London Archaeology Prize information image. Text in image says "For the best digital or print publication about London's archaeology in 2024 and 2025. £300 cash prize and award nomination certificate. Download a nomination form from www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk/ Deadline for nominations Wednesdayt, 20th May 2026

Nominations are open for the London Archaeological Prize!
If you’ve read – or written – a great piece of work about London's archaeology over the past two years, why not enter it for this prestigious award?

Deadline: 20th May 2026

Nomination form here www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk/london-archa...

Took me several minutes to find Avocados on the self checkout menu the other day. They are Salad Veg apparently. I'm still not fully recovered.

Come work with me and the amazing Frances McIntosh on disentangling late Roman Corbridge! Applications welcome from different career stages and backgrounds - full details in the link below.
#RomanBritain #Archaeology #PhD🏺

📣Applications now open for a fully-funded AHRC PhD studentship at Durham on ‘Corbridge Roman Town: Economy and Society on the Edges of Roman Britain’, in partnership with English Heritage!

📅Deadline for applications: 1st of June 2026.

👉Find out more: www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

#DUresearch

The write up is a bit wierd, not mentioning exactly where it is until the very end. It's all very homogeneous up here you know... I agree it's not too far south.

Here's Penrith before the motorway/bypass....

Birmingham - Preston - Penrith - Carlisle Motorway M6 : Penrith By-Pass Section : Official Opening : 7 November 1968. The brochure issued by the Agent Authority - Cumberland County Council - for the official opening of the Penrith By-Pass section of the M6 Motorway that took place on 7 November 1968. The even seems to have had a relatively low key official at the event; R.C. Brown MP, a Joint Parliamentary Secretary in the Mininstry of Transport. This section of motorway saw construction commence on 1 November 1966 with a Contract period of two years and three months and it appears that they achieved the works in just under two years. The Contract included the section of the M6 from a temporary junction with a realigned A6 at Hackthorpe in Westmorland and running north to the west of Penrith to another temporary finishing point at Catterlen; from here the B5305 became the link east to the existing A6 at Stoneybeck. Later the northern section onwards to Carlisle and the Border would be completed along with the southern Shap section. The work included the two level junction seen on the cover where realigned sections of the A66 and A592 creating a southern by-pass to the town met the Motorway. Interestingly the brochure mentions that a bypass to Penrith was first mooted in 1930; a pre-war traffic figure of 4,000 through vehicles (per 16 hours) had risen to 25,000 per 24 hours by 1962 and, when the M6 opened, these figures had risen to 30,000 vehicles per 24 hours. All this traffic passed directly through Penrith's relatively small town centre where the main street was the A6 trunk road, the main West Coast road link between England and Scotland. The brochure gives details of the construction work, including the various bridges that included two major crossings of the West Coast Main Line railway; one of the bridges mentioned here, at Clifton, has just been replaced in a major project to manage a now life expired structure.

The brochure for the Official Opening of the Penrith By-Pass Section of the M6 Motorway on 7 November 1968; an isolated section when completed awaiting the Shap section to the south & onwards to Carlisle in the North. @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk @showmeasign.online

↘️ flic.kr/p/2s6B7m8

Everyone has heard of a dig diary, well how about a building survey diary as Tom Addyman gives an update of his and his team's first visit to survey the inner ward of Cockermouth Castle. They've already made intriguing discoveries. Read here to learn more: castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2026/04...

💫History of the Port of London, Race, Religion and Empire: Exhibition Launch 💫

📍 Lloyd's Register Building, 71 Fenchurch Street, London. EC3M 4BS.
🗓️ Friday, May 1st. 5:30pm - 7pm.

Get your tickets: ticketpass.org/event/EBVOMP...

Oh thas brilliant! Congratulations to you all!

Fairly certain Cockermouth had to go out in those winds we had a few weeks ago which we didn't get a weather warning for.

Spectacular high-resolution image of our home planet viewed through the Orion Crew Module window by the Artemis II astronauts as they continue their journey to the Moon on Flight Day 2, 3 April 2026 (pic: NASA)

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

😮 Awesome views from Day 2 of #Artemis II this morning.

@exploration.esa.int @esaearth.esa.int

Guy across the train aisle last week was discussing a dispute between his employees that had ended up in court, and how they would manage the return to work. Move to the lobby at least!

A black and white photo of a group of men and a teenage boy standing next to a beck with buildings on each side. Several buildings have partially collapsed into the beck. One man, in his shirtsleeves, is standing in the water with a big stick.

And then on the 13th April, I'll be talking about the history of the two becks in Cockermouth, Tom Rudd Beck and Bitter Beck. 6pm at Kirkgate Arts and Heritage.

This photo is of flood damage after the Bitter Beck flooded in the 1930s.

Poorly colourised black and white photo of the Blue Bell Inn Cockermouth. Probably dating from the early 20th century, showing the pub, a traditional Cumbrian stone built town building. Outside there is a large number of beer barrels laid out on the pavement, with men in work wear standing next to them and sitting on them. There is also a small baby sitting on a barrel and a hound dog

A couple of talks I'm doing in the next few weeks...

On Friday I'm talking about the Lost Pubs of Cockermouth at Cockermouth Library, 2pm (might be fully booked, but I'll be doing it again as a guided walk in the summer with Kirkgate Arts and Heritage)

Trickles all the way down. Changing eexpectations are already having an impact. Especially grandparents providing childcare. We loose a lot of our older volunteers in the school holidays due to this. And when they're not babysitting, they take long foreign holidays. (I dont begrudge them. Much.)

This is standard behaviour for long term diy renovations. They ripped out the original carpets intending to replace them. The samples are 'temporary', but they lived with them for 25 years...

It's likely the owners needed at home care, which would account for the modern ensuite with grabrails.

Brewers' Society advert, May 1940. It includes a cartoon of an army officer tasting the contents of a large cooking pot, whilst an army cook and other soldiers watch. Caption: 'Very nice... very tasty... . It has often been repeated that the English take their pleasures sadly. On the other hand, it is quite certain that they take their troubles light-heartedly. More jokes and laughs have come from radio and music-hall in eight months of war than in eight years of peace. And it is in the English pub that you will find the headquarters of our light-hearted good fellowship. The pub is a cheerful place, and the war has shewn it to be so. Besides, in the pub there is beer - mild or bitter, ale or stout. The drink of our own land! Made only of good things - barley malt, hops, yeast, sugar and the clear waters of Britain's springs. For good health stick to beer. Beer is best.'

'Beer on Board'

During the Second World War military minds turned to the problem of beer.

The MRC's Rachel MacGregor @anoldhand.bsky.social writes on the Allies' plans to launch a floating brewery, as well as Anglo-American tensions over warm beer / chilled lager, at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Oh, and somehow Border TV still exists, and it is a thing to behold (largest population centre I think is probably Carlisle?). Sadly it no longer covers the Isle of Man though.

Hi from West Cumbria, back in the day the best radio reception came from Irish stations and the telly from Scotland. Our local newspapers aren't great, but they do still do a reasonable line of "so *that's* what they've been up to recently".

Was that @quintinlake.bsky.social? Because he's here too.

World's longest coastal path opens in England to the public The King Charles coastal path will allow walkers right of access to the entire coast for the first time.

'The length of the path isn't really the point. What makes it so special, says [Neil Constable, who led the project for Natural England], is that you can walk to the coast anywhere in England, turn left or right, and walk beside the sea for as long as you like.'
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Carlisle Cathedral’s East Window was named the Nation’s Favourite Stained Glass Window, in competition organised by the Association of English Cathedrals (AEC). Field was narrowed down from stained-glass window from each of the 42 English Cathedrals, with the top 12 going into the final. Public vote then settled on Carlisle in February 2026. The view is through the choir to the east end, with light shining in on arches to the north. The altar stands before the east window. It is thought to be the work of Ivo de Ragheton, who was also responsible for the west front of York Minster. Over 50 feet high it retains some of its original 14th-century glass in the tracery at the top of the window. In flowing decorated style, that section features the Last Judgement of Christ. In the main section below is the Life of Christ, designed by Hardman & Co and installed in 1861 in memory of Bishop Hugh Percy.

#TraceryTuesday
@carlislecathedral.bsky.social east window has some of finest, most complex, flowing decorated late Gothic tracery anywhere: named UK's fave stained glass window Feb 2026.

Completed by c.1350 in Cathedral rebuilding after disastrous 1292 fire. 56' x 26' w medieval glass in top part.

That time my line manager kept insisting our new, expensive database was broken because it wouldn't accept her address as Middlesex. I think in the end the developers added it in just for her.

Sympathies, I have been there (minus the steak, but a lot of broccoli). Keep your vitamin c levels up too, it helps the absorption.

This is Low Fell erasure and I don't like it.

(Admittedly Low Fell lacks a stile with a view.)

Some nice details like the mass dials incorporated into an outside window.

St Michael’s and All Angels, Isel near Cockermouth dates from 1130 and probably stands on an earlier foundation. A Norman chancel arch, windows and door remain and other additions were made in medieval times. A reordering took place in 1878 observing the Norman core of the building.

You can watch the stream on YouTube if you aren't in London...

Of course!