History
and
#Archaeology
project 😍😍😊😊❤️
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"Professor Catherine Clarke, Thank you for coming and teaching us about Beowulf and Vikings. We loved it." 💖
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Indeed,
@holland_tom
, this is how I always introduced the
#AngloSaxons
to my first-year UGs: as recent
#immigrants
in a
#postcolonial
space, and considering texts such as
#Beowulf
as
#diaspora
storytelling, etc. Of course, this is of interest to all, not just
#BAME
students
It should not be beyond the wit of competent teachers to render the Anglo-Saxons - immigrants who, living amid a post-imperial order, fashioned new cultural, political & religious identities for themselves - a topic of interest to BAME students
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Ssh! A sneak peek of something very exciting on its way in 2020... The
@StThomasWay
book! With special thanks to
@AnneLouiseAvery
for the stunning photo - taken while she was walking the Way.
@HFDCathedral
@ArcHumanities
#pilgrimage
#heritage
#tourism
#medieval
#DigitalHumanities
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St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold...
#Keats
#StAgnesEve
#StAgnes
20 January
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'Because Britain lies almost under the North Pole, it has short nights in summer, so that often at midnight it is hard for those watching to say whether it is evening twilight which still lingers, or whether morning dawn has come'.
#Bede
#SummerSolstice
#SummerSolstice2019
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How The Field Of The Cloth Of Gold Gave Us Glastonbury
How The Fourth Lateran Council Gave Us Eurovision
How Saint Boniface Gave Us WhatsApp
One shouldn’t judge a book, etc, but I’m inclined to be somewhat sceptical.
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The most staggering thing about post-Covid travel is that there's ABSOLUTELY NO ONE queuing for
#HarryPotter
photos on Platform 9 3/4. So I've taken this picture to send to my kids, and to remind me that I witnessed this wonder.
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Bones found in Kent church likely to be of 7th-century saint
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In which I prepare to host a
#Barbie
& Ken themed disco for 50 tweens, as my alter ego PROFESSOR BARBIE 😁💕💕
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Aged 8, I was in terrible trouble when it came to light that I'd been running a lending
#library
using my childminder's books. Recalling them was no problem, as I had an efficient card system. But I had to forfeit all monies from fines & close down what had been a popular service
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I'd totally missed this story until now, but this is quite moving.
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What a beautiful morning for a
#COVID19
#vaccination
! And a lovely surprise - I'm 43 and thought I'd have to wait much longer. I'm so moved and proud: a huge
#ThankYou
to the brilliant healthcare staff and volunteers at Beaufort Road Surgery
#Southbourne
#Dorset
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Funny story. There's a woman doing a pretty demanding job, full time, while homeschooling two small children and dealing with other stuff, and just about holding everything together. And then she gets called to do Jury Service.
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My daughter, yesterday:
'Careful, Thomas - don't bump Mummy. Now that she's
#ageing
it could take her a long while to recover.'
I am 42.
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I was today years old when I learned that cottage cheese is what used to be called curds and whey.
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When I was 10, a strange set of circumstances led to me appearing on Children's ITV. Everyone else here is in 1987, but I seem to date from somewhere around 1900. (Rummaging through old VHSs at parents' house today.)
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My mum,
@GillGreenstead
, has just finished this beautiful scarf recording the temperature every day at 12 noon in 2022 (West Moors, Dorset, England). Will be interesting to see how next year's compares!
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Every year, since my daughter was 3, we've come away for a (bargain) night together in the faded Victorian splendour of the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth. Tradition is that we also start a new book together. Here we are!
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Me: good morning why are you in my kitchen
Pigeon: fixed your tin for you
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