Dr Ben Wilkinson-Turnbull (He/They) 🏳️‍🌈

Brilliant news! Watched @benwt.bsky.social presentation on this project today and it looks so awesome. A great example of public centred yet academically rigorous and exciting research. A hard trio to achieve!

Thanks so much Pam!

A brown dog looking out at the quad of royal Holloway. The buildings re red brick and there is a grass quad in the centre.

Margot approves of her new workplace @royalholloway.bsky.social

Thank you!

Picture of a manuscript on a desk with a brown dog below.

Margot had her first day with me in the manuscript reading room today @thelondonarchives.bsky.social today. As you can expect, she’s a dab hand with secretary hand and civic records!

As part of the project, I'll also be curating an exhibition, garden trail, and a whole other range of public engagement events for the local community. As well as helping the YMCA restore the garden according to More's plans.

Can't wait to get stuck in!

It also covers the property's ownership and expansion by the tobacco merchants the Wills family-- the 'founding family' of @bristoluni.bsky.social whose colonial wealth funded The Wills Memorial Building.

Hannah More by Augustin Edouart, cut black paper with wash, 1827, NPG 4501. © National Portrait Gallery, London. This silhouette shows More sitting at a table holding some papers with her inkstand and quill before her.

These cover the years in which the property was built and owned by the best selling writer and abolitionist @hannahmore.bsky.social (1745-1833), who hosted a salon of writers and social reformers at the property inc. W Wilberforce, ST Coleridge, Elizabeth Fry, and royalty

More good news! I've been awarded funding by the YMCA/AHRC to lead a heritage engagement and knowledge exchange project @bristolunienglish.bsky.social. 'The Remarkable History of Barley Wood' will see me set up a community archive of the manuscripts I've uncovered at the property 1/

Thanks v much Jo— nice to finally be able to announce it!

Thank you v much Erin!

Thanks Paulina!

Thanks so much Liz!

Image of a 16th century manuscript

Image of the front of the London Archives, a red brick building with red banners outside

Image of the Founders Quad at Royal Holloway. The building is red brick with white stone. The quad is grassed and has a central path leading to a statue of Queen Victoria.

News! I've started as the early modern Post Doc on the AHRC-funded 'Inclusive Histories' project @royalholloway.bsky.social. I'm working at @thelondonarchives.bsky.social to research the stories of marginalised groups, which will be used to foster a more inclusive approach to teaching GCSE History