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vickyannand.bsky.social
@vickyannand.bsky.social
150 followers 110 following 300 posts
Photographer, licensed Thames mudlark, volunteer, occasional percussionist. Loves creative choral projects.
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chppc.bsky.social
Join us for our 2026 #SummerSchool focusing on 'Sickness & Health' with @ihr.bsky.social! We'll have trips, #archive visits, and lectures exploring everything from medieval medicine to public health throughout #London 's #history. Sign up early for a 10% discount: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
A card showing the dates of IHR's June summer school with a 10% discount if booking takes place before January. There are images from wood block prints and photographs from past epidemics in London.
November 27, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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drfernriddell.bsky.social
One of the most beautiful bits of english eccentricity and glorious design is coming back to Sotheby’s and should be bought by a musuem (or me) for THE NATION. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Jewelled golden hare that sparked national treasure hunt set for auction
Artist and author Kit Williams hid a golden hare with clues to its precise location given in his 1979 book
www.independent.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 9:18 AM
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jayrayner1.bsky.social
A great life, ended too soon.
November 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
vickyannand.bsky.social
Harp, one of the ice instruments played by the Terje Isungset Quartet. A beautiful, haunting concert at Kings Place last night.
Harp carved from ice with metal strings, one of the instruments played by the Terje Isungset Quartet at Kings Place.
November 24, 2025 at 8:24 AM
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nikonkelv.bsky.social
Gorgeous iridescent clouds over the sea at Scarborough this afternoon 🥰 #birds #photography #nature
November 23, 2025 at 4:20 PM
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greenwichwire.bsky.social
More than 600 homes and a 17-storey tower will now replace the derelict Leegate shopping centre – but the developer got a ticking-off from Lewisham councillors for branding the scheme “Blackheath Gate”.
Taller Leegate tower approved - but developer sorry for Blackheath branding - The Greenwich Wire
More than 600 homes and a 17-storey tower will now replace the derelict Leegate shopping centre – but the developer got a ticking-off from Lewisham councillors for branding the scheme “Blackheath…
greenwichwire.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 7:30 AM
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durotrigesdig.bsky.social
*Archaeological find of national significance broken up and dispersed overseas*

There, fixed that headline for you

www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/2562811...
Roman coin find in Dorset field sells for over £16,000
A hoard of 97 Roman coins found in Dorset by metal detectorist Trenton Oliver sold for £16,625 at Noonans Mayfair auction, exceeding estimates.
www.dorsetecho.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 11:17 PM
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ianvisits.co.uk
St Mary le Strand’s ‘shimmering’ art screen turns out to be painted fabric over scaffolding

www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/st-...
St Mary le Strand’s ‘shimmering’ art screen turns out to be painted fabric over scaffolding
The 300 year old St Mary le Strand church has been partially covered in a shimmering screen that is part functional cladding and part artwork.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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peterreavill.bsky.social
Tess doing doing such good work on mining PAS data for the stories they fail to tell about the impact of unregulated metal detecting. The figures on exports are staggering and hidden in sight.

The system is broken and overdue significant reform
November 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
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tanjabueltmann.net
Tried to get this published but no luck, so might as well ‘publish’ it here so it’s not a complete waste!

➡️ Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow

#asylum #Mahmood #history #humanrights
Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow   When I was 13, I visited a Nazi concentration camp for the first time, confronting my country’s dark history always—and rightly—a bedrock in my growing up.    One image from that visit has stayed with me ever since: a display of prisoners’ personal possessions.    It revealed a world in which those imprisoned were stripped not only of their freedom but of the last tangible traces of their humanity. That systematic erasure was the most important precondition for murdering millions.   Now, as a historian, I know that history does not flow into the present in a straight line, and direct comparisons are rarely appropriate. They certainly are not here.   But history is the one compass humanity has. Too often we choose to ignore it.    The Home Secretary’s proposals for changes to the UK’s asylum system represent such a moment of failure.    Yet the most troubling aspect of Labour’s frantic efforts to appear tough on immigration is not even the historical echoes that taking refugees’ possessions invokes. It is that cost recovery is not the real purpose of the rationale behind it.    The true aim is to appeal to a particular audience—those who take satisfaction in seeing people seeking refuge deprived of what little they have. It is hard to imagine a more troubling approach to policymaking, and that becomes even clearer when we consider the Home Secretary’s proposals in context.   As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. Around 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.   It is unconscionable that such a small and vulnerable population can be targeted with deliberate cruelty and weaponised for assumed political gain.   And that is all this will ever be. The core miscalculation is believing that adopting these positions will neutralise Reform.    Both historical knowledge and current research show the opposite. Mainstreaming extremist policies legitimises them further and aids only the original. Each step towards Reform’s territory simply gives Reform more power.   But our political discourse has been so degraded over the last decade that many no longer even recognise policies—or the language that frames them—as extreme.    That is how the Home Secretary can speak so casually of desperate people seeking sanctuary as recipients of a ‘golden ticket’ as though the context is Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory rather than countries torn apart by war and starved by famine. Speak of her ‘moral mission’ to withdraw support, alleging that ‘illegal migration is tearing our country apart.’ And warn of ‘dark forces stirring up anger,’ oblivious to her own role: from the use of blurry, dehumanising images of refugees to spread falsehoods about their impact on communities, to the equally false description of refugee movements as illegal migration.    I suggest the Home Secretary find a mirror if she is keen to understand who is helping turn anger into hate.   Because it is the mainstreaming of far-right talking points that the Home Secretary’s proposals represent that is really tearing our country apart.   For when a policy looks like the far right, speaks to the far right and is hailed by the far right as being far right, it is far right. There is a reason Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is jubilant and speaks of ‘the Overton window having been obliterated.’   This makes a mockery of the Prime Minister’s recent comments on the urgent need to tackle racism. But it also raises alarming questions about the impact this will have on communities around the country, many of which are already deeply divided.    The proposed policies will do nothing for these struggling communities, because their problems simply do not stem from people seeking sanctuary with us. In fact: for as long as politicians focus on immigrants and refugees as the cause of our problems, they will fail to deliver for the British people.   But it is important to grasp the impact of the Home Secretary’s proposals as they carry broader consequences for all of us. Suggestions for changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights is applied are particularly concerning. Requiring judges to prioritise ‘public safety’—falsely implying refugees pose a threat—would qualify human rights for a specific group.   And once one accepts that human rights can be qualified for one group, one creates tools that can be used against anyone.   So what these proposals really mean goes far beyond asylum policy. This is about the kind of country we will have in the future. If human rights are no longer universal, they become a means for exclusion and control.    That is why stripping rights from refugees today can only enable a system that endangers all our rights tomorrow.    And that is why our historical compass matters and why we have to use it now. Because that compass tells us without doubt that when first they come for one group that is never where it ends. 
November 18, 2025 at 8:03 PM
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mudlarklives.bsky.social
They come across fresh on every encounter. I never knew until now of @thegentleauthor.bsky.social's role in saving them.
Spitalfields Life @thegentleauthor.bsky.social Dorothy Annan’s Murals At The Barbican spitalfieldslife.com/2025/11/17/d...
November 17, 2025 at 6:21 PM
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tessmachling.bsky.social
"Detectors now can pretty much tell you what it is before you dig it. You can tell what shape it is, you've got IDs so you know what type of metal it is"

From BBC article in my last post.

#Archaeology 🏺

1/4
November 17, 2025 at 9:22 AM
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silverpebble2.bsky.social
If you’re feeling a bit sad it might help a little to know that this painting exists. It’s called Dynamism of a dog on a leash, by Giacomo Galla, 1912:
A painting of a dachshund on a lead, it’s leggies & tail painting many times on the same animal to depict the action of it walking with its owner
November 16, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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greenwichwire.bsky.social
More than 50 trees on Woolwich Common that were set to be chopped down have been given a reprieve - at least for now - after an application to widen a road was taken off a planning committee’s agenda.

Plans for a new cycle lane had received over 500 objections.

greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/11/14/w...
Reprieve for Woolwich Common trees after cycle lane plans halted - The Greenwich Wire
More than 50 trees on Woolwich Common that were set to be chopped down have been given a reprieve after an application to widen a road was taken off a planning committee’s agenda.
greenwichwire.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 5:34 PM
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carlowweather.bsky.social
This is why you should not eat nuts on a plane. A friends child went into anaphylaxis because of it.
November 14, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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rleggos.bsky.social
So when the aurora borealis is faint enough, you can capture its glow with the Milky Way 😍

Berthoud Pass, CO last night
Milky Way to the left and red glow to the right above mountains with just a little snow on them in a very starry sky. I didn't use a star tracker and this was a 30 second exposure so some star trailing is visible.
November 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
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tessmachling.bsky.social
Several minute piece on the BBC.
Lots of detectorists.
No archaeologists.
No-one from PAS.
No-one from museums.
No discussion of the costs or responsibilities involved.

😡

#Archaeology #Detecting #Treasure #BBC #News
A photo of my TV with a detectorist on the BBC News.
November 13, 2025 at 7:59 PM
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tessmachling.bsky.social
Guess what I've spent the morning doing??

TLDR it's all getting worse: number of Treasure finds up, number of donations and acquisitions down.

#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting
graphs and tables for treasure finds from 2014-2024
November 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
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tessmachling.bsky.social
...and still there are no figures for how much this is costing museums, us, you and me!

It's appalling...

#Archaeology
tessmachling.bsky.social Dr Tess Machling @tessmachling.bsky.social · 14d
OK. These are the new, updated, figures for 2023.

Utterly miserable reading -

"1,343 #treasure finds reported in 2023 (1,091 object cases and 252 coin cases). Of these cases:

❌️328 (24%) were acquired by museums (260 object cases, 68 coin cases)"❌️

1/3

#Archaeology 🏺

www.gov.uk/government/s...
Reported Treasure Finds 2023 and 2024 Statistical Release
www.gov.uk
November 13, 2025 at 7:41 AM
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ianvisits.co.uk
Around this time of year and around Richmond town centre, the usually wide and deep River Thames shrinks to the width of a modest stream.

www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/bir...
Birds feast and boats rest as the Thames is lowered for the annual Richmond Draw-Off
Around this time of year and around Richmond town centre, the usually wide and deep River Thames shrinks to the width of a modest stream.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 7:01 AM
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jim.londoncentric.media
London's enormously delayed new Docklands Light Railway (DLR) trains have been immediately withdrawn because of issues one of them had with stopping in the rain.
November 12, 2025 at 2:13 PM
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sturdyalex.bsky.social
You may have missed this gem yesterday. From which we learn that:

1. Betting shops are really good for the mental health of isolated people.
2. Most drug-takers are not a problem.
3. Kids put tuppence in slot machines in the hope of getting rich.
4. Farage probably has a gambling industry donor.
November 11, 2025 at 10:08 AM
vickyannand.bsky.social
Swan family resting in the reflections of Canary Wharf
Photo taken at night showing a family of swans in the water, partly lit by reflections from a nearby building
November 7, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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romanpalace.bsky.social
Wow! 😮🤩
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓

itiner-e.org

We might have to have a lie-down.
A map of part of Britiain and northern europe showing loads and loads of roman roads, picked out in red.
November 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
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perryodontal.bsky.social
the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre"

www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...
according to the liberation newspaper, documents dating back to a 2014 inspection by the French National Agency for the Security of Computer Systems reported a staggering detail: "the password of the louvre's video surveillance server was simply " louvre. "
November 3, 2025 at 5:56 PM