Past Matters Podcast

12/10/2023

So is quite pretty! A photo dump of some of my favourite features I spotted, including a stained glass Queen Victoria!

28/09/2023

In less than a week I’ve discovered a second brilliant cultural site that allows dogs - 🐶🐕‍🦺⛪️! (The first being .) Was blown away by how beautiful the cathedral was with so many wonderful details, possibly my favourite stained glass window ever, and only the blooming Magna Carta on display 😱! Sounds silly, but I was also impressed by how old some of the notable individuals buried there are - anyone younger than the 14th- mid 17th century seems so young now 😂😂😂. One funeral monument of note was the one of Jane Seymour’s nephew Edward Seymour and his wife Katherine, sister of Lady Jane Grey (pic 6).

25/09/2023

I enjoyed this review because it makes me sound like a Cluedo character about to commit murder in the library with a candlestick AND it reminds me of one of the best compliments I’ve ever received which was from a former colleague who said she could sit me next to anyone at a dinner party ☺️. (I had been sat next to the Reverend Richard Coles at a healthcare finance awards do and we spent our time discussing Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Maud of Norway, among other topics - which may on reflection have been a kind way of calling me an absolute nerd). In all seriousness, I love hearing that my podcast is hitting the entertainment spot for people 😁. If you haven’t already given it a try - there are 40 episodes available wherever you get your podcasts covering a whole range of museum objects or people with cool stories (and a few of them are definitely worthy of being Cluedo weapons or characters).

19/09/2023

I scrolled through the photos on my phone and for some reason this Assyrian relief from the British Museum resonated… which ancient artefact is summing up your mood right now?

14/09/2023

Disobedient by Elizabeth Fremantle was beautifully written - powerful art like the art created by its heroine Artemisia Gentileschi. Strong recommend.

10/09/2023

Sorry things have been a little quiet on this account and with the podcast. The day job has turned mentally busy, the number of chores around the house and garden just seem to keep growing, the horse remains time-consuming and so my less equine related side-hustles have fallen by the wayside much like I am spending my few spare minutes falling onto the sofa in exhaustion! I promise normal service will resume at some point but here’s some lovely pics from The Vyne National Trust property in the meantime ###

28/08/2023

always love a retelling of myths and legends from a female perspective so I couldn’t resist buying Morgan is my Name by Sophie Keetch - and it didn’t disappoint!

It’s the first in a trilogy I believe, so this very much is about the early part of Morgan Le Fay’s life focusing on her childhood, time in an abbey and early marriage so the start of the Arthur myth (sword in stone etc) comes towards the end of the book.

I think Keetch has an excellent turn of phrase when it comes to descriptions and scene setting, and with Morgan she has created a character you want to root for. I think some of the supporting characters almost ran the danger of being 2D and a sense of pressing urgency was sometimes lacking but overall an enjoyable read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️

(This is book 42 that I’ve read cover to cover this year.)

16/08/2023

😮 at this soapstone plaque from 18th century China carved to display this village scene from a poem 😍.

13/08/2023

I enjoyed the slightly meta nature of this lacquer dish with inlays depicting other types of crockery

12/08/2023

Beautiful Bath in the rain plus a Japanese maki-e lacquer box in the Museum of East Asian Art that was a pretty fitting reflection of outside scenes ☔️

06/08/2023

Lovely day revisiting and enjoying their latest exhibition Munnings: Colour & Light 😍. No pics allowed inside so here’s some pics of the house, the horses outside and some of my gift shop goodies! To hear my interview with the museum director check out season 1 of my podcast wherever you get your pods 🙂

30/07/2023

Accurate representation of me on a Sunday evening thinking about the week ahead… (yes this is a donkey rhyton 🤷🏽‍♀️)

29/07/2023

How insanely beautiful and delicate is this Macedonian wreath made from sheet gold? It replicates a wreath of oak leaves with two hidden cicadas and a bee 🐝. This was probably buried with a local aristocrat in Western Turkey around 350-300BC.

28/07/2023

Went to the Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece exhibition at the this evening. So many beautiful objects 😍. A lot of which were rhytons - a type of prestigious drinking vessel with a spout at the bottom. How stunning are these? 👀😍

23/07/2023

Discovered this little known mosaic treasure last weekend! This is the Orpheus mosaic at Littlecote Roman Villa in Berkshire! The building this was the floor of was a temple to Orpheus (he of great musical ability who descended to the underworld in search of his life Eurydice) and is the earliest example of a Triconch design in the Roman Empire by 100 years! (Aka quite like a church.) you can see here Nemesis (or Leda) riding a panther with a swan, Persephone riding into the underworld on a goat, Aphrodite riding a hind, and Demeter riding a bull. The last pic shows panthers and the ‘pool of memory’ in the underworld. Isn’t it beautiful?

16/07/2023

On this day in 1557 Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII died, aged 42. She was one of the lucky wives to survive marriage to Henry but has the unfortunate legacy of being the “ugly” one. I interviewed about her for an episode of this podcast and frankly, sounds like Anne got a pretty good deal in the divorce, so actually we really shouldn’t feel too sorry for her!

The image shows an inscription in the Book of Hours from Anne of Cleves to Henry the VIII:

I besiche your grace hu[m]b[ly]
when ye loke on this
remember me.
yo[u]r grace’s assured anne
the dowgher off cleues

04/01/2023

Wanted to share how pretty these seals are. They were used to sign clay tablets in ancient Byblos by rolling the round side on the clay. I too would like a signature that involves 4 birds 🦆🦆🦆🦆, 2 deer 🦌🦌, and 3 dogs/rabbits(?) As per the seal on the right.

03/01/2023

‘The Lost King: Imagining Richard III’ exhibition at The Wallace Collection is ending on 8th Jan - so I urge you to go visit asap if you can https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/exhibitions-displays/the-lost-king-imagining-richard-iii/ ! You can see the history the museum has with depictions of that most controversial of British kings, Richard III 👑.

You can also hear from Dr Toby Capwell about his work on the movie/the spectacular armour you can see in the second pic in the latest season of my podcast https://pod.fo/e/150810.

01/01/2023

I will look back on 2022 fondly as it was full of travels to exciting historical sites, exciting podcast interviews and a modicum of progress on the historical novel writing front 🎉.

Thanks to foundations built, I am really looking forward to 2023 though 😃!

Thank you to everyone who continues to support this podcast and wishing you all an exciting and happy new year full of the best adventures!

🖼️ Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, 1665.

31/12/2022

🎇 SPECIAL EPISODE ALERT 🎆 As a New Year special, historian and author Catherine Curzon tells the story of the British queen who never was - Sophia Dorothea, the wife of King George I.

Romance, court intrigue and murder all feature in this improbably true story of a much maligned woman.

Listen here: https://pod.fo/e/15a416

In a new year special, historian and author Catherine Curzon tells podcast host Ploy Radford about the story of the British queen who never was - Sophia Dorothea, the much maligned wife of King Geo...

29/12/2022

I am a little obsessed with coloured ancient glass, it’s just so pretty and amazing it’s survived for so long! To create the pieces you see in the first pic, they melded different coloured pipes of glass together so when it’s cut crossways it shows those patterns 😮

29/12/2022

Some excellent helmet game going on here

29/12/2022

This pair of cinerary urns made in Volterra, show Odysseus and the cyclops and Odysseus returned to Ithaca and his wife Penelope. The head of the figures adorning the lids of these urns are meant to be accurate representations of the deceased.

29/12/2022

Things I learned about ancient cameos today at the :

🏛️ Sardonyx is the best stone for your high quality cameo due to its many colourful layers.

🏛️ Storks were symbols of loyalty.

🏛️ The knight and his horse in the third pic is a rare choice of cameo subject.

🏛️ And that cameos can be massive as per the great imperial cameo of Constantine in Leiden with his mum Helena, wife Fausto and son Crispus in the last pic. (The centaurs are trampling enemy soldiers in case you were wondering if this was actually a depiction of a hideous accident during a procession.)

I loved the detail and depth conveyed in such a small area. The Venus riding a giant fish in the first pic is practically a mini sculpture. And I love how the artist has managed to create a gauzy cloak in the second cameo of Phryxus offering a goat. I also was tickled by the snail and the mice pulling the elephant.

29/12/2022

In news that will surprise no one who knows me, possibly one of my favourite paintings at the is this one containing a lot of horses 🐎. I enjoy the detail of the different horse temperaments captured (can you spot the one bucking) and the ones in the background going for a swim.
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‘The Princes of Orange and their Families on Horseback, Riding Out from The Buitenhof, The Hague’ by Pauwels van Hillegaert, 1621-22.
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27/12/2022

I really love the multiple stories and scenes skilfully displayed with such detail in this painting!
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‘Apelles painting Campaspe’ by Willem van Haecht, 1630.

27/12/2022

Some of my favourite fashion moments in the paintings at the 😍. The detail showing off the lace, the embroidery and feathers in these are 👌🏽. Although I admit I included picture 3 mostly because I was tickled by his head gear 🤣

24/12/2022

Need something different to listen to while you prep Christmas lunch? Or to help you entertain relatives over the festive period?

Season 3 has experts from Stonehenge Fishbourne Roman Palace William Morris Gallery The Wallace Collection Philip Mould & Co. and The Foundling Museum with fascinating stories to help!

Link here https://podfollow.com/1460624302 to hear about a miniatures artist with no hands, prehistoric Japanese stone circles, armour trends, the lives of African and Asian foundling children, a possibly lonely rabbit in Roman Britain, and more!

19/12/2022

Am I shamelessly using my cat to promote my podcast? Yes, yes I am. Because the last episode of season 3 is all about the importance of zooarchaeology and animal bones and how they tell us there was once an exotic animal zoo at Fishbourne Roman Palace - including some of the earliest instances of cats in Britain! 🐈‍⬛🐈. (The only earlier domestic cats discovered were some kittens from the Iron Age.) Want to learn more? https://pod.fo/e/156029

16/12/2022

The light trail at was yet again magical 🪄✨

16/12/2022

I love beautiful furniture. I realised I’d been salivating over the mother of pearl inlaid table and the marquetry cabinet for so long I was holding up entry into the room 😬🙈. I also always enjoy this subversive chandelier. I could happily visit over and over because it had so many beautiful items (you may remember it from season 1 of my podcast!)

16/12/2022

Must be Christmas at wonderful 🎄

14/12/2022

I love getting feedback on my podcast 🤗. This was a nice new comment I spotted this morning on the Apple podcast platform. If you like what I create, please do leave a review and rating - it helps boost me up in searches AND I do a happy little dance when I see them 💃🏾.

12/12/2022

If there were mosaics would approve of - it would probably be these monochrome ones at Fishbourne Roman Palace🧛‍♀️
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This geometric, black and white style was popular in the first century AD when the palace was built. Polychrome became more popular in the second century.
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Do you have a favourite mosaic? Let me know in the comments below👇

11/12/2022

The light trail at Hampton Court Palace was a tale of two halves, the part in the grounds was a bit underwhelming 😬, but the end in the palace was a bit more exciting and beautiful!

11/12/2022

One of my favourite podcast episodes to record ever is now live! I travelled to Fishbourne Roman Palace back in November to interview Dr Rob Symmons and Professor Naomi Sykes about animal bones and the exciting science of zoo-archaeology!
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You might think old chewed up bones aren’t very exciting BUT actually they can tell us so much about the past - what people ate, bred, kept as beloved pets, the environment they lived in, and where they came from!
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For example, we can tell just by the teeth of some fallow deer found at the palace that they were first generation inhabitants of this cold island, transported over from sunny Turkey 🦌🥶. We also know from the high evidence of nitrogen in their teeth, they grazed on salt marshes next to the palace. (Well it’s that or they were carnivores 😱.)
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I also very much enjoyed the opportunity to look at the famous mosaics at the palace too 😍

Museums, galleries and historic houses are treasure troves of items from the past. But how easy is it at these sites to unknowingly just walk straight past an object with an incredible story to tell? In this podcast series host Ploy Radford talks to the experts at different museums, galleries and hi...

06/12/2022

The ‘Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan’ exhibition at is the subject of my latest podcast episode. The exhibition explores surprising connections between two prehistoric cultures on opposite sides of the world. One connection was William Gowland who carried out archaeological work at Stonehenge and had lived in Japan where he may have been inspired by Japanese drawings of huge historic building projects when figuring out how Stonehenge was created. You can learn more in my podcast (link in profile ☝️).

04/12/2022

I’ll take that as a win in 2022 given I’ve been so burnt out so there was a breather between my Christmas 22 specials and season 3 🎉. Thank you everyone who supports the podcast! 🥰

03/12/2022

Stonehenge is without doubt one of the most iconic historic monuments in Britain. It turns out though it wasn’t just people in prehistoric Britain building stone circles of cultural significance though – it was also happening on the other side of the world in prehistoric Japan 🇯🇵.

To delve into this phenomenon more, English Heritage has put on an exhibition ‘Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan’ in the exhibition centre at Stonehenge.

For my latest podcast episode I speak to Interpretation Manager Melanie Coussens about a few of the underrated objects in the collection that have stories worth your attention, including some jewellery items, a stone bear, a Jomon pot, and some drawings that help shed a light on how Stonehenge itself may have been built. https://podfollow.com/1460624302

📸 1: The flame pot © English Heritage
📸 2: Gowland 1901 Archaeologica – Japanese using maul © Society of Antiquaries of London
📸 3: Isedotai Carved stone animal © English Heritage
📸 4: Stone pendant © Sannai Maruyama Jomon Culture Center
📸 5: Pendant © Sannai Maruyama Jomon Culture Center
📸6: A Jomon pot (my own photo)

26/11/2022

William Morris was the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 19th century. I bet when you hear his name you think about beautiful floral prints, right 🌸? And not armour..? 🗡️

Well, in my latest podcast episode unpicking the stories behind underrated historic objects, I talk to William Morris Gallery Assistant Curator Ainsley Vinall, about a sword and helmet Morris had made for one of his first artistic projects 🎨.

On display at the William Morris Gallery as part of their current exhibition ‘The Legend of King Arthur: A Pre-Raphaelite Love Story’, these items reveal lots about Morris' early life, his influences and are even linked to his love story with his wife❤️.

Find out more about the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement in England, William Morris, from the story of a sword and helmet he had made for one of his first artistic projects. On display at th...