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helengittos.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Medieval History; parent involved in the Independent Inquiry into Maternity Services at East Kent
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A weird day of podcasting & press both with the daughter I never got to know at their heart. How to nutshell so many complex thoughts about those proposals, what needs to happen, the effort involved, my affection for the people I've met along the way &, simply, for her. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

Planning my route to @chalkefestival.bsky.social later this week. So many major early medieval sites on this map! How many can you spot?😜

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The review of Joanne Briggs' 'The Scientist who wasn't there' in yesterday's @thetimes.com is breathtaking: careless disregard for womens' medicine; investigative journalism; hints of espionage; and family memoir too. www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

In May @naturalengland.bsky.social published a peat map of England which 'relies on the integration of AI techniques with other survey methods'. It's so wrong, entire reservoirs & roads, Dartmoor tors & limestone pavements are marked as peat. naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/12/a...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Are there examples of public inquiries in the UK that have led to significant, positive, change?

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

AI bot scrapers are hitting every site on the web in search of training data. This report is the first good attempt to evaluate the impact of these AI scrapers, especially on smaller institutions that are trying to make their collections open to the public www.404media.co/ai-scraping-...

submitted 6 days ago • 14 comments

This new book on households in early medieval England looks super: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Are OUP history journals like the AHR, JAH, & Past & Present going to be using this now? Jeez

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

I went from that book launch to Ipswich where I stepped off the train and found myself in Gipeswic! Super to see this and I really like the reconstruction.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

It's out! On Thursday, there was a book launch for this transformative study of how the Domesday Book was made. Astonishing that it has been possible to learn so much about something so apparently well-understood. @oxmedstud.bsky.social

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

Shout-out to @alixebovey.bsky.social wonderful 2020 BBC Radio 4 programme "Knight Fights Giant Snail": #AdoreSnails 🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

A police investigation has found that a missing data file containing the details of hundreds of maternity cases was most likely deleted "intentionally or maliciously". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Where else, other than Britain, Ireland and Georgia, had a tradition of carving tall, free-standing stone crosses in the early middle ages? Image from: www.academia.edu/35254859/Ear...

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

'We quit our jobs, sold our home twice and spent 10 years fighting for the truth' by @jamesmelley.bsky.social & Alison Holt www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

After 10 years of campaigning for answers and justice, a 7 month trial and 24 days of deliberations, the jury have returned their verdicts in the second ever case of an NHS trust facing a corporate manslaughter charge. Why must it be the families who have to do this? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

Hospital and medic convicted over patient death

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

A fantastic photo of the C6th/7th? Byzantine? reading desk associated with St Radegund, abbess of Holy Cross, Poitiers. Photo by Lawrence Nees from his recent book. If anyone knows of a detailed study of the desk, I'd be interested please.

submitted 14 days ago • 1 comment

These are among the most startling survivals from Biscop's chuch at Monkwearmouth. Two right arms from ceremonial chairs - the end of a sythronon and abbot's chair? Did Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith and Bede rest their arms on these splendid beasts? #lateantiquenorthumbria @ascorpus.bsky.social

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

Really intriguing find, but worth emphasising that the valknut may or may not have pagan connotations — it’s hard to know for sure what it meant, if anything. I think it’s more interesting as further evidence of common artistic motifs across England & Scandinavia in the period, as with Sutton Hoo.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

"More than 180 council-run libraries have either closed or been handed over to volunteer groups in the UK since 2016." In contrast, no libraries in Ireland have closed. In fact, in many instances, they've improved, including the two closest to my home, in towns with populations of 2,000 and 8,000.

submitted 16 days ago • 14 comments

An excellent collection of images of probable medieval consecration crosses, mostly from the west country gaudiumsubsole.org/consecration...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

This is a fascinating photo showing both churches at Bradford-on-Avon - St Laurence & Holy Trinity - probably fossilising the late Anglo-Saxon layout.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments