Melinda Haunton
@melindahaunton.bsky.social
Archivist historian train traveller perennially anxious frequently cooking always interested
Tbh if you RT more than you comment I'm unlikely to follow back. I like to chat. UK based.
Tbh if you RT more than you comment I'm unlikely to follow back. I like to chat. UK based.
Pinned
Hello. If you're new to me, please know a *lot* of this feed is pictures of my feet as evidence of having reluctantly gone for a daily walk (#UnconfinedWalks). See also cups of tea (#TeaUp) and a Saturday night social (#ConfinedCocktails). In between there may be some archives.
@borderminstrel.bsky.social have you seen?
November 10, 2025 at 9:14 PM
@borderminstrel.bsky.social have you seen?
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
It's live! www.kickstarter.com/projects/maj...
Inks & Paints of the Middle East REVISED
A new, updated edition of my groundbreaking handbook of early Islamic art technology, incorporating five more years of research.
www.kickstarter.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
It's live! www.kickstarter.com/projects/maj...
Maternal #UnconfinedWalks, good to meet the Parkinsons nurse (despite short notice, generally useful).
November 10, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Maternal #UnconfinedWalks, good to meet the Parkinsons nurse (despite short notice, generally useful).
I am still marking, but Netflix is starting to email me about terrible (hurrah) Christmas movies. So tempted, so tempted, must focus.
I have to wrap my #YayAdvent this weekend, so maybe I will lean into it fully.
I have to wrap my #YayAdvent this weekend, so maybe I will lean into it fully.
November 10, 2025 at 8:39 PM
I am still marking, but Netflix is starting to email me about terrible (hurrah) Christmas movies. So tempted, so tempted, must focus.
I have to wrap my #YayAdvent this weekend, so maybe I will lean into it fully.
I have to wrap my #YayAdvent this weekend, so maybe I will lean into it fully.
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
Hi there! We’re the Archive Sector Leadership team at The National Archives UK.
We support archives of all types and sizes across England.
Lend us a follow and we’ll keep you updated with opportunities for free training, networking, grants, written guidance and more!
(1/2)
We support archives of all types and sizes across England.
Lend us a follow and we’ll keep you updated with opportunities for free training, networking, grants, written guidance and more!
(1/2)
November 10, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Hi there! We’re the Archive Sector Leadership team at The National Archives UK.
We support archives of all types and sizes across England.
Lend us a follow and we’ll keep you updated with opportunities for free training, networking, grants, written guidance and more!
(1/2)
We support archives of all types and sizes across England.
Lend us a follow and we’ll keep you updated with opportunities for free training, networking, grants, written guidance and more!
(1/2)
Right. Quite a complicated day today. It was going to be fairly busy, and then the Parkinsons nurse arose from her mysterious lair and asked to speak with me and mum together fairly instanter. Which is nice, considering it's been so long since her last visit that she didn't know Dad was dead.
November 10, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Right. Quite a complicated day today. It was going to be fairly busy, and then the Parkinsons nurse arose from her mysterious lair and asked to speak with me and mum together fairly instanter. Which is nice, considering it's been so long since her last visit that she didn't know Dad was dead.
Realise I was so elevated by Germans in London history that I failed to share fine wholesome autumnal #UnconfinedWalks earlier
November 9, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Realise I was so elevated by Germans in London history that I failed to share fine wholesome autumnal #UnconfinedWalks earlier
Am relatively calm at this dance off. It's fair. Whoever we lose is lovely but not at the top of their game.
Karen is magnificent and will rise again.
Karen is magnificent and will rise again.
November 9, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Am relatively calm at this dance off. It's fair. Whoever we lose is lovely but not at the top of their game.
Karen is magnificent and will rise again.
Karen is magnificent and will rise again.
If I were Katia with that lineup, I'd feel pretty confident. Lewis would beat them all in a dance off, no?
November 9, 2025 at 7:20 PM
If I were Katia with that lineup, I'd feel pretty confident. Lewis would beat them all in a dance off, no?
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
Today is the day…
November 9, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Today is the day…
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
17th-19th century Irish scribal abbreviations that look like text-speak: numeral 8 edition
"beannacht" (x2), "Connacht"
"beannacht" (x2), "Connacht"
November 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
17th-19th century Irish scribal abbreviations that look like text-speak: numeral 8 edition
"beannacht" (x2), "Connacht"
"beannacht" (x2), "Connacht"
I've commented in the past that Being Human festival events are intensely welll meaning but not always all that slick. But not today. Felicitations, KCL and St Mary le Savoy with St George German Lutheran Church. That was a lovely event: research, herbaria, archives, German refugees and music.
November 9, 2025 at 5:06 PM
I've commented in the past that Being Human festival events are intensely welll meaning but not always all that slick. But not today. Felicitations, KCL and St Mary le Savoy with St George German Lutheran Church. That was a lovely event: research, herbaria, archives, German refugees and music.
I have come to a Being Human festival event and I know three unconnected people in the audience. My tribe is massing.
November 9, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I have come to a Being Human festival event and I know three unconnected people in the audience. My tribe is massing.
And someone recalculated where the upright was while they were at it. Proper unsettling stuff.
They didn't panic at St Mary's, Tansor when they realised their round headed tower arch had gone out of fashion, they just built one of those new fangled pointy ones inside it!
#SundayStonework
#SundayStonework
November 9, 2025 at 2:33 PM
And someone recalculated where the upright was while they were at it. Proper unsettling stuff.
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
These catalogue updates allow me, a serious historian, to search for "fart" and find the case where the accused allegedly said he "cared not a fart for the Lord Mayor of London." What will you find? discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_a...
November 9, 2025 at 1:21 PM
These catalogue updates allow me, a serious historian, to search for "fart" and find the case where the accused allegedly said he "cared not a fart for the Lord Mayor of London." What will you find? discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_a...
Anyway. If anyone's anywhere near Diss and could pop by Stuston this week and apologise to my uncle Roy's grave that I did not in fact sort his remembrance wreath and I feel terrible about it, that would be super.
November 9, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Anyway. If anyone's anywhere near Diss and could pop by Stuston this week and apologise to my uncle Roy's grave that I did not in fact sort his remembrance wreath and I feel terrible about it, that would be super.
Usual slight confusion of a remembrance service, at our roadside war memorial. People with dogs at the back, fine. Chap on a horse, whoa. Jogger determinedly forging down the High St during the silence, every bloody year. Wildly poppied dads yacking throughout the prayers, national anthem etc, new.
November 9, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Usual slight confusion of a remembrance service, at our roadside war memorial. People with dogs at the back, fine. Chap on a horse, whoa. Jogger determinedly forging down the High St during the silence, every bloody year. Wildly poppied dads yacking throughout the prayers, national anthem etc, new.
*applause* #ConfinedCocktails
We have been out out for a Michelin-starred dinner, starting out with a martini #ConfinedCocktails. Currently wending our way home for a nightcap...
November 8, 2025 at 10:30 PM
*applause* #ConfinedCocktails
Cheers to strategic pausing #ConfinedCocktails
Very late to #ConfinedCocktails as I really needed to rest and refuel before hitting the dancefloor again!
November 8, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Cheers to strategic pausing #ConfinedCocktails
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
During the pandemic I started noticing drain covers, the best of which tell a history of local governance. The earliest I have found is this one bearing the name Withington Local Board, which dates it to between 1876 and 1894.
November 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM
During the pandemic I started noticing drain covers, the best of which tell a history of local governance. The earliest I have found is this one bearing the name Withington Local Board, which dates it to between 1876 and 1894.
Cheers to you! #ConfinedCocktails
Cheers! Beers with The Oracle while we research tonight’s drinks #ConfinedCocktails
November 8, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Cheers to you! #ConfinedCocktails
I am quite behind on Strictly but I feel very much like a strategic mother-in-law has been deployed. None of that, chaps.
November 8, 2025 at 8:10 PM
I am quite behind on Strictly but I feel very much like a strategic mother-in-law has been deployed. None of that, chaps.
This could (potentially) melt the buttons on my flameproof nightie. The ginger, I mean. Obviously.
#ConfinedCocktails cheers to something very stylish despite the internal conflicts
#ConfinedCocktails cheers to something very stylish despite the internal conflicts
Enjoying a Pear Drop Royale (especially the crystallised ginger) while a lady sings Ella Fitzgerald's 'Let's do It' in the background - although the effect is somewhat ruined by the fact that while she croons, all I can hear in my head is Victoria Wood's 'Let's Do It: the Ballad of Barry and Freda'
November 8, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This could (potentially) melt the buttons on my flameproof nightie. The ginger, I mean. Obviously.
#ConfinedCocktails cheers to something very stylish despite the internal conflicts
#ConfinedCocktails cheers to something very stylish despite the internal conflicts
Reposted by Melinda Haunton
Mulled cider! Nasty, cheap, tinned cider improved by the addition of spices, molasses and a fairly substantial amount of brandy. Cheers! #confinedcocktails
November 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Mulled cider! Nasty, cheap, tinned cider improved by the addition of spices, molasses and a fairly substantial amount of brandy. Cheers! #confinedcocktails
Cheers to the #ConfinedCocktails that got away
I didn't manage to catch it in time to photograph, but this blood orange and grapefruit G&T went down very well.
November 8, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Cheers to the #ConfinedCocktails that got away