Christopher Hilton
@chilton-bb.bsky.social
Head of Archive & Library at The Red House, http://brittenpearsarts.org. Archives, music, metadata; side orders of architecture, landscape history & electronic noise.
Blimey, talk about a statement building: an absolute temple of reading.
November 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Blimey, talk about a statement building: an absolute temple of reading.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
Born on this day in 1819, George Eliot. Here's my favourite bit from the greatest English novel - Eliot's concluding paean to Middlemarch's heroine, Dorothea (who, among other things worked to improve the housing of the local agricultural labourers). Here's to all the Dorotheas, past and present.
November 22, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Born on this day in 1819, George Eliot. Here's my favourite bit from the greatest English novel - Eliot's concluding paean to Middlemarch's heroine, Dorothea (who, among other things worked to improve the housing of the local agricultural labourers). Here's to all the Dorotheas, past and present.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
Latest update from @britishlibrary.bsky.social says they are launching a new version of their main catalogue on Monday 8 December and around that time also launch an interim version of their Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue. Hooray!
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
Restoring our services – November 2025 update
In the coming weeks and months we will be restoring a number of key functions.
www.bl.uk
November 22, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Latest update from @britishlibrary.bsky.social says they are launching a new version of their main catalogue on Monday 8 December and around that time also launch an interim version of their Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue. Hooray!
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
www.bl.uk/stories/news...
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
The St Andrews Chronicles, one of the most important manuscript histories of Scotland, is going on public display for the first time in its 500-year history. The book will be on display at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social from 21 November to 7 December
#BookHistory
news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-...
#BookHistory
news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-...
November 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM
The St Andrews Chronicles, one of the most important manuscript histories of Scotland, is going on public display for the first time in its 500-year history. The book will be on display at @uniofstandrews.bsky.social from 21 November to 7 December
#BookHistory
news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-...
#BookHistory
news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-...
Well, that was fun: every folding chair in the archive used for a rolling programme of archive talks as part of Britten's birthday celebrations, telling the tale of the young Britten's 1937 car crash. That takes the archive to 1000+ Red House visitors at our drop-in events; see you next season!
November 22, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Well, that was fun: every folding chair in the archive used for a rolling programme of archive talks as part of Britten's birthday celebrations, telling the tale of the young Britten's 1937 car crash. That takes the archive to 1000+ Red House visitors at our drop-in events; see you next season!
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
'Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire'
-WH Auden
Today's the feast of St Cecilia, martyr and patron saint of music. Glass by Pippa Blackall, 2008, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Suffolk.
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire'
-WH Auden
Today's the feast of St Cecilia, martyr and patron saint of music. Glass by Pippa Blackall, 2008, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Suffolk.
November 22, 2025 at 7:00 AM
'Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire'
-WH Auden
Today's the feast of St Cecilia, martyr and patron saint of music. Glass by Pippa Blackall, 2008, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Suffolk.
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire'
-WH Auden
Today's the feast of St Cecilia, martyr and patron saint of music. Glass by Pippa Blackall, 2008, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Suffolk.
Now the exhibition's over, the Luzern Kunstmuseum have sent some stats and our little Max Ernst was part of something big: 5 years to plan, 99 international loans, 46,000 visitors in its 4 months' run. Safely home now; it'll be back in the Red House drawing room next open season.
Flying visit to Luzern, to supervise installation tomorrow morning of one of the Red House artworks at a big exhibition there. (File under Tough Job, But Someone's Got To Do It.) Details of the exhibition here: www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch/ausstellunge....
November 21, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Now the exhibition's over, the Luzern Kunstmuseum have sent some stats and our little Max Ernst was part of something big: 5 years to plan, 99 international loans, 46,000 visitors in its 4 months' run. Safely home now; it'll be back in the Red House drawing room next open season.
Beautiful day here at the Red House and its archive; fingers crossed we get the same for Britten's birthday tomorrow. (If you're around Aldeburgh on Saturday, drop in - it's free, there's cake, and I'm doing Stories from the Archive talks several times in the day.)
November 21, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Beautiful day here at the Red House and its archive; fingers crossed we get the same for Britten's birthday tomorrow. (If you're around Aldeburgh on Saturday, drop in - it's free, there's cake, and I'm doing Stories from the Archive talks several times in the day.)
Great to see Avril Coleridge-Taylor being recognised here.
Out today, 1st disc of orchestral music by Avril Coleridge-Taylor. John Andrews @jkaconductor.bsky.social conducting BBC Philharmonic Orch in Piano Concerto (w/ Samantha Ege), Comet Prelude, Sussex Landscape, To April, From the Hills, Valse Caprice & In Memoriam. open.spotify.com/album/6EroQD...
Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works
open.spotify.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Great to see Avril Coleridge-Taylor being recognised here.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
Come & work with me! We’re looking for a project manager to oversee digitisation of the National Farm Survey & other grant-funded projects. Fixed-term until March 2027. £39.5k-48.4k. Apply by 3 Dec 2025. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...
a cartoon of two bears applying for jobs
Alt: A cartoon of a panda typing at a laptop and a bear walking back and forth talking. Caption: “applying to jobs”.
media.tenor.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Come & work with me! We’re looking for a project manager to oversee digitisation of the National Farm Survey & other grant-funded projects. Fixed-term until March 2027. £39.5k-48.4k. Apply by 3 Dec 2025. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...
We're having repair work done on Benjamin Britten's viola (which belonged before him to his mentor and fellow composer Frank Bridge); as George from our development team sets out below, it's with generous help from the Association of Independent Museums, Pilgrim Trust and Julia Rausing Trust. 1/2
November 20, 2025 at 5:40 PM
We're having repair work done on Benjamin Britten's viola (which belonged before him to his mentor and fellow composer Frank Bridge); as George from our development team sets out below, it's with generous help from the Association of Independent Museums, Pilgrim Trust and Julia Rausing Trust. 1/2
Today's the feast day of St Edmund, patron saint of Suffolk and previously of all England. In his legend his severed head was guarded by a wolf: here's the head and wolf carved on a beam at Greensted church in Essex, and sculptures from a 2015 wolf trail in Bury St Edmunds.
November 20, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Today's the feast day of St Edmund, patron saint of Suffolk and previously of all England. In his legend his severed head was guarded by a wolf: here's the head and wolf carved on a beam at Greensted church in Essex, and sculptures from a 2015 wolf trail in Bury St Edmunds.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
Did you know 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the photo booth? 🎞️
November 19, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Did you know 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the photo booth? 🎞️
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
An extraordinary website of old Japanese hotel luggage tags www.presentandcorrect.com/blogs/blog/g...
November 18, 2025 at 6:46 PM
An extraordinary website of old Japanese hotel luggage tags www.presentandcorrect.com/blogs/blog/g...
It's that week again, when all the new intake at Lowestoft's Benjamin Britten Academy get to visit the Red House and find out about their town's most famous native. A busy week for us all but immensely rewarding: with luck they leave here with a sense of ownership about heritage and the arts.
November 17, 2025 at 5:08 PM
It's that week again, when all the new intake at Lowestoft's Benjamin Britten Academy get to visit the Red House and find out about their town's most famous native. A busy week for us all but immensely rewarding: with luck they leave here with a sense of ownership about heritage and the arts.
Walking over the Red House garden between meetings: light fading over the Archive (and the medlar tree).
November 17, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Walking over the Red House garden between meetings: light fading over the Archive (and the medlar tree).
Fascinating and vital work (though the detail that when you clock up three years in service you become eligible for inclusion in a terracotta-army style group of statues is a bit disconcerting).
Archiving the web is more important and more challenging than ever before. https://cnn.it/4phKzlW
November 16, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Fascinating and vital work (though the detail that when you clock up three years in service you become eligible for inclusion in a terracotta-army style group of statues is a bit disconcerting).
Attention, SE19 people and those within reach...
Great day coming up at Bookseller crow! 6th Dec. Lots of authors visiting crystal palace to sign books! Info here booksellercrow.co.uk/event/christ...
November 16, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Attention, SE19 people and those within reach...
At the @lithouse.bsky.social conference at Elizabeth Gaskell's house (@eilzabethgaskellsh.bsky.social) and really enjoying the way there are even quotes in the Gents. (I'm pleased to report there was *no* pestiferous smell.)
November 14, 2025 at 2:22 PM
At the @lithouse.bsky.social conference at Elizabeth Gaskell's house (@eilzabethgaskellsh.bsky.social) and really enjoying the way there are even quotes in the Gents. (I'm pleased to report there was *no* pestiferous smell.)
Setting off to the @lithouse.bsky.social conference in Manchester today; the glamour of work travel...
November 14, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Setting off to the @lithouse.bsky.social conference in Manchester today; the glamour of work travel...
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
There is still time to apply for one of our 50+ Visiting Fellowships @bodleian.ox.ac.uk for the 2026-27 academic year! A vibrant interdisciplinary research centre in the heart of one of the world’s great libraries!
VISITING FELLOWSHIPS: Applications are now open for 2026-27!
The deadline for applications is Friday 28 November 2025.
For more information on how to apply: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowships/bodleian-visiting-fellowships
The deadline for applications is Friday 28 November 2025.
For more information on how to apply: https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/fellowships/bodleian-visiting-fellowships
November 12, 2025 at 4:22 PM
There is still time to apply for one of our 50+ Visiting Fellowships @bodleian.ox.ac.uk for the 2026-27 academic year! A vibrant interdisciplinary research centre in the heart of one of the world’s great libraries!
Quayside at Snape Maltings this morning, en route between meetings.
November 12, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Quayside at Snape Maltings this morning, en route between meetings.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
The man on a mission to save Mauritania’s ‘city of libraries’ from encroaching desert sands
The man on a mission to save Mauritania’s ‘city of libraries’ from encroaching desert sands
Desert settlement of Chinguetti faces rising sands, dwindling tourism and insecurity due to conflict in neighbouring Mali
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:05 AM
The man on a mission to save Mauritania’s ‘city of libraries’ from encroaching desert sands
On this day in 2017, I was at a conference in Manchester and as I had time, walked there from Piccadilly along the Rochdale Canal. (I found myself passing the site of the legendary Haçienda, now gone.) All utterly transformed since I mooched around there in a trench-coat in the early 1980s.
November 10, 2025 at 10:59 PM
On this day in 2017, I was at a conference in Manchester and as I had time, walked there from Piccadilly along the Rochdale Canal. (I found myself passing the site of the legendary Haçienda, now gone.) All utterly transformed since I mooched around there in a trench-coat in the early 1980s.
Reposted by Christopher Hilton
“Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.”
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. (Die Jungfrau von Orleans)
Friedrich Schiller, German philosopher, playwright, co-founder with Goethe of Weimar Theatre; born #OTD 1759.
Portrait c 1810 by von Kügelgen Frankfurter Goethe-Haus
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. (Die Jungfrau von Orleans)
Friedrich Schiller, German philosopher, playwright, co-founder with Goethe of Weimar Theatre; born #OTD 1759.
Portrait c 1810 by von Kügelgen Frankfurter Goethe-Haus
November 10, 2025 at 6:17 AM
“Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.”
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. (Die Jungfrau von Orleans)
Friedrich Schiller, German philosopher, playwright, co-founder with Goethe of Weimar Theatre; born #OTD 1759.
Portrait c 1810 by von Kügelgen Frankfurter Goethe-Haus
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. (Die Jungfrau von Orleans)
Friedrich Schiller, German philosopher, playwright, co-founder with Goethe of Weimar Theatre; born #OTD 1759.
Portrait c 1810 by von Kügelgen Frankfurter Goethe-Haus