Helen
@helenpins.bsky.social
History teacher, cat facilitator, feminist.
I had no idea the Tapestry had such a dramatic history! #historyteacher The most dramatic bit is when a soldier tries to use it as a tarpaulin to protect gunpowder. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Short History Of... - The Bayeux Tapestry - BBC Sounds
What do the tapestry's scenes of battle reveal about life and death in the Middle Ages?
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I had no idea the Tapestry had such a dramatic history! #historyteacher The most dramatic bit is when a soldier tries to use it as a tarpaulin to protect gunpowder. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I think we found someone who has no sexual chemistry with Jonathan Bailey (she has with Ariana, though) #WickedForGood
a woman in a pink dress stands in front of a mirror
ALT: a woman in a pink dress stands in front of a mirror
media.tenor.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:09 AM
I think we found someone who has no sexual chemistry with Jonathan Bailey (she has with Ariana, though) #WickedForGood
History without women is like a body without a nervous system. #ALevel #ForeignPolicy (Today was Margaret - the most successful Tudor, dynastically?) #historyteacher
November 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
History without women is like a body without a nervous system. #ALevel #ForeignPolicy (Today was Margaret - the most successful Tudor, dynastically?) #historyteacher
Started reading this one - it’s an interesting combination: part history, part biography, part travelogue. It’s also got some fictionalised parts (in that way it reminds me of the start of each chapter in Black Tudors)
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
November 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Started reading this one - it’s an interesting combination: part history, part biography, part travelogue. It’s also got some fictionalised parts (in that way it reminds me of the start of each chapter in Black Tudors)
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
Reposted by Helen
This image is part of a detailed account of King Edward VI’s procession in 1547 from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster on the day before his coronation. Unique to this scene is its recording of the City, especially Cheapside with its goldsmiths’ shops.
November 15, 2025 at 12:49 PM
This image is part of a detailed account of King Edward VI’s procession in 1547 from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster on the day before his coronation. Unique to this scene is its recording of the City, especially Cheapside with its goldsmiths’ shops.
How did a law passed by Elizabeth I turn fashion into welfare? Ruth Goodman explains the story behind one garment and the difference it made to the 16th-century poor, and examines the origins of England’s first social safety net
🗝️ This is free to read
https://bit.ly/4nMHglH
🗝️ This is free to read
https://bit.ly/4nMHglH
This unassuming accessory gave the poor of Tudor England a vital way to survive
How did a law passed by Elizabeth I turn fashion into welfare? Ruth Goodman explains the story behind one garment and the difference it made to the 16th-century poor, and examines the origins of Engla...
bit.ly
November 15, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Continuing the ‘women leading Tudor foreign policy’ policy #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
November 7, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Continuing the ‘women leading Tudor foreign policy’ policy #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
Reposted by Helen
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
London Lives
www.londonlives.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/
Reposted by Helen
This is the draft of Elizabeth’s order to execute Mary Queen of Scots. It was written by Cecil. And I LOVE the fact that he forgot to include the English monarch’s bonkers claim to rule France. He had to add it in afterwards.
November 4, 2025 at 1:56 PM
This is the draft of Elizabeth’s order to execute Mary Queen of Scots. It was written by Cecil. And I LOVE the fact that he forgot to include the English monarch’s bonkers claim to rule France. He had to add it in afterwards.
@hallierubenhold.bsky.social dismantles the Great Man model of history. Lovely stuff! #historyteacher
I am fully here for the profoundly messy lives of social history. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I am fully here for the profoundly messy lives of social history. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Intimate Histories by Hallie Rubenhold - 1. Peopled History - BBC Sounds
Hallie Rubenhold challenges the ideas of what history is and the stories it can tell.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 12:22 AM
@hallierubenhold.bsky.social dismantles the Great Man model of history. Lovely stuff! #historyteacher
I am fully here for the profoundly messy lives of social history. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I am fully here for the profoundly messy lives of social history. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
All you Tudors fans and Peterborough fans (there is a small crossover, I am one of them) this is Peterborough Museum’s new exhibition. I will probably be there every day. #historyteacher peterboroughmuseum.org.uk/events/queen...
Queens, Cousins & Courts - Museum & Art Gallery
peterboroughmuseum.org.uk
November 3, 2025 at 9:07 PM
All you Tudors fans and Peterborough fans (there is a small crossover, I am one of them) this is Peterborough Museum’s new exhibition. I will probably be there every day. #historyteacher peterboroughmuseum.org.uk/events/queen...
And they say media is London-centric. Come on, BBC. You can do better than this. ‘Where is Cambridgeshire?’ FFS.
November 1, 2025 at 10:13 PM
And they say media is London-centric. Come on, BBC. You can do better than this. ‘Where is Cambridgeshire?’ FFS.
I always thought I was a royalist while the Queen was alive. Turns out I just like castles. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn... #historyteacher I’ll be interested to see the process involved in taking his prince title away; have just done control of nobles with Y12, so we love an Act of Attainder.
Andrew stripped of 'prince' title and will move out of Royal Lodge
He will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor - Buckingham Palace says
www.bbc.co.uk
October 30, 2025 at 7:53 PM
I always thought I was a royalist while the Queen was alive. Turns out I just like castles. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn... #historyteacher I’ll be interested to see the process involved in taking his prince title away; have just done control of nobles with Y12, so we love an Act of Attainder.
This book is great for setting the scenes for each section of Viking Expansion. It can be quite tricky for students to get into the Vikings, as it’s so different from everything else they’ve studied; I think this will help. #historyteacher #GCSE I haven’t got to kings yet, which is where we struggle
October 29, 2025 at 10:34 AM
This book is great for setting the scenes for each section of Viking Expansion. It can be quite tricky for students to get into the Vikings, as it’s so different from everything else they’ve studied; I think this will help. #historyteacher #GCSE I haven’t got to kings yet, which is where we struggle
Booked! #historyteacher
We are BACK.
7th February 2026.
You are not going to want to miss this #Soane26
www.eventbrite.com/e/ark-soane-...
7th February 2026.
You are not going to want to miss this #Soane26
www.eventbrite.com/e/ark-soane-...
October 24, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Booked! #historyteacher
New book ✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
October 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
New book ✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
Henry VII? Oh, wait. Never mind. #historyteacher www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Control the nobility, Charles (it’s about flipping time!)
Prince Andrew's banner removed from chapel at Windsor Castle
The flag is linked to his role as Knight of the Garter (KG), which he recently gave up.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Henry VII? Oh, wait. Never mind. #historyteacher www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Control the nobility, Charles (it’s about flipping time!)
Reposted by Helen
Superb review of Lenny Henry & Marcus Ryder's reasoned explanation of reparations & Nigel Biggar's malevolent rebuttal. @bizk.bsky.social far quicker than my plodding pace but writing something along similar lines that delves more into the histories of slavery now. observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Who should pay the debts of slavery? | The Observer
The Tory historian Nigel Biggar mounts a contradictory defence of empire, while in The Big Payback Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder make the case for reparat...
observer.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Superb review of Lenny Henry & Marcus Ryder's reasoned explanation of reparations & Nigel Biggar's malevolent rebuttal. @bizk.bsky.social far quicker than my plodding pace but writing something along similar lines that delves more into the histories of slavery now. observer.co.uk/culture/book...
Reposted by Helen
I can't decide whose head in early modern England would explode the most watching this video.
King Charles III prayed with Pope Leo XIV in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, marking the first time in modern history that the leaders of the Anglican and Catholic churches prayed together. Read more: nyti.ms/4o5fFwI
October 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
I can't decide whose head in early modern England would explode the most watching this video.
Me to Y13 today: The king has just prayed with the Pope!!! First English monarch to do so since 1534!!!!!!
Y13: *non-plussed, confusion*
Me: Do you remember that Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in 1534?
Y13: *collective shrug*
Well, I thought it was important. #historyteacher
Y13: *non-plussed, confusion*
Me: Do you remember that Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in 1534?
Y13: *collective shrug*
Well, I thought it was important. #historyteacher
October 23, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Me to Y13 today: The king has just prayed with the Pope!!! First English monarch to do so since 1534!!!!!!
Y13: *non-plussed, confusion*
Me: Do you remember that Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in 1534?
Y13: *collective shrug*
Well, I thought it was important. #historyteacher
Y13: *non-plussed, confusion*
Me: Do you remember that Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in 1534?
Y13: *collective shrug*
Well, I thought it was important. #historyteacher
Reposted by Helen
'He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
London museum identifies black Waterloo veteran in rare 1821 painting
‘Honourable’ bandsman Thomas James will feature in display at National Army Museum highlighting service of black soldiers in Napoleonic wars
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:06 AM
'He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.'
Philip Pullman’s new (final) Book of Dust out on Thursday. Half term starts on Friday at 4.30 - I have detention duty on the last day of term *again*
Shall I re-read the Secret Commonwealth again beforehand? I have only read it once; I have read all the others countless times. #currentlyreading
Shall I re-read the Secret Commonwealth again beforehand? I have only read it once; I have read all the others countless times. #currentlyreading
October 20, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Philip Pullman’s new (final) Book of Dust out on Thursday. Half term starts on Friday at 4.30 - I have detention duty on the last day of term *again*
Shall I re-read the Secret Commonwealth again beforehand? I have only read it once; I have read all the others countless times. #currentlyreading
Shall I re-read the Secret Commonwealth again beforehand? I have only read it once; I have read all the others countless times. #currentlyreading
Anne of Brittany: badass. If only there were more women in our A Level specification. At least my Year 12s will get her whole awesome life story! #historyteacher Anywhere she asserts her power and independence will go down well with my crew tomorrow. #EarlyTudor
October 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Anne of Brittany: badass. If only there were more women in our A Level specification. At least my Year 12s will get her whole awesome life story! #historyteacher Anywhere she asserts her power and independence will go down well with my crew tomorrow. #EarlyTudor