Dr Will Wyeth

@willwyeth.bsky.social

4304 Followers 625 Following

Archaeologist & historian (mainly castles). Curator of History @ English Heritage. (Mostly) Recovered Long Covid. Views mine, he/him. Work stuff: https://linktr.ee/willwyeth; header: Sanam Khatibi.

Photograph of a late 13th/14th century tower at Berwick Castle. It survives fragmentarily as a single storey, though probably rose to three.
Photograph of a weathered stone wall of reddish blocks. In the centre of the image is a semi-circular outline of a door lintel in yellow-white stone, the doorway itself is also infilled with red stone.
Photograph of a broad grassy slope with some trenches open and a white tent. The excavations at Sprouston!
Photograph of a very broad valley, looking downslope towards the ruins of Middleham Castle. A group do people are visible in the middle distance walking away from the viewer.
Reconstruction of the Inner Ward at Chester Castle by me and Martin Moss of Dextra Visual. The large gatehouse on the left was demolished in the 19th century, but a pier of its drawbridge has recently been identified.
Meme image of Bernie Sanders, with superimposed text which reads “I am once again running a castles panel.” I will organise a set of papers at next year’s Leeds IMC.
Photograph of a group standing in the grounds of Middleham Castle. A man in a grey shirt, blue shorts and wearing a blue hat and sunglasses holds a clipboard.
Screen grab of an article about the sales of tickets by the British Museum for the upcoming Bayeux Tapestry exhibition. Text reads: “Dr Cullinan told Today the exhibition was "really expensive exhibition for us to put on as a charity, and so we do need to recoup those funds".” Full article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g49q5qyjxo
Photograph of the short wall of Acton Burnell Castle, depicting perhaps 12 doorways.
Photograph of an interpretation panel fixed to an iron gate at Chester Castle’s inner ward. It depicts several boxes with text; a colourful image of the castle reconstructed in the early 14th century; a photo of a fragment of medieval wall painting in the castle’s Agricola Tower; and a small animation-style depiction of Robert of Rhuddlan and some words we have put into his mouth, about his life and the castle. There is also a QR code linking to the new, free Bloomberg Connects audio guide.
Photograph of a stone wall with lancet-headed doorway with hollow moulding. The door proper comprises narrow boards set diagonally. Stone steps front the doorway, flanked by grass lawn
Photograph of a fossil on the beach of Skateraw in East Lothian. I don’t know fossils so I don’t know what kind it might be.
Photograph of a rocky beach shore. In the centre of the image is a large dried tree Stump with projecting branches, the ensemble resembling a human hand in the form of a fist with projecting middle finger. 🖕
Photograph of a timber door in a plain square doorframe with broad chamfer.
Photograph of the external face of two-lead door to upper chapter house at Glasgow Cathedral. The door jambs and arch are comfortably 13th century. The doors proper comprise square-headed leaves of 4 (left) and 3 (right) vertical boards, with 4 square-plan sets of round nailheads, which appear clenched on the inner face. The top fill of the arch is filled with plainer-finisher vertical boards of similar width, meeting an external projective square-edged ledge.
Photograph of the sculpturally rich surrounds of the narrow round-headed raised entrance to the round tower at Brechin. At the top of the surrounds is Christ crucified, and at waist height either side are probably BVM and John the Baptist.
Photograph of the entrance doorway and door at Tolquhon Castle in Aberdeenshire. The door comprises a broad c120cm-wide round-headed artefact, with a simple square-headed door cut into it on the left side. There whole surface is covered in bolt heads laid diamond-pattern. There is a diamond-shaped peeps hole in the wicket, and several keyholes. The doorframe comprises a single very large roll moulding.
Screen grab of Bodleian MS Junius 11, f.9. The description reads: God creates Eve; ladder leads up to heaven; angel opens gate with double-warded key; elaborate hinges.
Photograph of a 12th-century column capital within a large mass of reassembled dressed stonework from Coldingham Priory in Berwickshire. On top of the capital is a rather weathered dressed stone with a smiley face on it. In the background to the left is the modern church of Coldingham, inhabiting part of the 12th century buildings of the wider, lost monastery.
Photograph of a broad hilly grassy landscape. In the foreground are 18th, 19th and early 20th century gravestones.
Photograph of Smailholm Tower.
Photograph of Rosamund’s Tower at Pickering Castle in North Yorkshire in England. The tower, carrying from the the castle’s eastern outer Bailey curtain wall, comprises a ground-floor Postern passage below two stacked chambers. Its dates to the first third of the 14th century.
Photograph of a PC monitor displaying a dog licking its nose, its eyes shut. Behind the dog is blue sky and what look to be pink blossoms.
Photograph of an outdoor gym. A crow sits atop the pull up bars.
Photograph of a vaulted space at Dunnottar Castle. In the middle distance is a replica of a human skeleton standing with a hand on hip.
Photograph of a long corvette walkway fronting Torness Nuclear Power Station.
Photograph along the coast of Dunbar. In the distance is a lumpen island, the Bass Rock.
Photograph of a stone wall with a square-headed doorway cut into it, sealed with a fixed iron grate painted black. Left of the doorway is the batter of a plinth, cut away to allow the doorway. Roght of the doorway is the return of a section of walling. The external face of the lintel has the weathered arms of the Dacre family. A postern is me ruined here in 1388, but the Dacres are connected to the castle also in the early 16th century.
Photograph of the angle of a stone doorway. In the centre of the image is an upturned L-shape piece of worked, weathered ironwork, fixed in place with lead. The pointing of the surrounding masonry is mostly Scotch pointing, suggesting it has been conserved in the 20th century. There is grass visible in the foreground.
Photograph of the inner ward of Norham Castle from the west. In the centre of the image is the Great Tower, this face showing the 15th century remaking of the elevation.
Photograph of a wall-mounted very large timber doorframe and door, with inset ogee-headed wicket.
Photograph of the rear of an historic timber door at the almshouse at Sherborne.
Photograph of the back of the same door. The three vertical boards of the front are still visible, but are secured on the back by 5 horizontal ledges with chamfers (the lower is a modern replacement). There are also two curving, shallow ledges framing the arched top of the door. Two of the ledges overlie the position of the straps, indicating that the iron nails driven through the straps carry into the ledges. But the ledges and the straps must be secondary: the lower ledges do not receive nails driven through the boards, as the frontage shows. Overall, therefore, it’s likely that the earliest parts of the door comprise the moulded framing elements, and possibly als the three boards, though maybe not the same phase. The ironwork and backing ledges may also be early, but not of same phase.
Photograph of a timber door which looks to be quite old. By contrast the doorframe, of dressed stone, looks to be 19th or 20th century restoration. There are two iron straps which are below the vertical moulded ribs, suggesting that this door has been remade at least once.
Photograph of a leaflet in a glass case in Sherborne Museum in Dorset. The cover features an image of a man sitting on the lower wing of a biplane. The text above the image reads ‘Conservative and Unionist Fete’, the text below reads ‘Old Castle Grounds Sherborne, Bank Holiday, August 5th.’
Screenshot of of Berthold Woltze’s painting, ‘The Irritating Gentleman’ (1874). The scene depicts a train carriage, on which a woman in black clothes sits in the foreground, clutching a napkin or tissue and a black hat on her lap. Behind her, leaning over the back of the bench seat and towards her ear, is a man in a grey suit and hat, holding a cigar and smiling towards her. The woman’s face is turned towards the viewer. She appears uncomfortable and irritated by the attention of the man. She may be in mourning dress.
Screen grab of a call for papers at Leeds IMC. The text reads: TIME FOR CHANGE: TEMPORALITIES & CASTLES Call for Papers - Leeds IMC 6-9 July 2026 - 'Temporalities' What is a castle in time? Is there a time of castles, for castles? Can castles be atemporal? What does a castle studies engaging with questions of temporality look like? Whose castle temporalities matter? Can we call time on the castle studies of yesterday, yesteryear? Can the lens of temporality challenge castle knowledges and interpretations? This panel welcomes proposals which examine temporalities and temporalities in castle studies as a field of inquiry at the intersection of (among others) medieval studies, architecture, archaeology, history, heritage and medievalism. Papers of between 15-20 minutes, by researchers at all career stages, discussing any aspects of castle studies research including but not limited to the following, are welcome: • Temporality in castle studies; • Remembering and memorializing in castle Obscured history, identities and heritages in spaces, communities, themes: past and castles past and present present; • Medieval temporalities and the heritage • Temporally situated antiquity, novelty and innovation in castles; • Planning, timing, scheduling, recording in • castle communities, lives, societies; • Ruined, lost and fictional castles in time Parallel and contradictory times; • Time and temporality in the reception of castles; Please send proposals (a title and abstract of no more than 200 words; short biography of 50 words or less), or any questions, to Dr William Wyeth (william.wyeth@english-heritage.org.uk) by 15 September 2025. This session is organised by Emma Fearon (Nottingham Trent University) and William Wyeth (English Heritage)
Photograph of tue ground-floor entrance to a 1390s tower house at Dunottar Castle.
Photograph of part of the old parish church in Stenton, East Lothian. A door with segmental arch is in the centre of the image, with a plain square window to the left of it. A tall stone tower rises on the far left. The whole building is made of reddish sandstone. The building is dated from 1561.
Photograph of a colourful sunset, seen from a path on cliff tops by the sea.
Photograph of a rather rotund robin on a drystone wall in Dunottar Castle. The robin appeared at a few stops along the castle and seemed to be interested in any food they might be offered.
Photograph of Dunottar Castle.
Screen grab of a digital version the 1st edition OS map, for a sheet of the Haddingtonshire section. A superimposed red arrow points to a lab which runs between a small rocker and a main road, linking the village of West Barns with the Burgh of Dunbar. The map can be found: https://maps.nls.uk/view/82885305
Photograph of a stone wall topped with ivy. In the centre of the image is a fragment of dressed stone with a cursive inscription
Photograph of the Clyde river bank in the distance. A low circular mound is visible, but into the bank and flanked by earthen banks. An obelisk monument is on the motte.
Photograph of a man in a dorky jacket standing by the inner face of the Captain’s, or inner, gatehouse at Carlisle Castle. There is a nice secondary arch of tracery above the primary-phase opening.
Photograph of the outer gatehouse and keep of Carlisle Castle.
Photograph of the door check on the open arc side of the door. There is no evidence for a lock slot or bolt.
Photograph of the inside face of an old timber door in the keep at Carlisle Castle. The door is very worn but it’s possible to see an internal board (horizontal), and the outer boards of the front face are readily viable (vertical). On the upper left side is a square insert of timber, perhaps replacing a stock lock.
Photograph of the east end of Carlisle Cathedral, looking towards a very large tall traceries window. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted, but is set with panels of blue each filled with gold stars. The frames are also Gold.
Photograph of an exposed section of bedrock at Dunadd hill fort. In the centre of the image is a carved hollow the size of a human adult foot.
Photograph of a 15th-century image depicting The Annunciation in The Courtauld Gallery, London. The Label reads: Master of the Judgement of Paris (active around 1400-1450) The Annunciation Around 1430-40 Egg tempera and gold leaf on wood Although small in scale, this work is full of colour and drama. The angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary, sitting in the courtyard of her house, that she is miraculously pregnant with the son of God. Nearby, the Holy Spirit appears as a dove. The rich composition and lively details encourage viewers to explore the scene and contemplate the importance of the event. Mark Gambier-Parry bequest, 1966
Photograph of a rocky bay with sea water rushing in.
Detailed view of TNA, E 314/66/25, with yellow highlight over word ‘Julius Cesares Tower.’
Photograph of a recreated Viking sauna on an interpretation board in Orkney. A seated nude Viking man holds a drinking horn and looks towards the viewer. The overall impression is humorous.
Photograph of a choppy bay, blue sky and whispy white clouds.
Photograph of a young deer in the loop of a small river.
Photograph of Warkworth Castle from the south, set against a broad blue and white sky.
Photograph of two peaks in Lochaber.
Photograph of four timber doors or shutters.