London’s Surprising Medieval Ban on Tennis Balls
This blog has been written by Eliot Benbow During Wimbledon season one discovery from our AHRC/DFG funded project London’s medieval customs accounts seems particularly intriguing. We have been struck by the sheer variety of goods and commodities that were imported and...
A Reflection on History and Archives in Practice 2026
This blog post was written by Sasha Pond and Sarah Snelling, the 2025-2026 Graduate Trainee Library Assistants at the IHR Wohl Library. On Thursday 16 April a group of four of us from the IHR attended this year’s History and Archives in Practice...
AI in the Archive: Using Data Analytic Tools and Social Network Techniques to Uncover Hidden Histories
In this blog post, Joanne Peryer draws on the experience of writing her IHR MA dissertation to reflect on uses of AI in historical research. This is the second in a pair of blog posts, in which two IHR MA students reflect on their experiences using AI in their...
John Aubrey and the Victoria County History: Parallel Endeavours in Systematic Local History
In this blog post, Dr Louise Ryland-Epton describes the gestation of the latest Victoria County History (VCH), publications for Wiltshire, which focus on Chippenham and its neighbourhood. In looking at how this work was informed by earlier scholarship—notably that of...