Christopher LONG
@calong.bsky.social
530 followers 250 following 530 posts
Journalist, Editor & Foreign Correspondent | Lives in Normandy | Vernacular, church and hall-house architecture | Volunteer archaeologist | Timber & clay hall builder | Historian of C19th Chiot & Phanariot diaspora | Farmer. <ChristopherLong.co.uk> 🦋2023
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How about a bi-yearly bier?
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The former Coop clothing factory in #Wigan, viewed down King St. West. Founded by Timothy Coop, built 1871 to designs by R. Todd of Southport, with later extensions - the original part is in the centre. One of many gems in the backstreets of our industrial towns. #Lancashire #IndustrialHeritage
A large and ornate factory building in a rather grand and Italianate style, with arches, a balustrade and decorative brick. Viewed down a street with a sort of canyon formed by later Victorian brick buildings. GII listed.
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Plenty of prehistoric forest on view as usual at low tide on the Ynyslas and Borth shoreline
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The 14th century tower of St Oswald’s Church in Grasmere, Cumbria today. Up until the 1890s the church was rendered in lime. This was removed and replaced with a cementitious pointing. In December 2017 a project was completed to restore the tower’s lime render.
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🥽❄️How cool is this? Hunters living in the Arctic have used snow goggles to protect their eyes from the glare of the snow for 4000 years. Made from ivory, bone or wood. Displaying great ingenuity. These are 18/19thC display
at World Museum, Liverpool
🌍 #Arctic #Prehistoric #indeginouspeople
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C14 parclose screen at Holme, Notts, for #Woodensday
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Back to Holme, Notts. Close up of a compilation image of a priest, Look closely at his fingers, we see, perhaps, a dragon. Might this originally be from an image of St John?
And your photography is a constant delight!
Sorry - that might have sounded pedantic! Autumn, Keats said, is a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, i.e. the earth is still warm and humidity appears as mist! Please show us a lovely British winter fog in a month or two! My apologies!
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'October Gold', John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1889. There was a terrific exhibition of his work on at Scarborough Art Gallery when I was there to do the Grimms talk with artist Chris Wood; they were hung well and their atmosphere travelled well, as it did with Chris' eerie art.
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By autumn 1322, Robert the Bruce held the upper hand. Edward II’s failed invasion of Scotland had ended in famine and retreat, giving Bruce the chance to strike south. In October, his army swept into Yorkshire, where Edward was staying at Rievaulx Abbey. OTD 14 October, the
Memorial commemorating the Battle of Old Byland
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Aerial view: St Mary’s Church, Pakenham, Suffolk. Built c.1100 by Walter with nave, central tower & chancel. The tower’s octagonal belfry was added in the 14th century; transepts rebuilt by S.S. Teulon in 1849. One of Suffolk’s few cruciform churches. #Pakenham #church #Suffolk #aerial #image
… that terrible moment when there was a sudden bang and we all thought the load had broken away…
Having a great time looking through everyone's memories of watching the Mary Rose being raised.

So much truancy!
Am I right in thinking there are remains of a lime render on the walls? What chance is there of this being restored?
#MedievalMonday Inside the 12th century church of Teampall Mholuaidh (St Moluag's church) on the Isle of Lewis, #Scotland

You can really feel the age in here!

#history #archaeology #churches #photooftheday
The inside of an old stone church with rugged grey walls and altar at the end. Modern wooden roof vaults and benches fill the interior
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Sunday read: "And so I stand beside the latch, comforted by the collective thumbprint. Through the imperceptible hollowing of its burnished curve, it cradles an immortality defined through touch" www.digest.andymarshall.co/andy-marshal...
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The vaulted undercroft at Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. The abbey was originally established by Benedictine monks from St Mary's Abbey in York in 1132 and became one of the largest Cistercian houses in England. 📸 My own. #MedievalMonday #FountainsAbbey #Yorkshire
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The beautiful Ayshford Chapel is one of only a handful of medieval chapels of ease that continued to be used for religious services after the Reformation.

1/8
Wonderful story… and enlightening!
Getting away with crime or getting justice?

Sometimes medieval criminal court records reveal instances in which localities and/or individuals took the punishment of crime into their own hands. The castration case of Tom, son of Leofwin, from the year 1202 is one such case. 🧵1/5
A person in a blue shirt with light orange trousers is holding a flail, which is two pieces of stick usually joined by a piece of leather. The tool is used for threshing grain. In this instance, the person is holding the flail over his head. He's about to hit the stalks of some plants, but the plants have been cropped out of the image so it appears as if the person is just about to swing a weapon.
Reference: British Library, The Luttrell Psalter
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Rows and rows of patterns and creatures and beakheads from below.
Looking up at the underside of the absolutely glorious 12thC chancel arch at St Peter's, Tickencote.
The uneven nature and wonkiness is just wonderful.
#SundayStonework
Is that really herringbone ‘Opus Piscatum’ in the south wall around the window???
Great Elm war memorial. St. Mary Magdalene Church, Great Elm, Somerset. First World War. #LestWeForget
Great Elm war memorial.
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A Saxon doorway from the south side of the tower of All Saints’ Church at Brixworth in Northamptonshire. Using recycled Roman tiles, the doorway was originally internal and led to a now demolished cell. 📸 My own. #AdoorableThursday #Brixworth #Northamptonshire
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#inktober2025 7) Starfish. Starfish sites were decoy installations built across the UK in WW2 to confuse bombers. lit at night to replicate failed street blackoutsHow effective they were is open to debate. There is a good one in the Mendips for Bristol & this one at Doncaster. #heritage #archaeology
A sketch of a brick built structure with sloping concrete central opening and lintel. a tree to the left
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Shared for #MotteMonday

Peter Dunn’s reconstruction of a motte and bailey castle near Cropton in North Yorkshire

#MedievalMonday
Ive been scribbling my thoughts about the landscape around Cropton and had to share this lovely Peter Dunn reconstruction of the Motte and Bailey Castle just outside the modern village.

(Found on the Woodland Trust Interpretation Panel for the site)
Fantastic Peter Dunn reconstruction painting of the medieval village of Cropton with crofts reaching. Ack to a stone and wood motte and bailey castle on the edge of a green wooded ridge.
How unusual to see this gem in a non-ecclesiastical setting (apparently)…
Stamford, Lincolnshire, is full of excellent historic buildings - but it also has this fabulous Norman arch and enticing cobbled passageway 😍