Tim Jerrome
@timjerrome.bsky.social
Doctoral student at Brighton researching gay and lesbian histories in rural England. Also a writer, gamer, enthusiastic but hopeless tennis player, and fan of all dogs with facial hair
Pinned
Tim Jerrome
@timjerrome.bsky.social
· Feb 5
How can we trace same-sex relationships in rural archives, when love letters were heavily euphemistic or burned after reading?
For LGBTQ+ History Month, Tim Jerrome shares his research into queer rural relationships: from his first find, to the challenges faced.
merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2025/02...
For LGBTQ+ History Month, Tim Jerrome shares his research into queer rural relationships: from his first find, to the challenges faced.
merl.reading.ac.uk/blog/2025/02...
Thomas and Austen: a gay relationship in the MERL archives? - The Museum of English Rural Life
For LGBTQ+ History Month 2025, researcher Tim Jerrome shares how he's using rural archives to research same-sex relationships in the countryside.
merl.reading.ac.uk
If you have any interest in queer histories of the English countryside, be sure to check out the first publication of my PhD - an article for the amazing folks over at The MERL:
These look amazingly helpful; I'll definitely be coming to the session on absence in collections and maybe a couple of others too! 🙂
November 25, 2025 at 2:29 PM
These look amazingly helpful; I'll definitely be coming to the session on absence in collections and maybe a couple of others too! 🙂
Reposted by Tim Jerrome
Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research?
We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections.
Find out more:
collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/
We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections.
Find out more:
collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/
November 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research?
We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections.
Find out more:
collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/
We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections.
Find out more:
collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/
Very kind of you - will have to screenshot this and send it to potential publishers when the time comes!
October 30, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Very kind of you - will have to screenshot this and send it to potential publishers when the time comes!
ie. If a letter indicates a same sex relationship, but does not 100% confirm it, should this be highlighted on the archive catalogue as material related to LGBTQ+ history?
October 30, 2025 at 4:18 PM
ie. If a letter indicates a same sex relationship, but does not 100% confirm it, should this be highlighted on the archive catalogue as material related to LGBTQ+ history?
Genuine pleasure to be an absolute unit once more! Curious to hear listeners’ opinions on the speculatory nature of this research, and how that might clash with archival neutrality.
Absolute Units is back!
We continue our conversation with @timjerrome.bsky.social (University of Brighton; formerly, The MERL) about his research into queer rural life.
Discover what Tim has found in our archives to date & the research challenges he's faced.
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
We continue our conversation with @timjerrome.bsky.social (University of Brighton; formerly, The MERL) about his research into queer rural life.
Discover what Tim has found in our archives to date & the research challenges he's faced.
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
October 30, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Genuine pleasure to be an absolute unit once more! Curious to hear listeners’ opinions on the speculatory nature of this research, and how that might clash with archival neutrality.
Could I ask why? My focus is on the other side of their lives - their rurality - and I've found Grant's letters to be a great source of rural reflections.
Is it just that they've occupied too much of the narrative when it comes to queer histories of London?
Is it just that they've occupied too much of the narrative when it comes to queer histories of London?
October 29, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Could I ask why? My focus is on the other side of their lives - their rurality - and I've found Grant's letters to be a great source of rural reflections.
Is it just that they've occupied too much of the narrative when it comes to queer histories of London?
Is it just that they've occupied too much of the narrative when it comes to queer histories of London?
Not qualified to speak about the worlds of fashion and decoration, but I know that we still have a lot to learn from Bloomsbury. I've been going through the archives of Bell and Grant and they have so much to tell us about English queer history!
October 29, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Not qualified to speak about the worlds of fashion and decoration, but I know that we still have a lot to learn from Bloomsbury. I've been going through the archives of Bell and Grant and they have so much to tell us about English queer history!
Absolutely! Let me know when you are next coming to MERL and I'll see if I can be there 🙂
October 17, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Absolutely! Let me know when you are next coming to MERL and I'll see if I can be there 🙂
That's lovely to hear - a major inspiration for doing this research is so that LGBTQ people living in rural areas today know that there is, and always has been, a place for them in the countryside
October 17, 2025 at 12:24 PM
That's lovely to hear - a major inspiration for doing this research is so that LGBTQ people living in rural areas today know that there is, and always has been, a place for them in the countryside
Never before has a comment on Bluesky caught my attention so quickly... the search for the queer lumberjack has defined my life for far too long now! Curious to see what you can find.
October 17, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Never before has a comment on Bluesky caught my attention so quickly... the search for the queer lumberjack has defined my life for far too long now! Curious to see what you can find.
That's very kind of you to say - most of it is just patience and perseverance (but an appetite for finding gossip also helps!)
October 16, 2025 at 12:35 PM
That's very kind of you to say - most of it is just patience and perseverance (but an appetite for finding gossip also helps!)
Thank you to the eternally wonderful Joe and Ollie for guiding me through my first time on a podcast - if intense ramblings about finding queer snippets in rural archives is your thing, give it a listen! @themerl.bsky.social
🐏 New Absolute Units 🐏
Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.
In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.
In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
October 16, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Thank you to the eternally wonderful Joe and Ollie for guiding me through my first time on a podcast - if intense ramblings about finding queer snippets in rural archives is your thing, give it a listen! @themerl.bsky.social
If there's one thing I've learned it's that marriage to someone of the opposite sex does not preclude queerness in this time period! There must be a reason why he shares a headstone with Morris rather than his wife.
October 14, 2025 at 9:01 AM
If there's one thing I've learned it's that marriage to someone of the opposite sex does not preclude queerness in this time period! There must be a reason why he shares a headstone with Morris rather than his wife.
Wow, thank you, what a marvelous find. I shall have to do some digging on Ancestry to try and find out more about them. I'm no expert on gravestones but I expect it's very rare to see two men named together in this time period
October 13, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Wow, thank you, what a marvelous find. I shall have to do some digging on Ancestry to try and find out more about them. I'm no expert on gravestones but I expect it's very rare to see two men named together in this time period
Given that this was written in 1930, it's the earliest instance I've seen in archives of two men being described as "boyfriends". I wonder if anyone has seen anything earlier than this? Bonus points if it's rural!
(Archive ref for this diary is TGA 8317.7.2.4)
(Archive ref for this diary is TGA 8317.7.2.4)
August 12, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Given that this was written in 1930, it's the earliest instance I've seen in archives of two men being described as "boyfriends". I wonder if anyone has seen anything earlier than this? Bonus points if it's rural!
(Archive ref for this diary is TGA 8317.7.2.4)
(Archive ref for this diary is TGA 8317.7.2.4)
Earlier this year, I visited Tate Britain to explore the archive of the artists Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, a same-sex couple who lived in rural Suffolk from the 1930s onwards. In Lett's diaries I found this entry which describes two friends of theirs, Oswald and Jack, as "boyfriends".
August 12, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Earlier this year, I visited Tate Britain to explore the archive of the artists Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, a same-sex couple who lived in rural Suffolk from the 1930s onwards. In Lett's diaries I found this entry which describes two friends of theirs, Oswald and Jack, as "boyfriends".
Thanks for the recommendation and glad you enjoyed the talk - hopefully there's some decent gossip... I mean historical findings in there!
(Sorry for taking so long to reply!)
(Sorry for taking so long to reply!)
August 12, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Thanks for the recommendation and glad you enjoyed the talk - hopefully there's some decent gossip... I mean historical findings in there!
(Sorry for taking so long to reply!)
(Sorry for taking so long to reply!)
I'm giving a talk on queer histories of rural England in July! If you're in the Berwick area and want to find out more about how I'm using archives to explore this under-researched topic, please do sign up and/or share with anyone else who may be interested
www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/ced...
www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/ced...
Cedric, Lett and queer histories of the English countryside with Tim Jerrome. – The Maltings
www.maltingsberwick.co.uk
May 27, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I'm giving a talk on queer histories of rural England in July! If you're in the Berwick area and want to find out more about how I'm using archives to explore this under-researched topic, please do sign up and/or share with anyone else who may be interested
www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/ced...
www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/ced...
Amazed that the cloaking device still works after all these years - looks like a classic example! (I assume, I've never actually seen one)
April 2, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Amazed that the cloaking device still works after all these years - looks like a classic example! (I assume, I've never actually seen one)
You deserve the credit for the photo of the Flying Fordson... by legitimately finding it in the archives of course
April 2, 2025 at 8:59 AM
You deserve the credit for the photo of the Flying Fordson... by legitimately finding it in the archives of course
Four years ago today, I somehow got away with uploading this utter nonsense to the @themerl.bsky.social website:
The Tractor Whisperers (an April Fool’s) - The Museum of English Rural Life
Its members were known as the tractor whisperers, achieving feats of tractor mastery well beyond the human ken. But what was the Order of Credulum?
merl.reading.ac.uk
April 1, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Four years ago today, I somehow got away with uploading this utter nonsense to the @themerl.bsky.social website:
Can highly recommend this as something to listen to whilst sat in a reading room, going through countless ledgers on mine administration, seeing the word "boring" on every page
Come for the big animals. Stay for the history of rural England and its people.
The first full episode of Absolute Units, the official MERL podcast, is here!!!
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
The first full episode of Absolute Units, the official MERL podcast, is here!!!
merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...
March 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Can highly recommend this as something to listen to whilst sat in a reading room, going through countless ledgers on mine administration, seeing the word "boring" on every page
I'm pretty sure I'm still the undisputed MERL Grade Up to Elite Cow champion, which is definitely because I'm unbeatable, and not because no one wants to play it with me (including my mum)
February 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I'm pretty sure I'm still the undisputed MERL Grade Up to Elite Cow champion, which is definitely because I'm unbeatable, and not because no one wants to play it with me (including my mum)
Thank you Warhorse, Tom McKay and of course @lukedale.bsky.social
February 25, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Thank you Warhorse, Tom McKay and of course @lukedale.bsky.social
I wouldn't normally post about this sort of thing, but just had to say that the romance scene in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 between Henry and Hans is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen in a video game. Beautifully acted as well. Will no doubt stay with me for a long time.
February 25, 2025 at 10:35 AM
I wouldn't normally post about this sort of thing, but just had to say that the romance scene in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 between Henry and Hans is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen in a video game. Beautifully acted as well. Will no doubt stay with me for a long time.