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Sophie Michell

@sophiemhistory.bsky.social

3.4K followers 860 following 4.6K posts

Death and crime historian, family researcher, teller of tales. Open Uni PhD candidate writing about inquests in the 19thC

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · Nov 8

Hello new followers. I am an OOC funded PhD candidate at the Open University working on 19thC English inquests from a criminal justice/social history/microhistory perspective.

I'm in my final year so expect increasingly fraught blathering.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 3m

Yeah, teenagers aren't known for their excellent choices or pathfinding

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 16m

I would imagine so, my niece's comp did a similar scheme for their KS4 kids

But also, with the curriculum as it is, who has TIME in KS4 to make room for a two week trip?

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 17m

It annoys me because I would LOVE for him to go on more trips but the school won't offer them if they can't guarantee that parents will contribute towards the cost. There is not enough budget (unless they have a Wealthy Benefactor) to run the trips at a loss.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 59m

I find this so baffling because my middle kid (yr10, deprived state school) has been on the only two school trips that he has been offered, both to the theatre

Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · 13h

Unbelievably, literally the day after I posted this, my son has come home clutching a letter for a £4,600 trip to Kenya. He’s pretty upset I have said no

Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · 1d

Inexplicably, my son’s very standard state school - in a mixed area, not a particularly affluent one - arranged a £4K trip to Kenya last year. I keep meaning to do a story on the astonishing escalation of the school trip.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 1h

We went on a two night residential to Birmingham. Think it cost about £90

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 20h

sorry were you born five minutes ago?

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 20h

There's an excellent Wikipedia article

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 22h

Well if you ever need a research assistant...

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 22h

I have three in my dataset (1856-1905, Liberty and City of Peterborough) and they are by no means clear in the newspaper reports. I would not have found them on a keyword search.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 22h

To give an example: there was a major upset between two Stamford newspaper proprietors in the 1850s and significant social unrest demonstrated against the villainous one.

The Stamford papers did not breathe a word of it.

The Lincolnshire papers reported it in LURID detail.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 22h

For some years, I have wondered why the Peterborough authorities did not apprehend the body snatcher active in the city in 1830 when they knew exactly who he was.

Turns out the Swing Riots hit Peterborough four days later. THAT WILL DO IT.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 23h

It's a hard thing to evidence. The press are remarkably reticent about publishing the details in the fens, perhaps because they don't want to encourage it?

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 23h

Ah yes of course!

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 1d

As you can probably imagine, inquests could be extraordinarily emotive and I've found cases of civil disorder all the way through my data, right up to 1905.

The biggest one involved around three thousand people, a third of the city's adult population.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 1d

Rough music, charivari, banging around outside your neighbour's house and making a racket was widespread in England (not sure about Wales, Scotland or Ireland)

They could involve a few people, or if the cause was particularly emotive, THOUSANDS.

Philip Amies @amiesphilip.bsky.social · 1d

Skimmington or "rough music" was a custom in Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire,

It represented community disapproval.

Mllborne Port, 1890s, cause windows left open for ventilation in bedroom of small children.

This is a clear example of how varied the cause could be.

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Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 1d

I have adhesions in my bellybutton from the cholescystectomy so why the hell wouldn't they be in my bile duct?

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 1d

did she even hear a word I said in the consultation about feeling like I was about to die from the pain?

It is frustrating.

Sophie Michell @sophiemhistory.bsky.social · 1d

My gallbladder cocked up BECAUSE of endo treatment (zoladex made it go turbo on making stones, it was absolutely rammed by the time they found out). I just don't know why they don't believe us. My GP was so kind and understanding at my last visit and then I read my clinic notes and it was like...