I’m so sorry. That is awful.

Adulthood, Maturity and Chronological Age in Cold War Britain (c.1956 to c.1989)

And if you can't make this, I'm speaking the night before at @ihrlifecycles.bsky.social at 5.30pm at the Institute of Historical Research www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

We Have Come to Be Destroyed - An Evening with Dr Laura Tisdall | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about We Have Come to Be Destroyed - An Evening with Dr Laura Tisdall today.

London-based #skystorians (and other interested parties!). My London book launch for WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN is at Waterstones Gower St on Weds 13th May at 6.30pm, and I'd love to see you there! Book tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/we-ha... #histchild

Radical Histories - Manchester University Press The Radical Histories series encourages innovative and field-defining research in the history of individuals, groups, movements and ideas which challenged the political, social and cultural status quo...

I'm pleased to announce I'm a founding co-editor of the new @manchesterup.bsky.social book series, Radical Histories.

Do let me know if you have a proposal for a book that fits our inclusive remit on radical histories.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/radic...

New: Communities face spiralling fuel prices, exacerbating transport poverty and car dependence - and many need car-free alternatives for short trips. I've spoken to successful greenway campaigners, and produced a toolkit! so others can help assemble low-carbon transport routes in their areas

"UK city doing the least to improve car dominated public space" has to be the urban planning category with the toughest competition.

Photo of trees with one large leafless tree in the foreground and three homemade swings hanging from it. Grass around the tree and a path looping to the right. Light grey and white cloudy sky.

Swings and boys hanging out in trees at the side of the road in Danby, N Yorks today.

For the last couple of years, I've been researching "play and hanging out" in Jarrow (South Tyneside) with a bunch of fabulous colleagues. Our final report offers a detailed account of spaces for play in Jarrow, using a "play sufficiency" lens and qualitative, observational & participatory methods:

bumping this for the #GreenSky #EnvHist #Booksky #infrastructure crowds: free e-book about wildlife conservation, coastlines, and infrastructure!! I'll put a review in the next post

Proper moral panic. We’ve had two letters from the police via school warning us to keep our children under control. Imagine what they could achieve if they took dangerous driving so seriously.

Blood is the Price of Coal: Coal Communities, Health & Welfare in Britain & Beyond from the 19th Century to the Present This free one day conference aims to bring together researchers from higher education, libraries, archives, museums and community and campaign groups to explore the history of health and welfare in Britain’s coal mining industry. Conference programme: Panel 1: Disasters, safety and commemoration Oaks Colliery Disaster, 1866 Paul Darlow, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Paul Hardman, former NUM National Executive Officer The Safety Men: the Colliery Deputies union in the British Coal Industry Professor Peter Ackers, Loughborough University (Emeritus) Welcomed to Wrexham Sarah Castagnetti, The National Archives The 1959 Auchengeich Disaster: class, community and commemoration in Scotland’s coalfields Professor Jim Phillips, University of Glasgow Chair: Dr Jörg Arnold, Universität Augsburg Panel 2: Health The Violent Realities and Multiple Temporalities of a Miner’s Life Liv Robinson, Northumbria University ‘A wonderful difference to the home life’: pithead baths, pitwomen, and disability in twentieth-century British coalmining communities Lucy Jameson, Durham University Pneumoconiosis, Environment, and the Politics of Coal Miners' Health in Twentieth Century Britain Dr Andrew Seaton, University of Manchester A Special Case? Miners’ Health, Wage Relativities and the Fall of Heath’s Government Robert Rayner, University of Birmingham Chair: Professor Mathew Thomson, University of Warwick

Panel 3: Welfare “Feeding on the job?” Pit canteens in 1940s Britain Dr Ariane Mak, Université Paris Cité & IUF The Warmth of Home: Concessionary Fuel and Domestic Energy in British Coalfield Communities, 1945-1995 Dr Kathy Davies, Northumbria University Class, Culture and Democracy: the Miners Libraries of South Wales John Pateman, University of Leicester Deindustrialisation and the recreational provision of the nationalised British coalmining industry (1950s-1984) Dr Marion Henry, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Chair: Dr Quentin Outram, Society for the Study of Labour History Panel 4: Legacies Now The Dust Has Settled James O. Davies, Historic England 'The Big K: The Pit that shaped a community' Its legacy, a decade after closure. Judi Alston, One to One Development Trust Union Poorhouse to Union Leader - Herbert Smith, President of the Miners Federation of Great Britain 1922-1929. Kathryn Stainburn, Castleford Civic Society The Afterlife of Coal in Barnsley: Youth, Community, and Intergenerational Legacies Dr Kat Simpson, The University of Huddersfield Chair: Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton Showcase of exhibitions, displays and posters: On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry 1947-1994 Professor Keith Gildart, University of Wolverhampton Coal: a record of an industry Gary Winter, Historic England Poster of Mrs Sheila Truman Daniella Law, Historic England Glamorgan’s Blood: Dark Arteries, Old Veins – Exploring the Coal Collections at Glamorgan Archives Rhian Diggins, Glamorgan Archives When Coal was Clean: Soap and Smoke in Nineteenth Century Britain Oliver Marshall Mining Disasters in the Village of Worsbrough Maureen Gennard, Peter Fairham and David Bullock, Worsbrough Library Heritage Group

🚨 Conference booking open 🚨

Blood is the price of coal: Coal communities, health and welfare in Britain from the 19th century to the present

18 June 2026, University of Warwick

Booking form and additional information about the programme available at
warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

I’m so sorry Will.

I think that’s Battle Hill way? Is that right? There are always loads of people out and about on that stretch of waggonway.

The US has threatened Iran so many times since then. I can’t begin to imagine what that feels like if you live there or have family there.

This was me at Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan twenty years ago.

Photo of a garden in Iran with women on gravel path in foreground, a rectangular pond beyond, trees on either side and a low pavilion in the distance.

Thinking about my Iranian friends, their families and all of those who are worrying about what comes next.

A fallen goal on a green space between houses and a waggonway.

Another goal on a green space between houses and a waggonway.

A basket swing attached to a tree, by a waggonway.

Also on my North Tyneside travels -

On another bit of waggonway, often flagged by concerns of “anti-social behaviour”, I spotted two goals and a swing, young people claiming this space, it seems positively. I only hope their play is tolerated (or indeed supported).

Goals seem to be sprouting up all over!

There was also a huge trampoline not far down the road from this. Dragged out onto the grass from a garden and with half a dozen children bouncing on it.

Photo of open space with grass, trees and houses in the distance. A path to the right and a white football goal post just off centre.

One more, again North Tyneside and another goal post. This one right next to a waggonway.

Photo of street with 1950s semi-detached houses on left, parked cars in front of these, on the right a large grassed area with trees and a red goal post. Sky is blue with white clouds.

Another North Tyneside street, this time running parallel to a main road. There are almost always children playing out here when I pass. Yesterday, a small group of girls sitting on the grass and two boys playing football.

Photo of two storey post-war Radburn-style housing with brick ground floor and coloured tiles above - some houses red, some blue and some grey. Blue sky with white clouds. In the foreground is a grassed roundabout with two white gaol posts. There are cars parked beyond this.

Starting a signs of play thread. We’re always hearing about how children don’t play outside anymore, but that’s not the whole story. Cycling often takes you through neighbourhoods where there is no through traffic. This is where you’re most likely to see signs of play.

I've just written up a blog post about play and Pride in Place. There's so much more to say, and likely much more to come, but I wanted to try to make an early argument for play to figure centrally in Pride in Place programmes and reflect on what's already emerging:
blogs.ncl.ac.uk/alisonstenni...

Moral Panic in the Industrial Town: Teenage ‘Deviancy’ and Religious Crisis in Central Scotland c. 1968–9 Abstract. This article argues that Falkirk—a medium-sized industrial town in Central Scotland—became the scene of a localized, yet typical moral panic abou

My first journal article, Moral Panic in the Industrial Town, explores a very Scottish 1960s crisis. academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

Will be interesting to see if ministers publish guidance on what new youth clubs could contain. Here’s the Ministry of Education’s guide from 1961. archive.org/details/6101... People younger than me, how does it look?

Killjoy Karl

Kerr is also a common name in Byker.

Me too!!

Photo of spring day with trees and bushes to the left of a paved path. There is white blossom and some new leaves. The sky is mostly blue with some white clouds.

April is my favourite month. Today a cycle to the coast to see friends. I love the waggonways at this time of year.

This looks like so much fun.