University of Exeter: New research project to uncover the historical legacy of UK film societies. “The University of Exeter will partner with Cinema For All – the charity that supports the country’s 1,600 film societies – to unearth papers and materials relating to the foundational years between 1925 to 1946. The two organisations will liaise with societies across Britain to document and […]

Know Where: Nearest Pint, Pub Density Map. “There has been quite a bit in the news recently about 2 pubs per day closing according to the British Beer and Pub Association. That got me thinking about which areas of the country were best served and where were the dry zones? Nearest Pint, shows pub density per 10,000 population across every parliamentary constituency in Great Britain.”

Museum of London Archaeology: Coasts in Mind Community Archive opens digital doors to public contributions. “Since our Coasts in Mind (CiM) mapping platform launched in autumn 2025, community groups and event participants from Poole Harbour, Swale, Sefton and North Devon have been adding records from their own collections and local archives. Now our Coasts in Mind team are asking members of the […]

https://literaryreview.co.uk/pass-the-cherries

I'd like to read this, as it would help me better understand how Thatcherism poisoned the culture of the UK.

Unlike the reviewer, I do think that a switch in dons' priorities from royal commissions and the BBC to spinning out companies and podcasting signifies not just a change but a decline. That "the continued investment of at least some dons in political life" is illustrated by the involvement of Cambridge authoritarian right theologian James Orr in Reform UK shows how steep this decline has been.

#UKCulture #History #IntellectualHistory #Universities #Oxbridge #ColinKidd #TwilightOfTheDons

BBC: UK’s rudest chalk figure gets a glow-up to stop it fading in the rain. “The charity has cared for the Giant since 1920. Its rangers and volunteers keep the outline defined by rechalking the figure every decade or so to protect it from weeds and erosion. And between chalking it uses sheep to keep the grass short. But the Trust says that coupled with heavier winter rains, the frequent dry […]

Screen Daily: British Screen Forum awarded £200,000 to address data gaps in UK film industry . “The second pilot will develop a new database which captures the commercial performance of films. It will explore how to gather and analyse the lifetime commercial performance of films while respecting the commercial sensitivity of the features. This will include grouping films together into […]

The Guardian: ‘We’ve scratched the surface’: mission to digitise UK public art reaches 1m entries. “…the UK’s public art collection is a wonderful and varied thing.It is huge, as demonstrated by the charity Art UK, which has announced it has reached a million artworks on its database and appointed a new chair who said: ‘We’ve only scratched the surface.'”

British Library: The British Newspaper Archive reaches 100 million pages. “This week the British Newspaper Archive hits the milestone of 100 million digitised pages. We in the British Library news team are celebrating this achievement and our long partnership with Find My Past by picking a few highlights from the BNA.”

British Library: The UK Web Archive: continuing our work behind the scenes. “Despite recent challenges, the UK Web Archive team remains dedicated to safeguarding the nation’s online heritage. We are hoping to restore the UK Web Archive towards the middle of 2026.”

Arts Professional (UK): Cultural treasures worth more than £59m enter public collections. “This year saw museums and archives up and down the country receive cultural gifts given up in exchange for tax relief, with objects spanning an ‘impressive range’, said Arts Council chair Sir Nicholas Serota.”