The nights are drawing in earlier and it is feeling rather autumnal... This rather spooky image is taken from our papers on demonology buff.ly/WEHbaNi (MS268) and depicts Dr Faustus meeting Lucifer... #EYAFolklore

In the 1740s, a young elm tree at South Baddesley, was heard emitting agonised groans. Visitors, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, came to listen to the Hampshire Groaning Tree until the sounds ceased when a hole was drilled in the trunk to investigate the cause. #EYAFolklore

#WorldCottonDay
In this letter dated 1838, John Gladstone surveys the cotton industry and suggests means of increasing production in India.
He accumulated immense wealth by trading cotton, corn & sugar and owned multiple slave labour plantations in the West Indies worked by enslaved people.

The Explore Your Archives theme for October is #EYAFolklore - the booklet 'Hants & Dorset's Folklore and Legends' was published in 1975 buff.ly/8SXXpFp - the cover shows the 'Miraculous beam' at Christchurch Priory, said to have been altered by a mysterious carpenter after it was cut too short

Want to find out more about the local history sources in the Archives and Special Collections. Then do check out the presentation given at HFC's recent Unlocking Hampshire's Past conference: buff.ly/uF5FTx3

omorrow! Our 26/27 seminar series opens with @brunssen.bsky.social on 'The Making of "Jew Clubs": Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures'.

📅 Tues 29 September, 6pm BST
📍 Online via Zoom
🔗 Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/performing...

Yom Kippur was observed last Sunday and Monday, so we share the cover of a Yom Kippur sermon given by Rabbi Raymond Apple in 1972, from the archives of Rabbi Abraham Levy buff.ly/AlW9WER @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social @biajs.bsky.social @parkesinstitute.bsky.social @cjewishhistory.bsky.social

Also thank you to the Hampshire Apple Press buff.ly/QNvi4kz for providing a wonderful variety of refreshments and the work of Sparsholt College, Winchester #OnlyAtSparsholt for their ongoing work identifying rare apple varieties - the next Sholing Valleys Apple Day will be on Saturday 10 October!

A big thank you to Mac Ince of the Sholing Valleys Study Centre charity buff.ly/W6IEoBF for his excellent talk given in the Hartley Library on Monday on local apple varieties and the cultural heritage of apples #HODs2026 - it was well attended and inspired people to search for lost varieties...

What were cutting edge telescopes in the 19th century? To find out come and see the illustration of ‘Dr Herschel’s forty feet reflecting telescope’ at the Earth, Sea and Sky exhibition at the Special Collections Gallery, Hartley Library, weekdays 10am to 4pm from 11 September. See buff.ly/8U3Lt3N

Not sure how an underwater excavation takes place? Have a look at the photographs, documents and artefacts for the Punic shipwreck, part of the Earth, Sea and Sky exhibition at the Special Collections Gallery, Hartley Library, weekdays 10am to 4pm from 11 September. See: buff.ly/8U3Lt3N

What sort of creatures were included in maritime charts and plans in the 17th century? See John Seller’s Atlas maritimus in the Earth, Sea and Sky exhibition at the Special Collections Gallery, Hartley Library, weekdays 10am to 4pm from 11 September. For more information go to: buff.ly/8U3Lt3N

“It was like hell in a rough sea made of shell holes”
Lieutenant Basil Henriques' account of the tank advance at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, the Somme.
It was #OnThisDay in 1916 when tanks were used for the first time in an en masse attack
#WW1 #FirstWorldWar #WorldWarOne buff.ly/TWUg5CQ

Want to find out more about the discovery of a Fritillaria meleagris (Snake's Head Fritillary) at Stratfield Saye? Come and visit the Earth, Sea and Sky exhibition at the Special Collections Gallery, Hartley Library, weekdays 10am to 4pm from 11 September. For more information go to: buff.ly/8U3Lt3N

#OnThisDay Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Kent aged 83.
The Wellington Paper contains approximately 100,000 items; political, military, official and diplomatic papers covering all aspects of the Duke's career buff.ly/TovOcGm

Which well-considered naturalist and “citizen scientist” who was an inspiration for Charles Darwin? Come and visit the Earth, Sea and Sky exhibition at the Special Collections Gallery, Hartley Library, weekdays 10am to 4pm from 11 September. For more information go to: buff.ly/8U3Lt3N