Adam Chapman
Medieval historian interested in Wales, Somerset exile, inept cricketer, General Editor of the longest-running and largest local history project yet devised, the Victoria County History of England. Probably drinking tea.
- Someone working on diplomatic could get a full article out of "concepts of 'copy'" in popular understanding of Magna Carta. Hey ho. Fun, though, and genuinely hard work to establish this,as well as great outcomes from sharing collections information online.
- What does 'original' signify in summarising medieval recordkeeping practice for headlines? Discuss.
- My - uncharitable - thought was that I might offer $27 for the thoughts of the Lowthers reading this news (though I'm sure that they're aware in advance...).
- 'David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, stumbled on a document labelled as an unofficial copy of Magna Carta from 1327 in Harvard law school library’s online collection.' Hmmm: 'stumbled on'? No training, rigour or methodology involved in the find, then.
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View full threadIf the authors don’t wear glasses, how can they be clever? 🤷🏻♂️
- To be fair, Nick Vincent does the eccentric/scatty professor rather well - he poured water over himself in enthusiasm during his interview presentation (I was there!).
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- Extremely! And a nice addition to the history of Appleby in its role as county town of Westmorland and the connections between baronial power and local government (I'm sure Professors Carpenter and Vincent have thought of that: hence the Lowther archive visit).
- The line missing appears to be 'Professor Carpenter, the most eminent and systematic living scholar of Magna Carta' (because he is), who has probably known about it for decades... Anyway, that probably explains why a colleague ran into him at the Lowther estate archive the other year.
- Oh gods, not another one. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
- I note that all the stories (and presumably the press release), omit the definite article, so that’s something.
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- I'm so sorry, David. Hope you got that drink.
- Starmer's language was deplorable. It was grotesquely offensive, accusing people who have brought their gifts to this country of doing "incalculable" "damage"; & politically foolish, in endorsing Farage's claims of an establishment conspiracy. But bad analogies with Powell miss the key problem. 🧵
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View full threadStarmer doesn't seem to realise that, if you consistently accept the way your opponents frame a question, you'll find it hard to reject the answers that they give. If you keep telling voters that Farage is right in his analysis, it will be hard to persuade them that he's wrong in his prescriptions.
- Which, for a senior lawyer in a past life, seems bizarre.
- Declaring an interest, I was born in that unit, my sisters were: that’s a massive geographical gap in coverage (20 miles minimum in any direction: Yeovil is a town of 50 thousand these days, and abysmal transport links).
- Yeovil's maternity unit is going to be closed following a recent CQC inspection which means 'the only maternity unit in Somerset left fully open is at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital' - currently rated 'Inadequate' - and public transport in the region is woeful. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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View full threadExactly! It’s remarkable that Yeovil is basically the same size as Salisbury.
- Ironically, there are much better public transport links to Salisbury/Exeter (or even Dorchester), than there are to Taunton/Bath...
- It's 2025 and I'm sick to fucking death of english politicians using Wales as a practice run for their bullshit. We shouldn't let them in the country let alone anywhere near our democratic institutions.
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View full threadFucking posh wankers acting like this is the 14th century and trying to educate us on how *our* country should be run. Sais will sais
- Being unnecessarily serious (and with David Stephenson's next book in mind), were you to say '16th century' (or late 12th/early 13th), you might have a point - the 14th century represents, well, rather more continuity that you might initially think, in Wales that wasn't Gwynedd, i.e., most of it.
- No more swimming caps. No more riding hats. No more scrum caps.
- Not a lot of cricket played in France, but...
- ... Mr Macron is clearly a soccer man.
