Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
banner
drfrond.bsky.social
Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
@drfrond.bsky.social
Historian. Buildings, design, nature, landscape, gardens. Wrote ‘George Oatley: Architect of Bristol’, and ‘Fern Fever: The Story of Pteridomania’ among other books. Now writing social and cultural history of bracken in Cumbria. Mainly on Instagram.
Pinned
Is bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) the 'World's Worst Weed'? Or one of the most successful plants on the planet, that we should be appreciating, as we did in the past? Its spread may have been exaggerated because of a change in attitude: from a useful resource, to a pest.
This is absolutely fantastic news: for the building, the legacies of architect Peter Womersley, and designer Bernat Klein, and the Borders area, which has an amazing history of textile production.
💥The Bernat Klein Studio has been saved! This morning the coalition of Scottish heritage organisations secured the property at auction with a winning bid of £279,000.

The studio will now be restored and brought back into public use, creating a new venue for creative arts in the Scottish Borders.
July 30, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
The Bernat Klein Studio near Galashiels is going to be auctioned tomorrow, 30 July

You can still support heritage organisations in trying to buy this outstanding Modernist building by giving at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/saving-pet...

Keep your fingers crossed that the coalition can get the building!
July 29, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
Modernist gem at risk! 🏛️ The Bernat Klein Studio by Peter Womersley is going to auction on Weds 30 July. A coalition led by @shbt-charity.bsky.social is raising funds to buy and restore the building.

Help save it by supporting the crowdfunder now: buff.ly/J4UpTX2
July 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
#PostBoxSaturday Summer is the season for the Common Ridings festivals throughout the Scottish Borders. Hawick celebrated last week with this fine #PostBoxTopper
#Scotland
@undisscot.bsky.social
@folkloresociety.bsky.social
June 14, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
Tonight’s wonderful talk on ‘Dorothy Wordsworth and the Poetry of the Seasons’ concludes our Cultural Landscapes lecture series for this academic year. Thank you to all
who have attended these events during 2024-25. Our free monthly talks will recommence in the autumn 🍂 📚
June 3, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Oh yes!
✈️ THE HIGH LIFE RETURNS ✈️

After a 30-year delay in the departure lounge, The High Life returns in a new musical spectacular featuring all four original cast members - Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart 🧑‍✈️👨‍✈️👩‍✈🧑‍✈️

🛬 Landing in Spring 2026 – Still Living It!
May 31, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
In advance of this event I am very pleased to announce that we are once more able to offer both full time and part time routes of study on our MA for September 2025: www.cumbria.ac.uk/study/course...
Come along to this evening talk on Wed 28th May to find out more 📚🍃
May 20, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
LOVE this 1963 video of a visit to the Mayfair Tiki Bar - the food, the drinks, the fashion, the hula dancing!!
Anyone who remembers the #Butlins Beachcomber Bars will see the similarities
@c20society.bsky.social @drfrond.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSoL...
Quick Visit to a 1963 Tiki Bar | Archive Highlights
YouTube video by British Pathé
www.youtube.com
April 23, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
Book Haul! Fungi ( via @blpublishing.bsky.social ), Ferns ( via @drfrond.bsky.social and others ), Female Hypnotists and Sweet Valley High ♥️ youtu.be/JKsNR9KjqnQ?...
Book Haul: Fungi - Ferns - Female Hypnotists - SVH in excelsis
YouTube video by Roy Reads Anything
youtu.be
April 2, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
I'm hoping to take my new book on a trip around the coast after it comes out in May. If you know of any festivals, museums or groups that might like me to come and talk about #seaside architecture last century please let me know ☺️🌊
January 10, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Owl.
January 2, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
Die Historikerin Sarah Whittingham ist eine solche Sammlerin. Nur dass sie nicht Farne, sondern Farnsammlungen sammelt. Ich liebe "Fern Fever" für die Genauigkeit mit der sie die Sammlungsbegeisterten portraitiert. Ob in Herbarien, Namenslisten oder Farnführern, der Versuch, sie alle zu finden, oder
June 16, 2024 at 6:29 PM
Was definitely still a widespread practice in the 1930s - and much later. Some farmers were still harvesting it to use as animal bedding at the end of the twentieth century.
Have been talking to @drfrond.bsky.social - expert on all things ferns & bracken

Bracken-harvesting crops up in one of the #GrasmereDialectPlays, 'A Woman of Property', performed in 1914, 1922 & 1931. (Extract below from 1922, Act I, p.11)

Was it still a widespread farming practice in the 1930s?
December 13, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
We’re excited to be nominated in the London Lift-Off film festival for Show Up and Start: The Art and Life of Dorothy Ramsay.

You can watch the film and vote for us here (we’re under “Features”): Liftoff.network/london-lift-off-film-festival-2024/

#LiftOffGlobalNetwork
#LiftOffFilmFestivals
December 9, 2024 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
The elves have been busy!
Saturday 4pm-6pm we’ll be hosting our Xmas party for locals and visitors to come and celebrate Braithwaite's community.
Come by for a (lowalcohol)
mulled wine, homemade mince pie and other goodies

#braithwaite #keswick #cumbria #lakedistrict #cyclists #ramblers #photos
December 5, 2024 at 11:26 AM
My first birthday since my Mum died in August. Strange feelings. Made all the stranger by the fact that somehow the little girl in the photo is now eligible for free prescriptions (but not a bus pass), and can buy a senior rail card. Anyway, greatly looking forward to a meal with friends tonight.
December 2, 2024 at 12:20 PM
One of my favourite paintings in the excellent #sheilafell exhibition at @tulliecarlisle So many to chose from though, we will be going back many times, I think. On until 16 March 2025.
November 27, 2024 at 5:22 PM
We were lucky enough to find some baby #dragon #skulls yesterday!
November 27, 2024 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
People are flocking to Bluesky so here's an attempt to connect people interested in #Cumbrian #History (not many visible currently) and the landscape and culture of #Cumbria and the #LakeDistrict. Let me know who I've missed, or if you want to be removed (if I can work out how!).
go.bsky.app/Tew7cxp
November 12, 2024 at 9:49 AM
Winter walk.
November 21, 2024 at 7:14 PM
Woo hoo! Congratulations! Ordered - can’t wait to read it. Sx
November 21, 2024 at 5:59 PM
Best films ever made.
Fancy your own Powell & Pressburger festival? Currently on/heading to BBC iPlayer are I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP and P&P doc MADE IN ENGLAND. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH and THE RED SHOES join from Sat. But see thread for links to other P&P joy available in the UK
🧵
November 20, 2024 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
Those of you enjoying today's #OccupationOfTheDay should also follow @drfrond.bsky.social, who's an expert in this area of #history 👇

bsky.app/profile/drfr...
Yes, they did! To protect the ferns from pollution, and to screen unpleasant views from the rooms. The window projected beyond the original one in the wall plane, and the ferns were grown within the projecting case.
November 20, 2024 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Dr Sarah Whittingham FSA
Good morning from the #bookshop @samreadbookseller.bsky.social I thought I'd be brave, show my face & share my recent & current reads... (with strategic product placement 😉)
@londonbessie.bsky.social
@katiescribbles.bsky.social
November 20, 2024 at 10:21 AM
@likewinterblue.bsky.social might be interested in these.
November 20, 2024 at 7:16 PM