Decisions. Decisions!
In honour of #InternationalPencilDay - should I opt for blush pink, sky blue, sunshine yellow or go au naturel?
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍 @yorkarchive.bsky.social
If Tuesday was captured in an expression, then carved in stone and topped with moss?
⛪ Parish Church of St Oswald. Fulford. York. UK.
#DeadSleuth #YorkyHistoryLass #ChurchCrawler #StillSleuthing 🔍
"How should haberdashers & that sort of folk be judges of the qualifications of a tutor!!”
Alas, the answer is NOT to be found within this irreverent missive from the pen of one William Gray in 1837 and the scion of Grays Solicitors of York.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍 @yorkarchive.bsky.social
Amid slivers of cloud and as mossy gravestones stand proud under a dappled warm afternoon sky - the aged trees cast no shadow over an iconic church spire.
⛪ Parish Church of St Olave. York. UK.
#DeadSleuth #YorkyHistoryLass #ChurchCrawler #SpireSunday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Framed by doric pilasters and decorated columns as elaborate cornicing, cherubs and extravagant swags hover protectively - a gorgeous window awaits the curious visitor.
⛪ Parish Church of Holy Trinity. Leeds. Yorkshire. UK.
#DeadSleuth #ChurchCrawler #StainedGlassSaturday #StillSleuthing 🔍
One beautiful March afternoon I introduced my fellow sleuth @yorkfhs.bsky.social to the occupant of a favourite grave in Acomb YORK whose poignant story can now be discovered within the pages of the MARCH publication of The Yorkshire Dalesman Magazine.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Heigh Ho! 'Tis to the archives I have come today as I sleuth the life of one man of the cloth and his priestly tenure.
If you would like The Dead Sleuth to haunt an archive on your behalf within Yorkshire or beyond - drop me a line at tee@deadsleuth.com.
#StillSleuthing 🔍 @uoyborthwick.bsky.social
Under the palest of blue skies and wrapped up against a biting wind - I've managed to squeeze in a moment or three for a little church crawling and tombstone sleuthing before lunch en famille.
💒 The Parish Church of St Mary Bishophill Junior. York. UK.
#StillSleuthing 🔍 @graveyardsquirrel.com
"Though women are angels, yet wedlock's the devil." ~ Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Within the pages of the FEBRUARY publication of The Dalesman Magazine - I muse upon memories of my love of weddings, and the fall-out of a matrimonial scandal from the year 1874.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Cemeteries? Graveyards? I LOVE them!
If I'm not sleuthing an elusive ancestor, unearthing another life lost to history, or haunting the archives as @deadsleuth.com - I could be wandering among the tombstones somewhere.
See YOU in the other side?
#DeadSleuthing #GraveyardSquirrel #StillSleuthing 🔍
A headstone decorated with an urn draped in extravagant stone fabric tells of the fate of the teenaged Albert Cregson who was drowned at sea in the year 1860.
⚰ Wakefield Cemetery. Sugar Lane. Wakefield. West Yorkshire. UK.
#TombstoneTuesday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Heigh ho. Heigh ho. It's off to the archives I now go!
Monday. The view from my perch as I grab a quick lunch before those archives beckon once more.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
@yorkarchive.bsky.social
Hidden from view behind an old buttress and framed by a unique stone door frame - a charming and beautifully adorned chancel door beckons to the curious.
⛪ The Parish Church of St Oswald. Fulford. York. UK.
#DeadSleuth #ChurchCrawler #ADoorableThursday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Shielded by tangled ivy and dried ferns - a weeping angel adorns a small pale monument to one Agnes Jane Allison who entered into spirit in the year 1871.
⚰ Symonds Street Cemetery. Auckland. New Zealand.
#TombstoneTuesday #StillSleuthing 🔍
Aged stone in hues of a soft grey palette captured against the dying of a January day.
⛪ The Parish of All Saints. Rudston. Driffield. UK.
#DeadSleuth #ChurchCrawler #StillSleuthing 🔍 with @graveyardsquirrel.com
II) Admired by Byron and Wellington while ignored by her feckless spouse 'Bold Webster' - the 'fair, fickle and false' Lady F was also a victim of assault, libel AND kidnap!
#DeadSleuth #RegencyRecondite #StillSleuthing 🔍
I) 'When we two parted. In silence and tears' - Lord Byron
On this day in the year 1837, the inspiration for this beloved poem, The Lady Frances Webster-Wedderburn died at her home in London at the age of 42 after suffering much.
"My birthday. And I go to my bed with a heaviness of heart at having lived so long, and to so little purpose." ~ Lord Byron
To SO little purpose Lord B?
Me thinks not as I'm celebrating your birthday some 238 years later.
At regencyrecondite.com - the celebrations continue!
#StillSleuthing 🔍
'A guid New Year to aim and An' money may ye see.'
In the JANUARY publication of THE DALESMAN - I muse upon memories of Hogmanay, the New Year customs of penny scrambling and a coastal dip, along with sleuthing those seaside ancestors, AND my love of shortbread.
#StillSleuthing🔍
Before the morning had ended on this day in the year 1815 - the poet Lord Byron had been joined in matrimony to one Anne Isabella Milbanke at her family home at Seaham Hall in Seaham County Durham.
* SPOILER ALERT *
Alas, they were NOT to live happily ever after!
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas. 🎄
#DeadSleuth #GraveyardSquirrel #TeeAndTombstones #YorkyHistoryLass #FamilyHistorySleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍
Monday afternoon. The view from my world.
From my garden to their forever home. A little ancestral grave festive gift and tidy up for my maternal 2 x Greats.
🪦 York Cemetery. York. UK.
#DeadSleuth #GraveyardSquirrel #TeeAndTombstones #YorkyHistoryLass #StillSleuthing 🔍 @deadsleuth.com
"Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling." ~ Edna Ferber.
In the delightfully seasonal DECEMBER publication of THE DALESMAN - I muse upon the final month of the year, an ancestor unveiled and the untold tale of a ghost of Christmas past.
#DeadSleuth #StillSleuthing 🔍 with @teebylo.com
II. For this bed of concrete to be ‘well rammed’ was composed of ‘5 parts of broken bricks and 1 part of the best stone lime freshly burned’.
Be still my beating heart!
#DeadSleuth #GraveyardSquirrel #TeeAndTombstones #YorkyHistoryLass #StillSleuthing 🔍 @uoyborthwick.bsky.social
I. ‘Tis the day for more sleuthing into the working life of my Victorian protagonist and architect, one Charles Toft Newstead who in the year 1874 was instructing his trusty Excavator with his recipe for CONCRETE!
For the curious among us, kindly read on…