The Sound of Music has led generations of children astray.

Do is not a deer. Re is not a drop of golden sun. And Mi has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with an 8th-century poem to St John the Baptist.

#thread
About 1300 years ago, the monk and historian, Paulus Diaconus, lost his voice. During his illness, he composed a poem and dedicated it to St John the Baptist. 

It went:

Ut queant laxīs
resonāre fibrīs
Mīra gestōrum
famulī tuōrum,
Solve pollūtī
labiī reātum,
Sāncte Iōhannēs

2/
This translates as, So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.

3/
In the 11th century, Benedictine monk, Guido of Arezzo took Paulus’s poem and set it to a sweet climbing melody.

To remember the notes, he took the opening syllable of each line: Ut - Re - Mi - Fa - So - La - Si... and used them to name the notes of the C-Major scale.

4/
Guido D’Arezzo’s Micrologus – a musical treatise – became one of the most popular texts on music in the Middle Ages. In it, he included the seven musical notes: ut-re-mi-fa-so-la-si.

But, I hear you cry, the notes don’t have ut and si!

5/
… that’s because in the 17th century, Giovanni Battista Doni changed ut to do, and in the 19th century Sarah Glover changed si to ti, as they were easier to sing. 
 
... And that’s why you’re reciting poem to St John the Baptist every time you sing this musical scale. 
 
6/

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10 Dec
At St Mary’s, Eastwell the vitality of the frothy foliage balances the morbidity of the decaying church.
A picturesque lake created to the east of the church in the 1800s caused the collapse of building, as the chalk columns sucked moisture from the earth and crumbled...

#thread
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2/
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/a Viking thread ...
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Anglo-Norse dialects developed, and they influenced local speech for hundreds of years. Even today, the English language has numerous words of Old Norse origin, like 'knife', 'kindling',  'egg', & ‘window' (literally - 'wind eye').
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29 Nov
Today, we thought we'd look back at some of our 'big saves'. 

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#thread
To Caernarfon, to Hen Eglwys Baglan. An ancient church in the shadow of Snowdon and overlooking the Menai Straits. By the 1970s, it had been neglected for years, and was teetering on the edge when we took it on. Now, it is well-used and beloved by people all over the world.

2/
In Sussex, the little chapel at Milland fell into disuse and dereliction in the 1930s. By 1960, it looked like this. In 1974, working with a local group – who are still active today - haul this ancient place back from the brink. And just in the nick of time too. 

3/
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28 Nov
So far this year, we’ve taken three closed churches into our care. They were no longer needed for worship. Two would have been demolished.

Our places of worship are the spiritual investment of generations, and they should survive.

The churches we’ve saved in 2020 are… 
#thread
St Helen's, Barmby-on-the-Marsh, Yorkshire closed in 2007. The earliest record of a chapel here dates to 1388. In 1489, the parishioners petitioned at Rome for a grander church. This was granted. Only the nave survives from this date.

2/
The medieval tower with timber spire was ruinous by 1773, and was dismantled, rebuilt in red brick and crowned with a copper cupola. The chancel seems to have been added only in the 19th century, when the church was restored in 1854 by Thomas Clarke.

3/
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26 Nov
#OTD in 1703 a hurricane ravaged England and Wales: trees damaged, property destroyed, livestock killed, ships lost at sea...
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#thread Image
The weather blew in from the north Atlantic and is one of the worst storms to have ever hit the UK.

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2/4
Defoe published his findings in The Storm (1704).

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3/4 Image
Read 4 tweets
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#thread
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2/6
Mortar is a binding agent composed primarily of binder and aggregate. Generally, it is defined by the binding agent, i.e. lime. Aggregate provides a vital framework and prevents shrinkage. The proportion, grading and packing of aggregate will affect quality, porosity and strength
Read 6 tweets

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