The Saffron Walden Historical Society, founded in 1933, organises eight lectures a year and publishes a magazine, the SWHJ, twice a year. We welcome new members
Saffron Walden, East
Joined September 2021
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Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
This is fantastic! Scientists rediscover how to make ancient Roman colour-changing glass.
“I have sent you parti-coloured cups that change colour, presented to me by the priest of a temple . I would like you to use them at banquets on feast days.”
theguardian.com/science/2026…
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
In support of @duxfordchurches John Vigar is giving his talk on Murder, Sex & Mayhem in English Parish Churches this Friday. Do come if you can. It's one of the last chances to hear John before he retires next year and we're lucky to have him speak.
I do love AI. Can the human race really be under threat from a mechanical life form which writes "Sir Thomas Dagworth lived from 1276 to July 1450 (or 1352 depending on historical records)"? There is still some way to go.
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
European Knight, made by a 16thC Japanese student. The Jesuits established a painting school in Nagasaki in the late 16th century.
Students were taught to produce these European style oil paintings and engravings. (Tokyo National Museum)
The smile on the Cheshire Cat - the Venetian window in the nursery school at Peak Forest was once the east window of the Chapel dedicated to St Charles King & Martyr. Built by Christiana, Duchess of Devonshire, it was an unconventional, not to say risky, dedication for 1657 but
Short but very kind review in Print Quarterly of my Winstanley biography by Antony Griffiths, formerly Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum.
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
Tonight is Midsummer Eve, which was for centuries the traditional date for celebrating the summer solstice. It was once a high point of the festival year - a time of feasts, parades, ghosts, love, roses, and bonfires blazing in the short summer night.
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
'In June, when the jewel climbs up
highest in the year into the heavens,
brightest of stars...
At that time the fairest of lights
likes to gaze longer upon the earth,
to move more slowly across the meadows.'
Anglo-Saxon writers on the summer solstice: aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/…
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
2/2 I also recommend 'The Parish Churches of Norwich', available through all good bookshops or from Amazon at amzn.eu/d/03EhOSzU
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
Gerard Manley Hopkins died #OTD 8 June 1889. He was 44.
'What would the world be,
Once bereft of wet and wildness?
Let them be left,
O let them be left,
Wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.'
From his poem 'Inversnaid', on the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament Building, Edinburgh.
Brilliant as he was, he could be ungenerous and even snide about innovative and daring predecessors like Henry Winstanley of Littlebury who built the first Eddystone lighthouse in the 1690s. The grandfather or stepfather of civil engineering perhaps ...
🧵Born on this day, 8 June in 1724 John Smeaton is often called the "father of civil engineering," He was a pioneering engineer known for his expertise and innovative design principles. From Austhorpe, Leeds, Smeaton showed an early fascination with mechanics. His most
ALT This painting, Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse, was created by the British artist John Lynn and depicts the third Eddystone Lighthouse, completed in 1759 to the designs of pioneering engineer John Smeaton. Set amid the turbulent waters of the English Channel, the scene shows ships navigating the seas around the lighthouse, which stood on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks off the coast of Devon. Smeaton's remarkable structure became a landmark in engineering history, not least for its innovative use of hydraulic lime mortar, which could set and harden underwater, ensuring the lighthouse's strength and durability against the relentless force of the sea. Painting: John Lynn, Canterbury City Council Museums and Galleries
That "but" is a book of many volumes ...
#OTD in 1568, the Counts of Egmont and Horne were executed on the Grand Place in Brussels. They were leading noblemen in the Habsburg Netherlands but were accused and convicted of high treason.
Saffron Walden Historical Society retweeted
The Saffron Walden Historical Society has announced the relaunch of its long-running Historical Journal, with a redesigned full-colour edition due to return in spring 2026.
Find out more: balh.org.uk/news-relaunch-of…
#WeAreLocalHistory #LocalHistoryForAll
