Really delighted that the initiative we are running with the University Archives under @uninorthampton.bsky.social Centre for Historical Studies to bring together and support local groups working with or around archives and collections got featured in This Year In Archives! Find us in the Midlands!

What are we up to in the archive this week? The archivist is away, so it has been a lot of digital work - beginning to look at how we might create subject guides for undergraduate and other users who want to study a particular topic/group and where to start. A lot of Searchlight digitals reading!

This week's image is from a newer collection that has come to us from a kind depositor. This collection we are hoping to get onto the catalogues next year, and is focused around neo-Nazi music - including merchandise, paper material and music like this CD from Razors Edge.

An image from the Archive. A picture of Spearhead on maneuvers, with Brendan Wilmer, Dennis Pirie, John Tyndall and Colin Jordan. Spearhead emerged within John Bean's BNP, a paramilitary force that would go on to form their own party under Jordan - the National Socialist Movement.

OTD in 2024, the Royal Historical Society (@royalhistsoc.org) held 'The Value of History' briefing.

In this piece from the archive, RHS president Lucy Noakes reflects on how the crisis in UK higher education is impacting history and historians, and how the RHS can advocate for our discipline.

We just did our update of the stats for the archive we do every 6 months. This year we have had over 125 visits already to the archive - our busiest year yet. When you consider we normally have less than 90 days of opening for users a year....

We are going to be using the Bluesky account here to share some of the exciting facts from the archive, and some of the items we have found. Below is an image of an anti-Common Market campaign in London, with the National Front and unions marching, taken from our film collection.

A little story from the @searchlightarchive.bsky.social - with a huge thank you to Jen and the press team at @uninorthampton.bsky.social. A letter from Otto Frank to Maurice Ludmer, then editor of @searchlightmag.bsky.social. www.northampton.ac.uk/news/a-fathe...

Fancy a last minute trip to Northampton on Friday to discuss combatting the extreme right? We've got a couple of travel bursaries left - if this would help you attend do get in touch, we'd love to have you here.

Just a week until this event organised by @pnjackson.bsky.social @menysnoweballes.bsky.social and myself. Still a few tickets left, and time to alter the catering, so do get in touch. We also have a couple of £75 travel bursaries left if it helps people attend.

GREAT news - we have a slight budget surplus on this event so we are able to offer 4 x £75 travel bursaries to PGRs/ECRs/other precariously employed researchers: so if you'd like to join us in Northampton for the day, contact @narson.bsky.social on [email protected].

We have 4x£75 travel bursaries available for PGRs, ECRs and precarious researchers for this event. Just drop an email to [email protected] if you would like more information. And you can book until early next week, but we are getting low on tickets! Link in original post.

Along with the University Archive we will be hosting the Northamptonshire Archives and Collections meetup on the 31st of July at 2pm - every 6 months we meet up, have cake and tea, and discuss what is going on with our local heritage groups and how we can support them.

Day 1 done in the archives for my British Academy project today with @siobhanhyland.bsky.social who is my RA and @narson.bsky.social the @searchlightarchive.bsky.social archivist! I can’t show you any of the archive material here as it’s horrible extremist stuff, so here is my archive tea break.

Now has its own online shop for the free tickets! - shop.northampton.ac.uk/product-cata...

It now has an online shop: shop.northampton.ac.uk/product-cata...

The Extreme Right Research Network (@errnetwork.bsky.social) has updated its Extreme Right Aware CPD training for 2025. Thanks to funding, tickets are only £20 and we have free tickets we can make available for charities, community groups etc. Led by @pnjackson.bsky.social, on 23rd May 2025.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Miners' Strike (1984-5).

Laura King (@lauracking.bsky.social) traces a story of solidarity and friendship in the archives of art collective Jubilee Arts, and the archives of her family.

www.historyworkshop....

We are slowly creating our Bluesky presence, given the environment on other sites caused us to cease engagement. We are really looking forward to sharing our content, and hopefully engaging more people with study of antifascism and the extreme right - sadly as necessary as ever.