Christopher Hilton
@chilton-bb.bsky.social
Head of Archive & Library at The Red House, http://brittenpearsarts.org. Archives, music, metadata; side orders of architecture, landscape history & electronic noise.
Benjamin Britten gets a walk-on role, as a vice-president of the Asian Music Circle; we get to hear a bit of Ustad Vilayat Khan at the 1958 Aldeburgh Festival, a recording I had no idea existed. More on Britten, Pears and the Asian Music Circle here: www.brittenpearsarts.org/news/archive...
Archive Treasures: East meets West in the Archive | Britten Pears Arts
Rostropovich, Menuhin, Richter – asked to compile a list of musicians who worked with Britten and Pears, there are some obvious names. Likewise, asked to n
www.brittenpearsarts.org
February 11, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Benjamin Britten gets a walk-on role, as a vice-president of the Asian Music Circle; we get to hear a bit of Ustad Vilayat Khan at the 1958 Aldeburgh Festival, a recording I had no idea existed. More on Britten, Pears and the Asian Music Circle here: www.brittenpearsarts.org/news/archive...
Fascinating podcast exploring the role of the Angadi family in bringing Indian culture to the UK: yoga and Ravi Shankar in a Finchley living room.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Artworks - Mr and Mrs Angadi - BBC Sounds
Sindhu Vee joins the dots between the UK's first yoga class, a family home and The Beatles
www.bbc.co.uk
February 11, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Fascinating podcast exploring the role of the Angadi family in bringing Indian culture to the UK: yoga and Ravi Shankar in a Finchley living room.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
February 11, 2026 at 9:18 AM
#EarlyModern 🗃️
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
Rosamund Oates is researching the history of early modern deafnes - see her P&P article, book out soon I think.
academic.oup.com/past/article...
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
NEW EXHIBITION: John Piper in the South Country
Saturday March 7th - Saturday 6th June 2026
Join us for the first ever exhibition devoted to how Piper responded to the landscape and architecture of Wiltshire and Dorset, including Devizes- his favourite market town.
Saturday March 7th - Saturday 6th June 2026
Join us for the first ever exhibition devoted to how Piper responded to the landscape and architecture of Wiltshire and Dorset, including Devizes- his favourite market town.
February 11, 2026 at 6:54 PM
NEW EXHIBITION: John Piper in the South Country
Saturday March 7th - Saturday 6th June 2026
Join us for the first ever exhibition devoted to how Piper responded to the landscape and architecture of Wiltshire and Dorset, including Devizes- his favourite market town.
Saturday March 7th - Saturday 6th June 2026
Join us for the first ever exhibition devoted to how Piper responded to the landscape and architecture of Wiltshire and Dorset, including Devizes- his favourite market town.
Not only have we actually seen the sun this afternoon, but there are primroses appearing in Aldeburgh (as well as a lot of winter aconite). We may not have seen our shadows more than a couple of times in the last few weeks, but things are moving towards spring all the time.
February 11, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Not only have we actually seen the sun this afternoon, but there are primroses appearing in Aldeburgh (as well as a lot of winter aconite). We may not have seen our shadows more than a couple of times in the last few weeks, but things are moving towards spring all the time.
Proustian flashback sorting old administrative files this afternoon: double-sided 5" floppy disks, with their own case. (Mercifully, seemed pretty clear the content wasn't anything we needed to keep, so no digital preservation saga to follow from that one.)
February 11, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Proustian flashback sorting old administrative files this afternoon: double-sided 5" floppy disks, with their own case. (Mercifully, seemed pretty clear the content wasn't anything we needed to keep, so no digital preservation saga to follow from that one.)
A rather lovely story emerging from the archives in Leicester:
"First he embraced her with his armes, and took her by the hande, putt a ring upon her finger and layde his hande upon her harte, and held his hands towards heaven; and to show his continuance to dwell with her to his lyves ende he did it by closing of his eyes with his hands and digging.... 1/2
This is just so lovely. A reminder that there are still lots of good people about, even as the vicious & awful dominate the headlines, and that religious bodies can choose to be open and inclusive
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
February 11, 2026 at 1:03 PM
A rather lovely story emerging from the archives in Leicester:
Bluesky served up these two posts next to each other on my timeline and for a few minutes I genuinely thought they were a thread: I rather like the idea of political parties rushing out philosophical aperçus, to be honest.
February 11, 2026 at 11:27 AM
Bluesky served up these two posts next to each other on my timeline and for a few minutes I genuinely thought they were a thread: I rather like the idea of political parties rushing out philosophical aperçus, to be honest.
Born #OTD 1824, Samuel Plimsoll MP, campaigner for sailors' safety and originator of the Plimsoll Line that shows if a ship is overloaded: here's his grave, in St Martin's churchyard in Cheriton. If you've been through the Channel Tunnel terminal in Kent, you've been a few hundred yards from here.
February 10, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Born #OTD 1824, Samuel Plimsoll MP, campaigner for sailors' safety and originator of the Plimsoll Line that shows if a ship is overloaded: here's his grave, in St Martin's churchyard in Cheriton. If you've been through the Channel Tunnel terminal in Kent, you've been a few hundred yards from here.
Also aware, of course, as all my professional colleagues will be, that somewhere the ghost of Sir Hilary Jenkinson is wailing at us "The archivist should not be a historian! Discuss!"
February 9, 2026 at 8:22 AM
Also aware, of course, as all my professional colleagues will be, that somewhere the ghost of Sir Hilary Jenkinson is wailing at us "The archivist should not be a historian! Discuss!"
Interesting: I'm on the edge of a community of British Academic Historians, which I suppose is archive life in a nutshell. (Also, more importantly, in the sort of far galactic fringe location from which traditionally a plucky band will fight back to reclaim the Empire.)
February 9, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Interesting: I'm on the edge of a community of British Academic Historians, which I suppose is archive life in a nutshell. (Also, more importantly, in the sort of far galactic fringe location from which traditionally a plucky band will fight back to reclaim the Empire.)
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
Ghosts in the Fields
These magnificent gatepiers stand isolated in the Berkshire countryside at Hamstead Marshall, survivors of one of England's great lost houses. Eight of the original nine pairs remain, "pathetic to Pevsner, mysterious and romantic to others."
These magnificent gatepiers stand isolated in the Berkshire countryside at Hamstead Marshall, survivors of one of England's great lost houses. Eight of the original nine pairs remain, "pathetic to Pevsner, mysterious and romantic to others."
February 6, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Ghosts in the Fields
These magnificent gatepiers stand isolated in the Berkshire countryside at Hamstead Marshall, survivors of one of England's great lost houses. Eight of the original nine pairs remain, "pathetic to Pevsner, mysterious and romantic to others."
These magnificent gatepiers stand isolated in the Berkshire countryside at Hamstead Marshall, survivors of one of England's great lost houses. Eight of the original nine pairs remain, "pathetic to Pevsner, mysterious and romantic to others."
(Reminded of a scrapbook I wrote about on the old Wellcome Library blog, where a C19 doctor had kept lots of "match-reports" of fox-hunting; each one potentially a chapter from Trollope.)
wayback.archive-it.org/16107/202103...
wayback.archive-it.org/16107/202103...
Rate limit reached
wayback.archive-it.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:02 AM
(Reminded of a scrapbook I wrote about on the old Wellcome Library blog, where a C19 doctor had kept lots of "match-reports" of fox-hunting; each one potentially a chapter from Trollope.)
wayback.archive-it.org/16107/202103...
wayback.archive-it.org/16107/202103...
Reading Bart van Loo's "The Burgundians" and I've reached a major marriage feast with associated tournament: of course we know that tournaments were a way of winning knightly renown but I'd not thought of how that renown would disseminate through people reading "match-reports".
February 7, 2026 at 11:02 AM
Reading Bart van Loo's "The Burgundians" and I've reached a major marriage feast with associated tournament: of course we know that tournaments were a way of winning knightly renown but I'd not thought of how that renown would disseminate through people reading "match-reports".
It's a real social shift, isn't it? All sorts of drivers, I suppose: the Internet meaning you can locate and book on eg Air BnB rather than relying on showing up in a town centre needing something visible; the growth of the motel sector (Premier Inns seem to proliferate), etc.
February 7, 2026 at 9:27 AM
It's a real social shift, isn't it? All sorts of drivers, I suppose: the Internet meaning you can locate and book on eg Air BnB rather than relying on showing up in a town centre needing something visible; the growth of the motel sector (Premier Inns seem to proliferate), etc.
*Jimmy* Swan; apologies to the ghost of Neil Munro.
February 7, 2026 at 9:21 AM
*Jimmy* Swan; apologies to the ghost of Neil Munro.
Interesting, I didn't know that about the law; hotels functioning as common rooms for professions that bring people in and out of a town, where now we might have an institutional canteen. (Yes, the Commercial Room is where the travellers would meet up.)
February 7, 2026 at 9:20 AM
Interesting, I didn't know that about the law; hotels functioning as common rooms for professions that bring people in and out of a town, where now we might have an institutional canteen. (Yes, the Commercial Room is where the travellers would meet up.)
Interesting on the decline of small-town hotels and how they were sustained by commercial travellers, themselves gone. Reminded of Neil Munro's stories of the middle-aged traveller Jommy Swan, doing his circuits with cases of samples, knowing every hotel, its staff and its Commercial Room.
February 7, 2026 at 9:06 AM
Interesting on the decline of small-town hotels and how they were sustained by commercial travellers, themselves gone. Reminded of Neil Munro's stories of the middle-aged traveller Jommy Swan, doing his circuits with cases of samples, knowing every hotel, its staff and its Commercial Room.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
#OnThisDay, 6 Feb 1918, the Representation of the People Act receives royal assent, allowing some women in the UK the right to vote in general elections.
#VotesForWomen #WomenInHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️
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#VotesForWomen #WomenInHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️
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February 6, 2026 at 9:00 AM
#OnThisDay, 6 Feb 1918, the Representation of the People Act receives royal assent, allowing some women in the UK the right to vote in general elections.
#VotesForWomen #WomenInHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️
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#VotesForWomen #WomenInHistory #BritishHistory 🗃️
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Fascinating - a document genre I had no idea existed.
Here's our find. An album of hundreds of QSL cards. Sent by radio hams to each other to acknowledge contact. Most are from the late 1930s and from all over the world. Dumped in in a skip after a house clearance. Found the family and offered to send them the album. They didn't reply.
February 6, 2026 at 12:34 PM
Fascinating - a document genre I had no idea existed.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
OTD, 6 February in 1875 architect Leslie Green was born. Best recalled for the #London Tube stations of 1906/7 for the Underground Group's 3 new tube lines. They are of a generic design, clad in ox-blood Burmantofts faience. Original drawings for Strand/Aldwych station
↘️ flic.kr/p/2km3etL
↘️ flic.kr/p/2km3etL
February 6, 2026 at 9:40 AM
OTD, 6 February in 1875 architect Leslie Green was born. Best recalled for the #London Tube stations of 1906/7 for the Underground Group's 3 new tube lines. They are of a generic design, clad in ox-blood Burmantofts faience. Original drawings for Strand/Aldwych station
↘️ flic.kr/p/2km3etL
↘️ flic.kr/p/2km3etL
I saw him do it on stage in the late 80s as part of his one-man show "Acting Shakespeare"; electrifying. (IIRC it was a benefit for London Lighthouse centre for people with AIDS.) One of those theatrical moments that stick with you decades on.
February 5, 2026 at 4:26 PM
I saw him do it on stage in the late 80s as part of his one-man show "Acting Shakespeare"; electrifying. (IIRC it was a benefit for London Lighthouse centre for people with AIDS.) One of those theatrical moments that stick with you decades on.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
Exploring the itineraries of King Edward I 🤓
February 4, 2026 at 12:12 PM
Exploring the itineraries of King Edward I 🤓
Another of those spring milestones: Winter Aconite emerging, as it always does, next to the gate to the archive car park. The yellow crocuses round the building have been out for a few days; today the first purple one joined them.
February 4, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Another of those spring milestones: Winter Aconite emerging, as it always does, next to the gate to the archive car park. The yellow crocuses round the building have been out for a few days; today the first purple one joined them.
Agreed, it strikes a good balance between the two, doesn't it?
February 4, 2026 at 11:33 AM
Agreed, it strikes a good balance between the two, doesn't it?