I haven't logged on in six weeks because I've been quite busy since the arrival of our daughter, Emma. We've been enjoying the summer holidays as a family of four.

Perfect reading for St Alban’s Day on Sunday ;)

I think the other side is cooler anyway

John Blair's long-awaited book on vampires has a cover! Due in November from @princetonupress.bsky.social.
'A riveting history of vampire panics across cultures and down through the millennia—and why killing the dead is better than killing the living.' press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

We enjoyed a rainy half-term holiday amidst the flat, fertile fields, broad, blustery beaches, and plentiful, flint churches of Norfolk

Mystery solved, St Elgin was a transcription error in at the start of the 18th century! It was St Helen's until then, I wonder why the locals went with it... prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/ea...

Thanks, I'm a complete noob when it comes to place-names!

Yes, when I read the previous dedication my mind did go straight to the possibility of a corruption of Helen. It would be interesting to know when this change was made.

according to their website they are the only church with this dedication

Does anyone know anything about a St Elgin? There is a church with that dedication in North Frodingham, East Yorkshire, which was possibly previously dedicated to St Helen?

I’m very proud of my husband, William Bunce, who defended his thesis, ‘Justinian the Jurist’, today. It was passed with minor corrections! A great achievement, especially as he finished it while working full time as a teacher.

I’ve been revisiting the story of the Herefordshire hoard in the bbc podcast ‘Fool’s Gold’. I remember this, and the Watlington Hoard, being big news when I was taking my undergraduate exams on early medieval Britain. I can still picture the revision card I made about them!

Wow! That’s quite a list… and such a beautiful place. Doesn’t feel like a node in a busy maritime network now, but was it?

Ampleforth :)

Hello! I've joined Blue Sky to keep up with early medieval history and archaeology news. In the last year, I have been teaching EAL but have left that job to relocate to North Yorkshire and currently have a couple of small academic and heritage outreach projects on the go. :)