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Adam Chapman

@adamchapman.bsky.social

7.9K followers 3.1K following 8.2K posts

Medieval historian interested in Wales, Somerset exile, inept cricketer, General Editor of the longest-running and largest local history project yet devised, the Victoria County History of England. Probably drinking tea.

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · Nov 11

Good morning (UK time), to new followers.

I’m a medieval historian working on Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (personally), and using the lens of place, working on the histories of England from way back to right now, editing the amazing @vchlondon.bsky.social.

Also, place, landscapes, cricket (sorry), fuelled by tea.

Shallow curved steps with treads decorated with mosaics in shades of white and grey, mingled with plants. The lowest step has ‘croeso’ (Welsh, meaning ‘welcome’ inscribed on it.

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 6h

East midlanders get unreasonably upset about Wymondham, for some reason.

Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 6h

Garboldisham.

Frome.

Costessey (ok, that one marks you as a student).

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Reposted by Adam Chapman

Chris H @chris-bh.bsky.social · 19h

#HillfortsWednesday
Between 1795-1816 the hillforts of #Dorset were part of a chain of visual shutter relay telegraph stations for the Admiralty connecting Plymouth to London. The chain included the high Hillforts of Lewesdon, Bulbarrow and Hambledon and at the racetrack by Badbury Rings
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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 8h

This is a magazine edited - evidently using the word loosely - by [checks notes] a former cabinet minister? And before him someone who went on to be PM?

Give me strength.

Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 8h

In fairness, refusing to answer the question of what degrees are 'poor' is something most politicians are bright enough to manage. For obvious reasons.

Reposted by Adam Chapman

Philip Amies @amiesphilip.bsky.social · 15h

@hydrology.nl created this superb elevation illustration of the mouth of The Wash embayment and the west of the North Norfolk coast, prompts me to make a thread of some historic map images.

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Peter Mandler @petermandler.bsky.social · 14h

Plus everyone (including the Tory party leader) has forgotten that the Conservatives *designed* the current funding system to subsidize degrees with the RAB charge: it was a feature then, not a bug, and now it is a 'rip off'.

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 15h

Something grimly predictable about the way that the conversation about 'ripoff degrees' in the UK is always about degrees that aren't rip-offs, but are instead fairly obvious 'this student has chosen something unlikely to pay off economically' rather than the short tail of crap business degrees:

Everyone needs educating in the fight over university degrees

Political confusion over the purpose of these institutions means the obvious fixes are being neglected

www.ft.com

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 14h

New badge: tired, mostly.

A pair of badges attached to a lanyard. The upper, orange with white writing, reads ‘This is what a historian looks like’.

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 14h

See also the contrasting responses to the Chinese spying case: Chris Mason, breathlessly, talking up the political nonsense: serious legal types (Ken McDonald, Grieve), saying that the mess is very much on the legal side and couldn't happen again...

Reposted by Adam Chapman

Rhodri Lewis @rhodri-el.bsky.social · 15h

Time is running out to sign up for this! A great gateway to studying local history, heritage policy & full of case studies and real world issues from Wales & beyond.
#Heritage #History #WelshHistory #Memorials @aberuni.bsky.social @rcahmwales.bsky.social @llafur.bsky.social @interpolaber.bsky.social

Rhodri Lewis @rhodri-el.bsky.social · 13d

New opportunity to join this popular lifelong learning course @aberuni.bsky.social open to all.

- Pre-recorded lectures (learn in your own time)
- Lively seminar discussions
- Heaps of reading suggestions & research resources - focus on what interests you
- Real world skills & issues
+ much more!

Poster for Lifelong learning course 'Beyond Statues'.

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 15h

Fine with me Nick, invoice in the post.

Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 15h

Easily done.

Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 15h

I mean, I can certainly see how you arrived at that impression, but he's uxorious to a fault (which his wife presumably tolerates/enjoys).

Reposted by Adam Chapman

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 19h

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Reposted by Adam Chapman

Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 20h

'It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense. It would be a description without meaning—as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.'

Albert Einstein, from Max Born, Physik im Wandel meiner Zeit (Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1966).

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Reposted by Adam Chapman

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 19h

If you want to win over younger voters, telling them they can't go to university is probably not going to help.

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Emily Vine @emilymayvine.bsky.social · 19h

📢 Free @materialwills.bsky.social event - this Saturday 11 October! 📢

#skystorians #history #earlymodern

The Material Culture of Wills Project @materialwills.bsky.social · 19h

There's still time to grab your ticket for a FREE 'WILLS PROJECT' EVENT

Join @lsangha.bsky.social & musician Chris Hoban this Saturday for a FREE performance of history & music inspired by #EarlyModern wills 📜🎵

📍Exeter Phoenix
📅Sat 11 Oct
🕐13.30

Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stories-an...

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Reposted by Adam Chapman

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 1d

Four parties within a 5 point swing of first place and five parties on 12% plus.

This would be pure chaos under first past the post.

Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 1d

Westminster Voting Intention:

RFM: 27% (-2)
LAB: 20% (-2)
CON: 17% (+1)
LDM: 17% (+2)
GRN: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

Via @yougov.co.uk, 5-6 Oct.
Changes w/ 28-29 Sep.

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 1d

I guess if you've only ever seen Christopher Lee in LOTR (assuming that he has), then the gothic element of his career that made him an obvious casting might have passed him by... but I've no idea how I'd explain Hammer to my kids, either.

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Reposted by Adam Chapman

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech

It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 1d

Struggling to find much humour in the likely next leader of the Conservative Party cosplaying the National Front of the 1970s.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 1d

JFC the man has not one ounce of shame in him.

He went to private school and Cambridge. He owns three homes and rents a fourth!

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 1d

I know plenty of politicians 'working classify' their backgrounds, but this from Jenrick is taking the piss.

His father's linked in is here: uk.linkedin.com/in/bill-jenr...

He was a managing accountant who ended up as the Managing Director of Cannon Industries

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 1d

I occasionally wonder how Street actually fits with that party, given where it is.

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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 1d

TBF - it's not new information; it's on her constituency website:

Kemi Badenoch

www.northwestessexconservatives.org.uk

Reposted by Adam Chapman

Institute of Historical Research Wohl Library @ihrlibrary.bsky.social · 1d

We've updated our new books displays on the 1st and 2nd floors. There's a wide range of subjects spanning from the medieval to the 21st century.

If this interests you and you're not a member, membership to the library is open and free to everyone - www.history.ac.uk/library-digi...

Image showing some new acquisitions to the Institute of Historical Research Library - October 2025

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