David Underdown

@davidunderdown.bsky.social

1.8K followers 2K following 1.3K posts

Data Engineer at The National Archives. Digital Preservation/Digital Archiving. Also cycling, bellringing, photography, choral singing, promming and much more

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David Edward Underdown was a historian of 17th-century English politics and culture and Professor Emeritus at Yale University. Born at Wells, Somerset, Underdown was educated at the Blue School and Exeter College, Oxford. The books Revel, Riot, and Rebellion and Fire from Heaven won prizes from the North American Conference on British Studies and the New England Historical Association. After retiring from Yale in 1996, Underdown wrote a well-received book about the history of cricket in the Hambledon era, Start of Play. .. more

Political science 34%

History 28%

Posts Replies Media Videos

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 9h

#UnconfinedWalks The other way other way around the Taff this time. If you look closely at the base of the wall there was a wren skulking around. I saw a pair of common merganser/goosander on the Taff too but there was too much vegetation to get a photo

Reposted by David Underdown, Elizabeth Ewan

Elise Wang @elisewang.bsky.social · 10h

And the thing I’m most proud of doesn’t have a link to share yet, but it’s almost done! I’ve been leading a time of computer scientists and medievalists to create an HCR for Medieval Latin legal records, like those digitized at AALT (example below).

A screenshot of the model which includes the manuscript on the right and the extracted text on the left.

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 17h

#DigiPres

Ian @ianpatterson.com · 18h

History of Nerdery folk have been getting excited this year after a tape from 1974 was discovered clearing out someone's cupboard. It contains the only known copy of Unix V4. It's the first version where the kernel, all 27kb of it, was written in C. Amazingly, the tape has now been read ...

Reposted by David Underdown

merryn @merryn02.bsky.social · 17h

What an amazing moment that must have been when they opened it.
www.earth.com/news/suitcas...

Suitcase left in a bank vault for 100 years contained the lost Hapsburg jewels

A suitcase forgotten in Canada reveals private Habsburg jewels, including a nearly one-ounce yellow diamond, after a century in hiding.

www.earth.com

Reposted by David Underdown

Ian @ianpatterson.com · 18h

Reposted by David Underdown

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 1d

The whisky Mac has had its effect!

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 1d

#ConfinedCocktails Asti Martini so far while things cook. My dad would have appreciated the whisky too, but this is our tenth Christmas without him

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 1d

#UnconfinedWalks today on the way back from Christmas service

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 1d

#UnconfinedWalks Christmas Eve, a sunny wander around Bute Park/Pontcanna Fields

Reposted by Will Jennings, Adrian Vickers, David Underdown , and 1 more Will Jennings, Adrian Vickers, David Underdown, Patrick Stokes

Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 1d

When decimalisation occurred in 1966, the Australian government compiled an 81 page file on dangers of using decimal coins in Christmas puddings. There was a media campaign warning people not to use the new coins in their cooking. The file is now digitised.

recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...

Reposted by David Underdown

Jamie McTrusty @jamiemctrusty.bsky.social · 2d

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all! (An aircrew officer and a guard on night duty listen to a choir, composed of the ground crew of No. 122 Wing, singing Christmas carols by a Hawker Tempest in a dispersal at Volkel airfield, Holland, conducted by the Padre, Sqn Ldr K J Morgan).
📷 IWM CL 1736

Group of RAF personnel singing by the left wing of a Tempest fighter at night, conducted by an officer with a long baton. The scene is illuminated by a pilot carrying a portable lamp or torch. In the foreground, a helmeted sentry with a rifle looks on.

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 3d

#UnconfinedWalks a walk around near mum’s looking at Christmas lights, having apparently not brought quite everything I needed to cycle (and not being able to find the helmet I thought I’d left here)

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 4d

24 minutes late at Cardiff Central, but yes safely arrived

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 4d

Not much opportunity for #UnconfinedWalks today, but a little diversion to Platform 1 at Paddington

Reposted by Margot C. Finn, David Underdown

Justin Colson @justincolson.bsky.social · 4d

Did medieval people buy each other Christmas gifts? New Year's Day was the main gifting day, but little is known about everyday people's present giving. Our project on London's customs records has uncovered a wealth of affordable items imported around this time: gloves and hats to toys and rattles🧵

Medieval Londoners’ cheaply imported mass-produced Christmas gifts look surprisingly familiar

We often imagine medieval life as dull, dirty and short, with little in the way of material comfort or decoration. However, medieval Londoners were importing toys, treats and trinkets by the boatload ...

theconversation.com

Reposted by David Underdown, Béatrice Cointe

Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 4d

Music, materials, weather and climate - a great story about a set of organ record books from the 1960s to now. Are there older ones? When did recording temperature and humidity become a common part of the tuner's practice? www.theguardian.com/environment/... #histSTM #envhist

Organ-tuning books in English churches provide notes on a warming climate

Researchers have realised the records are a ‘goldmine’ to study changes in environmental conditions

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Tim Bale, Alistair Munro , and 6 more Richard S.J. Tol, Tim Bale, Alistair Munro, Richard Waite, Stephen D. Murphy, Margot C. Finn, David Underdown, David L. Anderson, Kathleen Kennedy

Chris Baraniuk @chrisbaraniuk.com · 4d

NEW: Organ tuners have been leaving temperature and humidity records in little-known books for decades. 🎹

They reveal how temperatures inside churches have changed over time due to climate change and increased heating.

A new scoop for The Reengineer!

www.thereengineer.pro/p/church-org...

Church organ tuning records mirror our warming climate

The records appear to reflect climate change, as well as the increased heating of churches in winter

www.thereengineer.pro

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 5d

#UnconfinedWalks grey again and the fallow deer having a lazy Sunday afternoon

Reposted by David Underdown

Tim on two wheels @timon2wheels.bsky.social · 5d

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

Cycling is changing at speed – but is Britain keeping pace?

Emulating the bike-friendly highways enjoyed by our continental neighbours will take a lot more money and political will

www.theguardian.com

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 6d

#UnconfinedWalks even bsky.app/profile/davi...

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 6d

#UnconfinedWaljs once again failed to take any photos for a couple of days. Today a walk into Kingston for brunch before rehearsal for tonight’s (sold out) Christmas Oratorio with Twickenham Choral

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 6d

#UnconfinedWaljs once again failed to take any photos for a couple of days. Today a walk into Kingston for brunch before rehearsal for tonight’s (sold out) Christmas Oratorio with Twickenham Choral

Reposted by David Underdown

road.cc @roadcc.bsky.social · 7d

“People see someone on a bike and get annoyed. Too many cyclists die because of both drivers and horrible road conditions. I’m pretty sure we all pay enough in taxes to deserve safe roads”

“Most drivers don’t know the rules”: Cyclist left with broken jaw as close passing motorist forces her into pothole before fleeing scene

“Cars go very fast and pass too close. People see someone on a bike and get annoyed. I’ve been shouted at many times just for cycling on the road. It’s terrifying”

road.cc

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 7d

<and normally at that time the organ scholar would have been practising inside the cathedral, but it was his dad's birthday. Maybe he could have raised the alarm, but he could have been overwhelmed by the smoke, either at the console or while attempting to escape.

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 7d

I suppose my point was it remained minor only by luck (or perhaps the Grace of God). The verger was only walking around the outside of the cathedral at that time because a parent had been late picking up their chorister child after choir practice, >

Reposted by David Underdown

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 7d

This is an exciting project on which I am an advisory board member: Uncovering rejects of legal deposit in 19th-century UK libraries. Basically: what did the legal deposit system *reject*.

cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1...

PROMPRINT will uncover and analyze the rejects of legal deposit: the printed texts excluded from the ostensibly universal archive promised by copyright libraries. Legal deposit works to preserve every...

cordis.europa.eu

Reposted by David Underdown

ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · 7d

For the first time in its centuries-long history, the ancient Trial of the Pyx will take place next year inside the Lady Mayor of London’s official residence at Mansion House.

www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the...

The ancient Trial of the Pyx is moving to Mansion House in 2026

For the first time in its centuries-long history, the ancient Trial of the Pyx will take place next year inside the Lady Mayor of London's official residence at Mansion House.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 7d

<made before the automatic alarm triggered. The smoke damage took a lot of cleaning (the fire was caused by a tea light placed in a stack of plastic chairs so the smoke was thick and oily)

David Underdown @davidunderdown.bsky.social · 7d

And that “minor” arson attack came within moments of destroying the nave ceiling. If a verger hadn’t have been walking around the outside of the cathedral and realised something was up it would very probably have caught fire judging by data recovered from temperature sensors later. His 999 call was>

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, David Underdown

Claire Boardman @claireboardman.bsky.social · 7d

Newly announced 2026 CPD series from @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy: Intro. to trauma-informed and person-centred practices

Aimed at the archives, but I've found TNA training to be highly relevant across the cultural sector.

Introductory first session: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introducti...

Introduction to trauma-informed and person-centred practices

Learn about key concepts of trauma-informed and person-centred practices and practical frameworks for embedding these into your work.

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