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Simon Briercliffe

@simonbriercliffe.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1.4K following 500 posts

Historian at the Black Country Museum and elsewhere: talk to me about the Black Country, Shropshire, modern and local British history, the Irish in Britain, museums, local heritage and all stops in between. Baby gaeilgeoir. https://simonbriercliffe.com/

simonbriercliffe.com

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Kieran Connell @kieranconnell.bsky.social · 15h

I have a piece in this weekend’s Observer in which I use the legendary Apache Indian to take down the definitely not legendary Robert Jenrick

observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Change your tune, Jenrick. For integration, look no furth...

Growing up in diverse Birmingham defined my world view. What other city could have inspired Apache Indian’s mash-up?

observer.co.uk

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 14h

Woohoo!

Reposted by Simon Briercliffe

Andrew Popp @andrewpopp.bsky.social · 22h

Alan McKinlay's "Dead Selves" in the journal Organization is a brilliant study of marginalia in bank ledgers and might be useful. My own "The Broken Cotton Speculator" dissects the annotations and scribblings on a single anonymous postcard. Not exactly the same but some parallels I think.

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Clare Stainthorp @claregs.bsky.social · 21h

Here’s some images - more of a scrapbook but I still reckon it would be worth reaching out him. More generally, take a look at various projects under umbrella of Piston, Pen & Press led by Kirstie Blair and Mike Sanders
www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org/collections/...

Denny Bros. "Arkivz" - Scottish Maritime Museum

David Michelson is a Collections Volunteer at the Scottish Maritime Museum “The Arkivz” is a large scrapbook maintained by Drawing Office staff at the Denny shipyard in Dumbarton, from the…

www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org

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Liz Wood @worsted.bsky.social · 21h

Not quite the same but there may be a few stylistic similarities - we've got some examples of rank and file (CPGB associated) workplace bulletins from the 1920s/30s - some of the Rufford Stars are up at cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

CONTENTdm

cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org

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Andrew Popp @andrewpopp.bsky.social · 18h

This is about scrapbooking (but by a boss, not workers)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Explicating archival ethnography: Helmut Käser’s business trip

Archival ethnography using microhistorical approaches has considerable untapped potential as a research approach in management and business history. We use a scrapbook compiled by the mid-twentieth...

www.tandfonline.com

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Catherine Sloan @csloanox.bsky.social · 17h

Yay yes!!!! There are lots of folks working on ms magazines - Kirstie Blair and Lauren Weiss on mutual improvement society Mags, @kghist.bsky.social on girls MS mags, me 😊 on children’s school MS. Kathryn’s article has a really good summary of the field: academic.oup.com/ehr/article-...

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academic.oup.com

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 16h

Oh this is amazing, thank you!!

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 20h

They have the same extremely homemade vibe about them - thanks! I'm wondering if @jacksaundrs.bsky.social has ever spotted anything like this too.

Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 20h

Oh they are similar! Definitely on the same lines in terms of workplace literary culture - thanks so much.

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 22h

Thank you, and thanks for sharing! I'll certainly check these out.

Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 22h

They're mostly a set of gossipy or fanciful stories about life at the foundry and the people there, with some great use of Black Country dialect - almost like a zine.

Hand-drawn comic reading "He works that hard - there's grass growing under his feet" and "It's alright them saying 'work it on your own' but do I get enny extra?" There are posters saying "Vote for Wilf" and "And a darker loaf." There are two workmen pictured, one is saying "It's a monkey nut - I cud werk it"

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 22h

I have a set of hand-drawn comics/gossip sheets/newspapers donated alongside our aluminium foundry at @bclivingmuseum.bsky.social, dating from (I think) late 1940s. Does anyone know any lit that will help me explore this as a source? I've found work on company mags but this is very different.

Excerpt from handwritten zine-style text entitled "Burglar's editorial"

Hand-drawn comic panel showing workman thumping a desk and shouting "I demand shorter hours" - the caption reads, "whadoya want then = fifty nine minutes"

Hand-drawn caricature of Ernest Bevin, reading "Bevin says - even Russians read this paper"

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 2d

I'm here in the Caribbean Heritage Centre in Wolverhampton (formerly Enoch Powell's constituency office!) to hear @warinderjussmp.bsky.social, Roger Mackenzie and most importantly Angelina Osborne talk about her research into links between transatlantic slavery and the Black Country.

Angelina Osborne addressing a crowd in front of a trade union banner

Warinder Juss addressing a crowd in front of a trade union banner

Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 3d

This could end up being fun - witness Trump Vs Vertigo angustior in Co Clare
carnegiemnh.org/snail-foils-...

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Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 3d

Veteran statue-hugger and former letter-writer to museums pitching to be the next pound-shop Enoch Powell

every Brummie understands what racist trash this is from the Shadow Lord Chancellor—and if you don’t know our second city here’s your prompt to pay a visit!

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 3d

Looks like there's a few tickets remaining for this tomorrow evening in Wolverhampton - should be fascinating, Angelina Osborne is doing some tremendously useful work for Black Country history.
wolvestuc.org.uk/researcher/

research into Black Country connection to slavery and the slave trade – Wolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Council

wolvestuc.org.uk

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 4d

If he doesn't like it he should just leave, I think I've understood the logic

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 5d

happy sunday, remember that you are completely expendable to your employer and that when you die they will forget you ever existed within weeks and easily replace you

Work really hard and one day this can be you (followed by graffiti of a headstone that says “RIP worked really hard” on it

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Louvain Rees ⚰️ @hellohistoria.bsky.social · Jan 9

l appears that this particular vicar labelled the occupation of 99% of the mothers of 'illegitimate' children as "Strumpet."

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 6d

Pupdate: she's got a chip so she's going home.

Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 6d

Found a beautiful little stray on the road - currently waiting to see if she's microchipped, but there's a big part of me that wants them to let us take her home.

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ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · 7d

In memoriam...

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Simon Briercliffe @simonbriercliffe.bsky.social · 7d

When I was very little our dog had puppies - one had very bushy eyebrows so my parents called him Denis.

History of Parliament @histparl.bsky.social · 7d

Died #OTD 2015 Denis Healey. Chancellor of the Exchequer during the economic crises of the late 1970s, and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in the turbulent early 1980s.

Head over to our YouTube channel to find out more about Healey's career:

Parliamentary Leadership: Denis Healey

In the third of our videos on parliamentary leadership Dr Emma Peplow discusses the career of Denis Healey, the Labour party leader that never was. The excerpts of Healey's voice are from the…

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Simon Briercliffe

Museums Association @museumsassociation.org · 8d

News | Outcry after council signs off plan to relocate Walsall Leather Museum – local campaigners believe decision was pushed through without proper consultation

Outcry after council signs off plan to relocate Walsall Leather Museum - Museums Association

Local campaigners believe decision was pushed through without proper consultation

www.museumsassociation.org

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