Richard Jones
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rlcjones.bsky.social
Richard Jones
@rlcjones.bsky.social
88 followers 65 following 4 posts
Associate Professor of Landscape History, Centre for Regional and Local History, University of Leicester. Interested in people, soil, water, and waste from medieval to modern period. #Flooding #Manure #Sewage #EnvHist Alt-Acc @rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy
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rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy
Joyously in the #archives today. In #Devon Heritage Hub to explore the #nineteenthCentury records of Tiverton #Sewage #farm. #envhist #History (transcriptions in image Alt-text)
Black cloth book cover with cream label with fancy hand-written title ‘Sewage Farm’. Sample of handwritten text. Reads ‘Broom asks for tool for drilling in with Mangold seed & the same was ordered.’
June 5, 2025 at 4:26 PM
rlcjones.bsky.social
Just me messing around with my camera again this weekend. Potting sheds and flower beds!
rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy Richard Jones @rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · May 28
The walled #kitchen #garden at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire was looking magnificent over the weekend. Especially the deep borders of Allium christophii (Star of Persia). My take. #doubleexposure.
A stack of terracotta pots superimposed with an image of a border of Allium christophii (Star of Persia)
May 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Richard Jones
rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy
John Bolding & Sons Co. “ONDO”. #edwardian #sanitation Encountered today in ‘Snowzell’. If you know the #gloucestershire accent you’ll know where to find it!
Ceramic basin with two brass taps, plug and over flow. Creamy white.
May 17, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Richard Jones
rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy
In the magnificent ‘Orchard: a Year in England’s Eden’ Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates trace abundant life & occasional death through the seasons in one ancient #orchard in #Herefordshire. They are careful not to reveal its location. It’s too precious. But […]

[Original post on mstdn.social]
A copy of Orchard, in autumnal livery, perched in the boughs of a lichen-covered apple tree.
May 11, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Richard Jones
rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy
#may is the month to sow your Mangel Wurtzels. I just have. Have you? #autumn monsters to come. This variety is the classic Long Red Mammoth beloved of #nineteenthCentury #Sewage farmers. #Gardening #roots #vegetables
Overhead view of a seed tray with seed compost against a brick and weed background. Photo taken on the diagonal.
May 7, 2025 at 6:47 PM
rlcjones.bsky.social
By way of introducing myself to those with #medieval interests, here’s the abstract of a recent article of mine. ‘Nuisance and nuisance-makers in late medieval Nottingham: the Mickletorn jury presentments, 13 October, 1407’ Nottingham Medieval Studies #EnvHist #History #Waste #Plague
Nuisance and nuisance-makers in late medieval Nottingham: the Mickletorn jury presentments, 13 October 1407 In late mediaeval Nottingham, matters of nuisance were dealt with by the Mickletorn jury. Drawing on contextual information gleaned from the borough court roles, this article provides a detailed spatial analysis of the nuisances reported by the Mickletorn jury in October 1407 and biographical information on the named nuisance-makers. The role is shown to be unusual in its arrangement and, with its emphasis on removing dung and dunghills, unusual in its content. It is tentatively suggested that this change in procedure and focus may have been prompted by an outbreak of plague in southern and western England, and perhaps indicates that Nottingham town authorities moved proactively to sanitise its streets in an effort to protect its inhabitants in advance of the plague’s expected arrival.
April 23, 2025 at 1:08 PM
rlcjones.bsky.social
Do follow my bridging account from Mastodon for more stuff like this. @rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy #Nature
rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy Richard Jones @rlcj.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · Apr 21
I love a good wyrt. And they don’t come much better than the Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea). Looking glorious round these parts right now. #wildflowers #herbs #Flowers
A splay of five-petalled white flowers with yellow stamens. Dark green leafy background.
April 21, 2025 at 11:47 AM
rlcjones.bsky.social
By way of a Bluesky #introduction, this penning of mine went live last week: ‘Excremental Flows: #Manchester Corporation’s ‘Dung Hill Scheme’ and the Rampton Manor Estate, #Nottinghamshire, 1892’ in _Environment & History_ #EnvHist
First page of article with abstract. ‘With high population densities and concentrated industry, towns and cities generate vast quantities of waste. Maintaining the flow of waste, especially excremental matter, away from these centres to areas of final disposal or dispersal, is an essential priority for urban authorities. To operate effectively waste management infrastructures and protocols must have sufficient capacity to cope with the volumes and different types of waste produced, and be able to move this on efficiently and economically. Ruptures and blockages that disrupt the flow of waste, or increasing volumes of waste that threatened to engulf older infrastructure designed for smaller flows, represent major challenges that need to be addressed urgently. Manchester faced this scenario in the 1890s. How the city’s authorities sought to resolve their difficulties is examined here. The strategy deployed is revealing of the competing conceptualisations of waste flow in Victorian England—linear versus cyclical flows; permanent disposal versus reuse—and the impact urban waste might have on distant rural communities.
April 21, 2025 at 10:28 AM