The English Heritage Podcast

What do deer shelters, cosmic theories and serpentine garden paths have in common? 

The brilliant (but often overlooked) mind of Thomas Wright of Durham. This week on The English Heritage Podcast, Amy Matthews explores the life and work of an Enlightenment polymath who rose from carpenter’s son to mathematician, stargazer and garden visionary.  

Biographer Simon Webb and historian Dr Andrew Hann explain how this brilliant and influential mind blended poetry, physics, myth and maths to shape ideas about garden designs, buildings and even the structure of the Milky Way. 

Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.    

Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠    

Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*   

Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠    

The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.   

*Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.
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Was Maiden Castle really the site of a brutal Roman massacre? Or have we been telling the wrong story for decades?  

This vast Iron Age hillfort in Dorset is home to human remains that have shaped our understanding of conquest, conflict and resistance for nearly a century. In this episode, we return to the skeletons that made the site famous: young men, women and children bearing signs of violence, to find out what they can tell us about life and death in Iron Age Britain. 

Amy Matthews is joined by experts to unpack the latest research and investigate how new interpretations raise questions about the narratives and stories we take for granted. 

Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.    

Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠    

Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*   

Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠    

The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.   

*Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forget roses and chocolates this Valentine’s Day. Lovers from the past set the bar high, with romantic poetry, locks of human hair, beautifully crafted silver and even a new city dedicated to a lost love. 

Join Amy Matthews and English Heritage historians and curators for a look at love tokens, secret messages and heartbreak memorials from our sites, to discover how people in the past flirted, mourned, adored and remembered. It turns out that whether it’s a sonnet, a statue or a sentimental keepsake, love has always been messy, meaningful and very human. 

Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.    

Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠    

Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*   

Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠    

The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.   

*Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This isn’t a story of castles and conquest, but of carved pins, private churches, timber halls and even a king’s toilet. 

In this episode, we’re exploring early medieval England to uncover how wealth, status and authority were expressed before the Norman Conquest. Far from a sharp break in history, new archaeological research reveals deep continuities in how England’s elites lived, ruled...and showed off! 

Amy Matthews is joined by English Heritage curator Dr Will Wyeth and medieval archaeologist Dr Duncan Wright to explore a society in transition, where rising gentry built impressive residences, decorated themselves with finely crafted objects, controlled landscapes and resources, and used architecture to project power long before stone castles dominated the skyline. 

Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.    

Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠    

Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*   

Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠    

The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.   

*Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What could a postal worker, a murdered emperor, and a Roman grain measure possibly have in common? 

In this episode of The English Heritage Podcast, Amy Matthews is joined by Dr Francis McIntosh to explore a remarkably well-preserved Roman modius, or grain measure. Discovered by pure chance in 1915 near Hadrian’s Wall, this object carries an extraordinary story.  

An official measuring vessel, the modius opens a window into everyday life on the empire’s northern frontier. It tells of Roman bureaucracy and standardisation – and a possible case of fraud. On top of that, a scratched-out inscription also reveals political assassination and the chilling practice of damnatio memoriae. 

Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.    

Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠    

Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*   

Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠    

The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.   

*Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices