Adam Chapman
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adamchapman.bsky.social
Adam Chapman
@adamchapman.bsky.social
8K followers 3.2K following 8.5K posts
Medieval historian interested in Wales, Somerset exile, inept cricketer, General Editor of the longest-running and largest local history project yet devised, the Victoria County History of England. Probably drinking tea.
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adamchapman.bsky.social
Seen (via Facebook), on Poundland at Queen Street in Cardiff. An, erm, innovative appropriation of the 'Blue Plaque'. #Heritage #BluePlaques 🗃️
'Blue Plaque' outside the entrance to Poundland in Cardiff. Text, in white on a mid blue disc reads 'Poundland Heritage, Poundland, Home of the high street's best value meal deal'.
November 10, 2025 at 4:07 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
Wel. Syniad da? Erm…
Interior of a candlelit theatr. Plot synopsis for Romeo and Juliet in Welsh.
November 8, 2025 at 1:54 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
'Airport Style Security'.
Chetnole station (a request stop), Dorset. A prefabricated concrete railway platform with small shelter and lampost surrounded by fields alongside a single railway line. The high angle of the picture is the result of the adjacent overbridge. There is, optimistically, a bike rack. By Andrew Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3501741
November 3, 2025 at 9:37 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
The Invacar.

www.friarsmotorcompany.co.uk/brief-histor...
An 'Invacar', a pale blue fibreglass deathtrap. Shown here parked on double yellows at a T junction with the occupant attempting to get out and into a wheelchair parked on the pavement.
October 31, 2025 at 12:58 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
PS - rumours that this game included a (very) young Brian Close are certainly false, but the old boy would have been up for that.
Cover of (one of) Brian Close's - Yorkshire, Somerset and England - autobiographies. The man himself is shown, batting, bottom right. The title 'I don't bruise easily' is in big gold letters, the author's name in white bottom left.
October 30, 2025 at 9:56 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
And via Facebook, today's #CrapColourisation. Coloured B/W on the left, contemporary colour shot to the right.
A AI-coloured black and white image showing a large flatbed lorry delivering rolls of newsprint. The lorry is a nice shade of dark blue, lettered for Bowaters, 'Quality Newsprint'. A pair of lorries from the 1950s(?) operated by Bowaters from a 1960s colour image. They are a red orange in colour - which a quick web search shows was probably more orange. Not blue...
October 24, 2025 at 8:14 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
The key element being that you wouldn't feed them the turnip *in one piece*. You'd use one of these:
A hand-powered root cutter for shredding beets, turnips, etc. Obviously the fancy paint job and herbage not original.
October 13, 2025 at 8:53 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
A nice observational piece, showing what I learn is a ‘Ferguson Potato Spinner’ in action. Part of a suite of potato machines (mum took turns on this sort of work in the ‘60s - generally women’s labour then), i guess this shows how partial mechanisation was. #Skystorians #TractorCommentary
Advertising panel for Ferguson tractors potato attachments for their machines. The potato spinner is the bottom one and has a spinning blade with what looks like a tea tray on an arm. The advert has a large body of text on the right on a white panel backed with yellow with black and white illustrations of cables tractors and machines on the left.
October 12, 2025 at 7:52 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
I’m not sure that this @vch-home.bsky.social brand tie in was properly thought through. #NotAProperCounty
A Thameslink train in white and grey. Someone has added the initials’VCH’ in red spray paint before the word ‘Thameslink’.
October 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
Fans of @royalhistsoc.org merch’ might like to know that there are a small number of badges available in the @ihr.bsky.social Common Room…
Three pin badges arranged in a triangle. From left they read ‘Trust me, I’m a historian’; ‘I know the value of history’; ‘This is what a historian looks like’.
October 9, 2025 at 10:32 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
New badge: tired, mostly.
A pair of badges attached to a lanyard. The upper, orange with white writing, reads ‘This is what a historian looks like’.
October 8, 2025 at 1:56 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
My @vch-home.bsky.social colleagues in Gloucestershire have produced their latest draft material for the parish of #Coates - which among other areas of interest, has one end of the longest canal tunnel in England in it (Sapperton tunnel on the Thames and Severn canal, in case you were wondering).
A hand coloured engraving showing the Coates portal of the Sapperton canal tunnel. The canal is pictured running left to right and the portal, in stone with rusticated quoining, frames a barge with a mast. Three men are towing the barge by means of a rope while two more stand, apparently in conversation, next to a wheelbarrow. Despite appearances, they seem not to be in the way...
October 1, 2025 at 3:09 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
We didn’t know this existed until now. We need it.
An electric space heater.
September 21, 2025 at 2:24 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
At drinks, we’re 96 off 17. Off 10 we had 22. So, erm, the change bowling…
September 21, 2025 at 12:53 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
My last time out this season, I suspect. The sun might be shining but it is cold. #AutumnCricket
A cricket ground, with a game about to start. It’s very green, quite tussocky, and cold.
September 21, 2025 at 11:50 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
Are you allowed to cycle on this bit now? It's not immediately obvious from the modern mapping/Street View!
September 21, 2025 at 10:21 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
I'm going to tread carefully, because it's not my specialism, but as a rule, applying what you think the Norman Conquest means to anything other than say, mid 11th century politics is unwise.

See Sellar and Yeatman (1930) for the classic case study.
The cover of a Penguin edition of '1066 and All That' by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman
September 15, 2025 at 3:49 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
By Charlotte Corday?
The Death of Marat by David.
September 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
But not tonight.
An open bottle of cider, for medicinal purposes.
September 13, 2025 at 8:54 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
Because it’s no fun at all for anyone, mainly, BBC.
Text reads ‘Why isn’t cricket played in the rain?’
September 10, 2025 at 8:02 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
Seriously, just look at this graph - Somerset were ahead of Warwickshire in the first over, and then off the last but one ball. This, by and large, *does not happen*.
A plot showing runs (on the x axis), and runs (on the y axis). The blue line - representing the Warwickshire innings - is ahead and above the red (Somerset). The two meet - and Somerset won - right at the top.
September 7, 2025 at 8:45 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
Two can play at this - Waterstones in Tunbridge Wells this morning. Outside and in!
A bookshop window display - centre is Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems. Shop display of multiple copies of Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems.
September 6, 2025 at 4:21 PM
adamchapman.bsky.social
It's not obvious in the post, but the museum is housed in a barn which is the last surviving part of the *enormous* medieval priory complex that once dominated the E of Taunton.

The top RH corner of the map is roughly where the precinct was, occupying nearly the same area as the rest of the town.
Excerpt from the Tithe Award map of Taunton parish, 1842. To the left, a north south route crossing a river at the top of the map. This opens out into a triangular market place with a route heading east at its base. These streets are lined with houses in narrow plots suggesting medieval origins. The top right corner is basically empty: this was where the priory was.
September 5, 2025 at 11:17 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
What will top this?
Cookie Monster (a blue, furry puppet with frog like unfocused eyes), a Muppet, wearing a Royal British Legion Poppy in a TV studio.
September 2, 2025 at 8:50 AM
adamchapman.bsky.social
An update, which will provide measurable levels of schadenfreude/amusement to anyone who doesn’t follow Surrey. #CountyCricket
Mitchell Santner, Adam Zampa and Nathan Smith will miss the knockout stages of the Vitality Blast. Santner withdrew from The Hundred due to injury which has also ruled him out of participating in the remainder of the Vitality Blast. Disappointingly, Adam Zampa is unavailable as he’s required for Cricket Australia commitments which we weren’t made aware of when we signed him. After an injury sustained playing in the Test series between New Zealand and Zimbabwe, Nathan Smith will miss the rest of the English season.
August 29, 2025 at 2:34 PM