Malcolm Stoneman
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malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Malcolm Stoneman
@malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
3.1K followers 2.4K following 4.8K posts
Interests - Walking, Cycling, Travel, History, Nature. Retired Head of Humanities, European. 🇪🇺
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malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️☕️🌺 -
#Ely #Cambridgeshire

Salvia Amistad - 📷 16.12.2025

#elevensestime
Purple Salvia Amistad
December 27, 2025 at 11:15 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Church of St Peter & St Paul, Eye #Suffolk

“Tower is one of the wonders of Suffolk” #Pevsner guide @yalepress.bsky.social

The 31 metre (101 foot) tower has flushwork panels from base to parapet.

#SteepleSaturday #Eye
The west front is of five stages, with flushwork panelling. The door has a frieze of shields at its base and above the pointed arch. There is a large four light window surmounted by two smaller windows. There are two bell openings. The top is surmounted by battlements & corner pinnacles.
December 27, 2025 at 9:01 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Seasons Greetings & Happy New Year to all.

“Annunciation” - c 1442
Fra Angelico / Beato Angelico

Museo di San Marco, #Firenze, #Italy

Such exquisite detail in the angel’s wings & intensity of emotion in this near 600 year old fresco.

#AdventAngels #FraAngelico
Exhibition caption - “The angel, who appears to have just landed with his beautiful many-hued wings, bows reverently before the future Mother of the Son of God. The scene originally targeted a very narrow audience because the first floor of the convent hosted the friars' dormitory, which explains the composition's simplicity compared to other versions.” Exhibition caption - “Mary, looking very young and humble, is astonished by the angel's announcement but at the same time she shows that she accepts the lofty duty to which she has been called by placing her joined hands on her belly.”
December 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Malcolm Stoneman
penleehousegallery.bsky.social
Christmas Eve by Stanhope Forbes was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897. This large painting (1.8m high) shows a band playing outside the Dock Inn in Dock Street, at the foot of Chapel Street in Penzance, with the parish church of St Mary's in the background.
December 24, 2025 at 12:01 PM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️☕️🌺 -
#Ely #Cambridgeshire

Periwinkle - 📷 16.12.2025

#elevensestime
Purple Periwinkle
December 24, 2025 at 11:01 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Church of All Saints, #Carshalton, #London

Font cover by Ninian Comper.

#Woodensday
#WoodcarvingWednesday
#NinianComper
Classical “golden” octagonal font cover.
December 24, 2025 at 8:08 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Annunciation (1443-44)
Barthélemy d'Eyck

Ste Marie-Madeleine, Aix-en-Provence

“Les arts sous Charles VII” exhibition, 2024 @museecluny.bsky.social #Paris

#AdventAngels
The Virgin Mary is praying within a Gothic church, as the Angel Gabriel appears.
December 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️☕️🌺 -
#DownhamMarket #Norfolk

Rose - 📷 22.12.2025 (Yesterday)

#elevensestime
Yellow rose
December 23, 2025 at 11:16 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Lewtrenchard Manor #Devon

Such wonderful skill displayed in producing this beautiful tile-like floor made of upright slates.

Once home of Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould hymn writer, folklore & folk song collector & lover of #Dartmoor.

#TilesOnTuesday
Slates laid on end in a tile-like pattern.
December 23, 2025 at 8:03 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️☕️🌺 -
#DownhamMarket #Norfolk

Rose - 📷 22.12.2025 (Today)

#elevensestime
Apricot coloured rose.
December 22, 2025 at 11:43 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 “Kensington Valhalla” 1862-71

Preserved V & A Museum #London are mosaics (made by #Salviati) of well-known artists like -
Hans Holbein
Giorgione
Sir Joshua Reynolds

Inspired by Valhalla (Regensburg, Germany), which contains busts honouring national heroes

#MosaicMonday
Hans Holbein holds his portrait of Henry VIII Giorgione Sir Joshua Reynolds dips his paint brush into his palette.
December 22, 2025 at 8:26 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
🚶‍♀️🚶🏻‍♂️Ingoldisthorpe - Dersingham, #Norfolk

Very few wildflowers to be seen, but there was an occasional Oxeye Daisy & Buttercup in the Autumnal sunshine.

#WildflowerHour
Oxeye Daisy Buttercup
December 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 -
#Ely #Cambridgeshire

Primrose - 📷 16.12.2025

#elevensestime
Cream primrose
December 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Our Lady of Fatima Church, Harlow, #Essex

A #Modernist church designed 1953/4 by Gerard Goalen.

It is noted for the large windows with dalle de verre glasswork by Dom Charles Norris of Buckfast Abbey, #Devon assisted by Paulinus Angold and Jerome Gladman.

#StainedGlassSunday
#AdventAngels
The Annunciation, the Visitation & Nativity in slabs of red, green & blue glass.
December 21, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Reposted by Malcolm Stoneman
bwallower.bsky.social
#SteepleSaturday
Few Romanesque churches have bell towers w passage beneath as in Trani's Cathedral of St Nicholas the Pilgrim, who died in Trani 1094.
Church built on Adriatic shore (over 4th C church) soon afterwards to house his relics. Tower added 13th C w windows multiplying towards top.
Church of white tuff against bright/deep blue sky, with extensive stone paved square in front. Facade has a set up steps up to an entrance level, with arcaded feature with main door and four arches either side. Simple style frontage with three round arched windows high up, and large round rose window at top. Very high tower to right extends much higher with a huge, tall arcaded passageway c half as high as the church. On top of that are five storeys and a spire with a walkway around it. The storeys have 2, 2, 3, 4 and 5 windows.
December 20, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Reposted by Malcolm Stoneman
parishchurches.org
The gold frog.

Sir John Poley's monument in the Poley Chapel at Holy Trinity, Boxted (Suffolk) shows this soldier wearing an extraordinary detail - a gold frog earring.
December 19, 2025 at 8:59 PM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 -
#Dersingham #Norfolk

Periwinkle - 📷 19.12.2025 (Yesterday)

#elevensestime
Bright blue periwinkle.
December 20, 2025 at 11:41 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Roman Emperor & his wife.
1st Century BCE / 1st Century CE
#Roman Theatre of Vallebuona, #Volterra #Italy

* Carving of Emperor Augustus (63 BCE - 14 CE).
* Carving (marble) of Livia Drusilla (58 BC - 29 AD), the wife of Emperor Augustus.

Now Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, Volterra.

#RomanSiteSaturday
Museum caption - “The head portrays the Emperor Augustus (63 BC 14 AD) at a young age, when he was only Octavian and did not yet have the imperial titles. It belongs to the portrait type "Azio" or "Ottaviano". The dating of the head is still uncertain: some scholars attribute it to 30-20 B.C., for other scholars it would be a posthumous replica, to be attributed to the age of Caligula.” Museum caption - “Marble portrait of Livia Drusilla (58 BC - 29 AD), the wife of Emperor Augustus. Livia is shown young and beautiful. Her face with its large eyes and refined chin accorded with Roman conceptions of feminine beauty.”
December 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Ely, #Cambridgeshire

A George V postbox with a Christmas presents topper by #secretyarnbomber

#PostboxSaturday
Postbox with Christmas presents topper. Close up of present decorated with stars.
December 20, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Malcolm Stoneman
drnwillburger.bsky.social
Two finely crafted bone combs from the early 6th c. AD, found in a grave at Dittigheim. To protect their delicate tines, they were carefully kept in a custom-made case. In the Early Middle Ages, long, well-groomed hair was more than a fashion choice, it was a symbol of status and identity. 1/2

📷me
Three-part bone comb set: a narrow, ornamented central case with dense ring-and-dot decoration, flanked by two single-row combs with very fine, partly broken teeth, all hanging vertically from a simple round metal suspension ring against a dark background.
December 20, 2025 at 8:05 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Church of St Nicholas, #Dersingham, #Norfolk

A Perpendicular west tower of c. 1370.
The parapet is battlemented with stone angels of I9II at the corners.

#SteepleSaturday
The west tower is lit by yesterday’s afternoon sun. The tower has corner buttresses, bell openings of three lights, a clock & battlements.
December 20, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Malcolm Stoneman
alisonfisk.bsky.social
The remarkably well-preserved York Helmet, dated AD 770-775, is one of only six surviving helmets from Anglo-Saxon Britain. A Latin inscription bears the name ‘Oshere’. Discovered by a digger operator in York in 1982. Iron and copper-alloy.

Yorkshire Museum 📷 by me

#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a front view of the so-called York Helmet on display at the Yorkshire Museum in York. This Anglian helmet is composed of four main elements; a composite cap (brown in colour), two hinged cheek-pieces (also brown in colour) and a brass neckguard made of ring mail ( dark in my photo). A brass-coloured nose guard is decorated with intricate interlaced animals. The 'eyebrows' have animal-head terminals. An inscribed copper alloy band runs over and across the crest of the helmet. The interlacing animals on the nose guard have open lips, comma-shaped eyes and spiral hips. Between the ‘eyebrows' and facing downward, is a larger animal head with a rounded snout and comma-shaped eyes, like those on the nose guard. This animal has ears on either side of its head that merge with the inscribed copper alloy band. A Latin inscription on the band reads: 'IN. NOMINE. DNI. NOSTRI. IHV. SCS. SPS. D. ET. OMNIBUS. DECEMUS. AMEN. OSHERE. XPI.' This abbreviated Latin inscription may be translated as 'In the name of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God and with all we pray. Amen. Oshere. Christ.' Oshere was probably a member of the powerful ruling dynasty of the kingdom of Northumbria. The helmet was heavily worn and had been repaired when for reasons unknown, it was buried with care in a square wood-lined pit, perhaps for safeguarding and later retrieval at a time when York was occupied by Vikings. But it lay unrecovered for around a thousand years, until it was discovered by a digger operator in 1982.
December 19, 2025 at 6:42 PM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
👀 Coffee time ☕️☕️🌺 -
#Snettisham #Norfolk

Fuchsia - 📷 19.12.2025 (Today)

#elevensestime
Fuchsia with red & purple flower.
December 19, 2025 at 12:03 PM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Small mirror - Roman

Maybe an offering to the river gods. An unusual find, but similar objects are found around the Danube in eastern Europe.

Found by anonymous and Bill & Anthony Yendall.

“Secrets of the Thames” exhibition.
#London Museum - Docklands

#FindsFriday #Roman
A carved metal mirror with handle.
December 19, 2025 at 8:47 AM
malcolmstoneman.bsky.social
Marble font
Bernardo Rossellino, 1447

From Collegiata di Sant'Andrea, Empoli

Now in Museo della Collegiata di Sant'Andrea, #Empoli #Italy

#FontsOnFriday
#Renaissance
An urn like font with handles carved with putti.
December 19, 2025 at 8:27 AM