Dr Ian Friel
@drianfriel.bsky.social
Independent historian, FSA and FRHistS, specialising in maritime, local and house history, based in UK. Author of five books on maritime history, multiple research papers and house histories. www.ianfriel.co.uk Rep: @donaldwin.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
Candle moulds, c. 1600-1640 each carved with one of the symbols from the Stuart royal arms - the Tudor rose, the thistle, the harp and the fleur-de-lys.
(V&A)
(V&A)
November 25, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Candle moulds, c. 1600-1640 each carved with one of the symbols from the Stuart royal arms - the Tudor rose, the thistle, the harp and the fleur-de-lys.
(V&A)
(V&A)
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
In the Swash Channel, Dorset, UK lies a 17th century shipwreck. Likely salvaged after it sank, few material remains survive. The researchers' detective work and protection efforts are now published and the book features in our #NewBookChronicle 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
🏺 #Archaeology
November 25, 2025 at 3:04 PM
In the Swash Channel, Dorset, UK lies a 17th century shipwreck. Likely salvaged after it sank, few material remains survive. The researchers' detective work and protection efforts are now published and the book features in our #NewBookChronicle 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
🏺 #Archaeology
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
American friends:
November 25, 2025 at 2:18 PM
American friends:
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
This afternoon's job is formatting the Bibliography for #gloucesterwreck co-edited book, soon to be sent for publication with @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social ... I actually quite like doing this job (& stage of a project i.e. almost done!) 📝...
November 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM
This afternoon's job is formatting the Bibliography for #gloucesterwreck co-edited book, soon to be sent for publication with @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social ... I actually quite like doing this job (& stage of a project i.e. almost done!) 📝...
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
My latest commentary: how to populist-proof your democracy before it's too late…
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
My guide to populist-proofing your democracy – before it’s too late | Timothy Garton Ash
From public service broadcasting to an independent judiciary, these are the things that we must fight to keep, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:01 AM
My latest commentary: how to populist-proof your democracy before it's too late…
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
Amazing maps indeed! The survey was carried out from around 1958 to 1974; coverage for England and Wales looks to be complete but coverage of Scotland much less so. I'm already checking what the maps show for my local #OnePlaceStudy to compare land use there now, with what this survey recorded.
This #MapMonday we celebrate an amazing crowd-sourced project, the Second Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain.
Directed by Professor Alice Coleman, the project involved over 3,000 volunteers, including university students and schoolchildren.
Explore the maps > maps.nls.uk/additions/#189
Directed by Professor Alice Coleman, the project involved over 3,000 volunteers, including university students and schoolchildren.
Explore the maps > maps.nls.uk/additions/#189
November 24, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Amazing maps indeed! The survey was carried out from around 1958 to 1974; coverage for England and Wales looks to be complete but coverage of Scotland much less so. I'm already checking what the maps show for my local #OnePlaceStudy to compare land use there now, with what this survey recorded.
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
This is extremely unfortunate to say the least. Not sure how I would have reacted to having my Reith lectures censored - the world has changed in an ill way in the two years since.
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 10:39 AM
This is extremely unfortunate to say the least. Not sure how I would have reacted to having my Reith lectures censored - the world has changed in an ill way in the two years since.
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
A hugely popular and internationally recognised symbol of Britishness, associated with time travel & outlandish speculative fictions. And the TARDIS.
November 23, 2025 at 5:43 PM
A hugely popular and internationally recognised symbol of Britishness, associated with time travel & outlandish speculative fictions. And the TARDIS.
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
On this day in 1120, the White Ship sank en route from Barfleur to Southampton. William Ætheling, King Henry I’s only legitimate son and heir to the throne, drowned whilst trying to save his half-sister, Matilda of Perche, who also perished.
1/4
1/4
November 25, 2025 at 9:10 AM
On this day in 1120, the White Ship sank en route from Barfleur to Southampton. William Ætheling, King Henry I’s only legitimate son and heir to the throne, drowned whilst trying to save his half-sister, Matilda of Perche, who also perished.
1/4
1/4
#RomanSiteSaturday I've posted these before, but they're maybe worth another outing. Nothing obviously Roman here at first sight, on the foreshore of #ChichesterHarbour. However, tangled up among the tree roots are lumps of Roman tile, from an adjacent tilery site.
November 22, 2025 at 10:05 AM
#RomanSiteSaturday I've posted these before, but they're maybe worth another outing. Nothing obviously Roman here at first sight, on the foreshore of #ChichesterHarbour. However, tangled up among the tree roots are lumps of Roman tile, from an adjacent tilery site.
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
The base of a 2,000 year old, Late Iron Age Durotrigian style Black Burnished Ware bowl from Winterborne Kingston #Dorset
A series of squiggles were scored into the fabric prior to firing - decoration, doodle or pot-makers mark?
📷 during cleaning in June 2013
#FindsFriday
A series of squiggles were scored into the fabric prior to firing - decoration, doodle or pot-makers mark?
📷 during cleaning in June 2013
#FindsFriday
November 21, 2025 at 7:40 AM
The base of a 2,000 year old, Late Iron Age Durotrigian style Black Burnished Ware bowl from Winterborne Kingston #Dorset
A series of squiggles were scored into the fabric prior to firing - decoration, doodle or pot-makers mark?
📷 during cleaning in June 2013
#FindsFriday
A series of squiggles were scored into the fabric prior to firing - decoration, doodle or pot-makers mark?
📷 during cleaning in June 2013
#FindsFriday
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I have been WAITING for a journalist to write this story.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
I specialize in manuscripts produced in England between 1300 and 1500. If this had occurred in the midst of writing my dissertation or first book, it would have exploded my career.
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
A Hunger-Games-style proposal for solving the Royal Navy's manning problems in 1813:
evanmwilson.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...
evanmwilson.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...
A Plan for Manning the Royal Navy, 1813
From the cutting-room floor
evanmwilson.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:34 PM
A Hunger-Games-style proposal for solving the Royal Navy's manning problems in 1813:
evanmwilson.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...
evanmwilson.substack.com/p/a-plan-for...
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
One photo, two worlds — the Día de los Muertos parade at the gates of St. Roch Cemetery, New Orleans.
November 4, 2025 at 12:42 AM
One photo, two worlds — the Día de los Muertos parade at the gates of St. Roch Cemetery, New Orleans.
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
We 🧡 Autumn
📷 Katarzyna Kedziora
📍 Halnaker
📷 Katarzyna Kedziora
📍 Halnaker
November 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM
We 🧡 Autumn
📷 Katarzyna Kedziora
📍 Halnaker
📷 Katarzyna Kedziora
📍 Halnaker
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
Shifting sands at Maroubra Beach have revealed the wreck of the HEREWARD once again — a 19th-century iron clipper driven ashore during a fierce storm in May 1898. Though the crew survived, the ship never sailed again, slowly pulled apart by waves and weather.
Object number 00002278
Object number 00002278
November 17, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Shifting sands at Maroubra Beach have revealed the wreck of the HEREWARD once again — a 19th-century iron clipper driven ashore during a fierce storm in May 1898. Though the crew survived, the ship never sailed again, slowly pulled apart by waves and weather.
Object number 00002278
Object number 00002278
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
📢📢📢New book forthcoming in the 'Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800: Cultures of the Sea' book series! Material Culture in the Swedish Navy, c. 1450-1850, edited By Simon Ekström, Niklas Eriksson, Anna Maria Forssberg, Leos Müller will be published 28/4/26 ⚓️⚓️⚓️
routledge.com/Material-Cul...
routledge.com/Material-Cul...
November 17, 2025 at 7:33 AM
📢📢📢New book forthcoming in the 'Maritime Humanities, 1400-1800: Cultures of the Sea' book series! Material Culture in the Swedish Navy, c. 1450-1850, edited By Simon Ekström, Niklas Eriksson, Anna Maria Forssberg, Leos Müller will be published 28/4/26 ⚓️⚓️⚓️
routledge.com/Material-Cul...
routledge.com/Material-Cul...
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
Memorial to young musician Matthew Godwin in Exeter Cathedral. Only 17y and 5m old when he died in 1586.
The main keys on the small organ are black, the reverse of modern keyboards, as was usual in the 16th century.
#MonumentsMonday
The main keys on the small organ are black, the reverse of modern keyboards, as was usual in the 16th century.
#MonumentsMonday
November 17, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Memorial to young musician Matthew Godwin in Exeter Cathedral. Only 17y and 5m old when he died in 1586.
The main keys on the small organ are black, the reverse of modern keyboards, as was usual in the 16th century.
#MonumentsMonday
The main keys on the small organ are black, the reverse of modern keyboards, as was usual in the 16th century.
#MonumentsMonday
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
St Mary’s Haddington 🏴 has some remarkable medieval oak timbers in the nave roof. My #dendrochronology work there dated them to the early 1400s and revealed them as Baltic baulks from the Gdansk region.
#MedievalMonday
#MedievalMonday
November 17, 2025 at 8:20 AM
St Mary’s Haddington 🏴 has some remarkable medieval oak timbers in the nave roof. My #dendrochronology work there dated them to the early 1400s and revealed them as Baltic baulks from the Gdansk region.
#MedievalMonday
#MedievalMonday
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
#ArtDD2025
St Mary's, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey
Tal-y-Llyn has disappeared, but its church was saved by @friendlesschurches.bsky.social in 1999 & is open to all.
Yes, I've done this one before😀
@saocousins.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social @andykaitken.bsky.social
St Mary's, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey
Tal-y-Llyn has disappeared, but its church was saved by @friendlesschurches.bsky.social in 1999 & is open to all.
Yes, I've done this one before😀
@saocousins.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social @andykaitken.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 7:48 PM
#ArtDD2025
St Mary's, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey
Tal-y-Llyn has disappeared, but its church was saved by @friendlesschurches.bsky.social in 1999 & is open to all.
Yes, I've done this one before😀
@saocousins.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social @andykaitken.bsky.social
St Mary's, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey
Tal-y-Llyn has disappeared, but its church was saved by @friendlesschurches.bsky.social in 1999 & is open to all.
Yes, I've done this one before😀
@saocousins.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social @andykaitken.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
The MS of the Week is on display in the Reading Room of the Library this week from 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-16.30 Monday - Friday. No appointment or reader’s ticket is required to view the MS of the Week.
November 17, 2025 at 9:34 AM
The MS of the Week is on display in the Reading Room of the Library this week from 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-16.30 Monday - Friday. No appointment or reader’s ticket is required to view the MS of the Week.
Well preserved wooden shipwreck found 100m down in Lake Ontario - even the masts are standing. It is thought it may date the c 1800-1850 period:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
A 19th-century shipwreck near Toronto emerges almost untouched by time | CBC News
An exploration dive team seeking the century-old wreck of the Rapid City has instead found a much rarer prize: a virtually undisturbed vessel, potentially dating back to the first half of the 19th cen...
www.cbc.ca
November 16, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Well preserved wooden shipwreck found 100m down in Lake Ontario - even the masts are standing. It is thought it may date the c 1800-1850 period:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
🚨Our BBC is under attack 🚨 We can't let those that want to see it torn up & replaced by the likes of GBNews or Fox win. Sign the open letter now to demand the new BBC boss is someone that will protect the BBC, not let its enemies tear it down: 38d.gs/2sa8
Sign the petition: save our BBC: don't let the likes of Trump and his UK cronies meddle with our public broadcaster
🚨Our BBC is under attack 🚨 We can't let those that want to see it torn up & replaced by the likes of GBNews or Fox win. Sign the open letter now to demand the new BBC boss is someone that will protect...
38d.gs
November 15, 2025 at 3:26 PM
🚨Our BBC is under attack 🚨 We can't let those that want to see it torn up & replaced by the likes of GBNews or Fox win. Sign the open letter now to demand the new BBC boss is someone that will protect the BBC, not let its enemies tear it down: 38d.gs/2sa8
Reposted by Dr Ian Friel
Assistance requested: came across reference to 'English East Indian ship' brought 'a peice [sic] of Lywaet, which is very good' to Cormontine, 23 October 1658 (n.s.). 'Lywaet' (translator's spelling) is unknown to me. Many thanks in advance for any and all advice #earlymodern #maritimehistory
November 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Assistance requested: came across reference to 'English East Indian ship' brought 'a peice [sic] of Lywaet, which is very good' to Cormontine, 23 October 1658 (n.s.). 'Lywaet' (translator's spelling) is unknown to me. Many thanks in advance for any and all advice #earlymodern #maritimehistory