Hannah Booth
@hannahbooth.bsky.social
Northumbrian in the Netherlands | Writes about connections between Britain & its North Sea neighbours | Historical linguist turned science writer & editor Writing: https://northseanexus.substack.com Website: https://hannahmarybooth.com
North Sea Friday Folk #12 — lives shaped by the shallow sea on our doorstep Today’s the turn of geologist & palaeobotanist Clement Reid (1853-1916), one of the first to postulate a drowned land bridge across the southern North Sea 📷 Clement Reid (National Portrait Gallery, London: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
As I wrote earlier Saturday is Lammas Day when traditionally the harvest would have started. The end of July/start of August would also have marked the the start of another harvest in Yorkshire, the herring season at Scarborough. As the fish moved further south the
This week's piece from me, on harbour views at the height of the North Sea herring fishery
Those strange forests of spindly masts
Harbour views at the height of the North Sea herring fishery
northseanexus.substack.com
🧵3 posts. The Dutch River is a man-made waterway in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In the 1620s, King Charles I commissioned Dutch civil engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain the Hatfield Chase marshes and divert the River Don directly into the River Ouse. The artificial cut, completed around 1628
North Sea Friday Folk #11 — lives shaped by the shallow sea on our doorstep Today’s the turn of Dolly Peel (1782-1857), legendary fishwife of South Shields A smuggler of brandy & tobacco, she also fiercely resisted the press gang, scuppering their efforts to seize local men 📷 jim field, CC BY 3.0
"Now, here's a new term for you: pod-casting. At the moment it's something enjoyed by a small but rapidly growing group of internet enthusiasts..." Throwback to 2004 and this feature on The Culture Show. It'll never catch on...
2004: What is Podcasting? | The Culture Show | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtube.com
"Now, here's a new term for you: pod-casting. At the moment it's something enjoyed by a small but rapidly growing group of internet enthusiasts..." Throwback to 2004 and this feature on The Culture Show. It'll never catch on...
2004: What is Podcasting? | The Culture Show | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtube.com
I find this satellite image of sea ice drifts off Greenland's east coast from earlier this month completely mesmerising: eu-space.europa.eu/components/e... (European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery)
Shipbuilding in a little harbor crowded with other ships. From the vivid nautical imagination of Adam Willaerts in 1615. Today was his day.
“ a wild & giddy thing, with health robust from every care unbound, comes on the zephyr’s wing, and cheers the toiling clown” #JohnClare (excerpt ‘Now swathy summer’) Common Tern in #NorthShields #Birds
From this week's piece on the changing climate in the fens
Between the floods
Summer drought in the fenlands
open.substack.com
Exploring Germany’s East Frisian islands: mudflats, marshes and millions of birds www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/... via @theguardian.com @kate-mann.bsky.social
Exploring Germany’s East Frisian islands: mudflats, marshes and millions of birds
The seven inhabited isles off the North Sea coast, part of a Unesco world heritage site, are a sanctuary for wildlife – with great hotels and restaurants too
theguardian.com
Latest piece from me, on drying out in the fens
Between the floods
Summer drought in the fenlands
northseanexus.substack.com
Cricket on the beach, Whitby, 1974, photo by Ian Berry (b. Preston 1934).
I am mildly curious to know if Andy Burnham speaks Dutch? He has been married to a Dutch woman for nearly thirty years, and has half-Dutch kids, so it would be odd if he hadn’t picked up some - but he never seems to have uttered a word of it in public. Jammer!
... this was Orkney, not Kent, and they owned or had certain rights to the foreshore from high to low water. Incredulous glances were exchanged between the oil executives and beyond the window, the ghost of a norseman was heard to throw back his head and laugh.
Casually went to look up the definition of land ownership near the UK coast with respect to tides, and there is a Whole Can Of Worms. 🤯 rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
Despite the word ‘foreshore’ being in common usage relating to the coast, it has three distinct legal definitions in Great Britain. There are three property law regimes, English law in England and W...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Understanding how North Sea heritage is shaped during a time of rapid economic, environmental and cultural change is at the heart of a major new doctoral research initiative led by the University of Aberdeen.
Funding secured for North Sea heritage doctoral research consortium
Understanding how North Sea heritage is shaped during a time of rapid economic, environmental and cultural change is at the heart of a major new doctoral research initiative led by the University of Aberdeen.
archaeologyorkney.com
A cuckoo called Bean (named after Sean, not Mr.) has decided to go from Scotland to Africa via southern Sweden. TURN RIGHT YOU FOOL. www.bto.org/get-involved...
"Britain is an island nation,” she writes, “bounded by water, we look towards its fringes to mark the edges of our national community, to what is holding us together. But, in truth, it is the British coastline that has slowly unravelled."
How Britain’s coastal communities lost hope | The Observer
In Rough Edges, Natasha Carthew reveals the reality of our ‘salt belt of deprivation’
observer.co.uk
We are delighted to launch a new initiative to bring 'Naval Songs and Ballads' back to life! The tunes are named, BUT the music is not printed. See its contents: buff.ly/A9O0kBt #shantysingers #navalrecords #navyhistory #navyrecords #seafarers #nauticalmusic #nauticalhistory #navalchoir #NRS
From 'The writing in the sand' series by photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, documenting life on the beaches in the North East of England, 1973-1998 #WomensArt
'Dock End, Whitby’, A wonderfully atmospheric 1880 image by Headingley born photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941).
Those of us who study coastal erosion and sea states are equally fascinated by artifacts that reveal histories of people who thrived as well as communities lost. All part of the ever restless, evolving history of the #northsea @hannahbooth.bsky.social
Discover Dunwich@discoverdunwich.bsky.social · last mo."Spectacular" increase in archeological finds in Belgian territorial waters of the North Sea - 6 finds in 2026 so far, including a wooden prawn 🦐 fishing boat. Up from 3 finds in all of 2025. Increase in finds due to laying a new North Sea cable route. www.nieuwsblad.be/regio/west-v...
On regional names for the Northern gannet, from this week's North Sea dispatches
Lost ferry crossings, an island purchase and a causeway rebranding
North Sea Dispatches #10
open.substack.com
Another month flies by and so it's time for the latest North Sea dispatches from me. This round takes in the lost, the freshly adapted and the newly protected. All testament to just how much the North Sea still matters.
Lost ferry crossings, an island purchase and a causeway rebranding
North Sea Dispatches #10
northseanexus.substack.com
Seems like a good moment to share the simple and very effective cool-down trick I learned from my Italian husband: running one’s wrists under the cold tap. It has got me through many an Italian summer wedding over the years!
Exciting find from the Fife Coastal Survey: graffitied WW2 anti-tank cubes! Inscribed with "AMPC 56 Company 1940 True Pines" - the company of Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps who constructed them. But the final line is a mystery... Do you recognise "True Pines"? #coastarch #WW2 #truepines
“Nearly everywhere the jumble of port life, with all its stinks, noises and clashing colours, has been removed from city centres, and so from the public consciousness.” Jan Morris in Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, so far a wonderful read.
