Mike Stuchbery 💀🍷 Profile picture
Sep 23, 2018 14 tweets 6 min read Read on X
When you picture the medieval inhabitants of rural Britain, what do you imagine? Sickly, toothless, dirty? You might be surprised - explorations of the past have a tendency to dodge expectations. Wharram Percy sure taught us a few things - and threw in the odd scare! THREAD 1/
Wharram Percy is a deserted medieval village (DMV) located in North Yorkshire, England. Based on studying records and folk memory, it became the site of sustained digs throughout the second half of the 20th century. 2/
While there’d been various occupants on the site since the Iron Age, a planned village at the site didn't turn up until the 12th century. It comprises two rows of houses facing one another along a path, with a millpond and a parish church. 3/
Far from the hovels we might expect from a rural medieval village, the houses of Wharram Percy - many dating from the 14th century -  were (relatively) solid, clean and permanent, showing use over longs periods of time, building up stone foundations. /4
Excavation of the houses also turned up a number of goods that show the inhabitants had time to themselves and possessions - board games, musical instruments and lovely pieces of jewelry. /5
Excavations of the churchyard showed that despite usual rates of infant mortality, those who lived past their fifth birthday were generally healthy & well-nourished. Bones showed that a number were stronger than their modern counterparts, & had a lifespan into their seventies. /6
The Black Death doesn't seemed to have impacted the village as much as others. Evidence showed that many of the inhabitants survived the devastation caused by plague and the village didn't suffer the collapse that others did. 7/
The inhabitants of Wharram Percy *DID* seem to have a problem with the *walking dead*, however. A study released in 2017 found that some of the dead buried in the village were decapitated or dis-articulated. /8 theguardian.com/science/2017/a…
It’s thought that some of the dead of Wharram Percy were decapitated, their bodies cut to stop them rising from the graves. This was a common belief at the time - spirits of the dead were also thought to spread disease. /9
In the end, it wasn't disease or the walking dead that led to the collapse of Wharram Percy, but greed. Enclosure in the 16th century for sheep led to the inhabitants being evicted. Quickly, the land reclaimed the village - until the 20th century. /10
If you’re interested in visiting Wharram Percy, you can - @EnglishHeritage look after the site, and have interpretive materials explaining what’s left, including the church. /11 english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/w…
Here’s a great site that explains a lot about the history of the village -  and if you dig the idea of deserted medieval villages, please follow @landscapeian - this is his thing! /12 httpww.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/page57.html
Hope you enjoyed that - Britain is absolutely crammed with digs and sites that every day teach us something more about those that came before us. Heck, turns out they were freaked out by zombies as much as we are! /FIN

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More from @MikeStuchbery_

Apr 4, 2023
Sometimes when I get a little down in the dumps, I try to remember the amazing things around me, that connect me to a wider history, and my spirits soar.

This is Kloster Denkendorf, about twenty minutes drive from me. 🧵
Sometime in the 1120s, a 'Bertholdus', perhaps Berthold, Count of Hohenberg & Lindenfels, returned from a trip to the Holy Land and donated a small monastery and a church to the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, who sent a prior to Southern Germany. 🧵
Over the next hundred years, the protection of this church and monastery were placed under some very important families - the Hohenstaufen, the Habsburg, and the Holy Roman Empire. 🧵
Read 8 tweets
Mar 7, 2023
With #InternationalWomensDay on the 8th of March, here's who you can thank for its existence: Clara Zetkin! 🧵
Clara was born in the kingdom of Sachsen in 1857. In the 1870s she became involved with rhe SPD while studying to become teacher.

Her politics veering further leftwards, she spent time in Switzerland and Paris, dodging bans on socialist and communist orgs. 🧵
It was during her time in Paris that Clara, nee Eißner, took the name Zetkin, from her lover, Ossip Zetkin - the pair had two children - Maxim & Konstantin.

All the while she integral in forming the Second Socialist International, and other organisations. 🧵
Read 11 tweets
Mar 6, 2023
I tweeted that the inventor of the first real automobile, Gottlieb Daimler, died #onthisday in 1900.

Not many know this, but Daimler had a habit of scaring the bejesus out of his neighbours. I'd like to honour that. 1/4
When Daimler was putting his 'grandfather clock' engine onto a carriage chassis, the noise from his greenhouse in Bad Cannstatt was alarming his neighbours so much that his gardener eventually led the police in - they'd suspected him of running a counterfeiting operation! 2/4
On November 18 1885, a brave 17 year old Paul Daimler climbed on his father's invention, the 'Reitwagen', and made the world's first motorcycle trip along the banks of the Neckar River, terrifying local with the roar of the 1/2hp engine.

Also the seat caught fire. 3/4
Read 4 tweets
Feb 21, 2023
One thing that I don't think gets talked enough with folks experiencing ADD and/or living on the spectrum is the financial hit.

And I don't mean in a 'oops, didn't pay that bill way', but what years of grappling with if does to your job history and career progression.
There's loads of financial tools out there to help you keep track of where money is going - believe me, I use several.

However, there's not much that can be done when career progression has slowed due to ADD/ASD, but costs keep rising.

Working *harder* isn't an option.
Now, life patently isn't fair, and there is something to be said for hard graft.

Yet perhaps we need to examine and acknowledge that grey zone of those who high functioning, and can do some things really well - but end up driving themselves into the ground over time.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 13, 2023
#ValentinesDay tomorrow. You may not know this, but I am, in fact, @TheLocalGermany's love guru, in addition to Southern Germany correspondent, culture observer & ad creative.

So, you want to date a German? Let me offer you 10 rules for wooing, and dating a German. Image
10. Don't worry if your German is sub-par, you'll barely get a chance to use it.

Many Germans are keen to practice their English, and while this may seem a rich seam of laughs, it's best to keep a straight face.

Anyway, how many language do *you* speak?
9. When the friendly barkeep approaches you whilst on a date, and says 'zusammen' (together) or 'getrennt' (seperated), he's talking about the bill, not inquiring after your relationship status.
Read 11 tweets
Jan 25, 2023
Edward Berger's 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (DE: 'Im Westen Nichts Neues') has gathered nine nominations for the 2023 Oscars - including Best Picture, the only non-English film to make the cut.
It is third adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's seminal anti-war novel, and the first German-language version.

It stars Felix Kammerer as Paul Bäumer - an enthusiastic volunteer to the Imperial German Army in 1917, as World War One rages.
Erich Maria Remarque, born 1898, based the novel on his own experiences on the Western Front, and upon publication in 1929 it became a bestseller around the world.

Remarque left Germany in 1931, before his works were banned by the Nazis as 'unpatriotic'. He died in 1970.
Read 5 tweets

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