Josh Baker-Cox

@joshbakercox

PhD at CCCU researching rebellions in 10th and early 12th century England and Normandy. Lover of Norman (and Anglo-Norman) History, and general fan of Robert Curthose & Robert de Belleme.

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Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· 21d

No prizes for guessing where I was yesterday.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 13

I definitely didn't cave and get a mini Lewis chess set at the IMC after promising to get myself one for various milestones over the years (I am not good at chess)

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 9

A member of the loyalty group just sent me these and it appears I gesticulate like I'm performing a rendition of one of Shakespeare's plays when I talk. Thinking perhaps Hamlet?

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 8

So to keep @lvhicks.bsky.social happy I did end up taking some photos for "the 'gram' (that's a direct quote, don't question it). So now the air of mystery surrounding myself is gone. Bonus picture of me cooling down with a fan supplied by Eleanor Bailey. Amazing day for #IMC2026

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 6

Guys it happened again. I've bought two more books. This quote frankly cannot continue and I hold #IMC2026 personally responsible for both depleting my bank account and increasing the weight of my luggage.

England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, edited by David Bates and Anne Curry.

Lordship on the County of Maine, c. 890-1160 by Richard E. Barton.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 6

Also I've just been hanging out with this rabbit whom I can only assume is an ardent medievalist and enjoyer of Anglo-Norman history.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 6

A terrible day for my bookshelves at the #IMC2026. Not pictured, a book on Robert of Torigni I need to collect on Wednesday. I've only been here one night so far, send help.

Fiefs and Vassals by Susan Reynolds, God's Peace and King's Peace by Bruce R. O'Brien, Empress Mathilda by Elisabeth Van Houts, Harold by Tom Licence and Anglo-Saxon Kingship and Political Power by Kathrin McCann

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 4

In honour of this being quite an action packed Anglo-Norman month for me with IMC and the Battle Conference amongst other things, I'm indulging my love of bread with some suitably delicious Norman butter.

The very tasty salted butter from Isigny St Mère

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 1

Interrupting everyone's schism-posting to sneakily use it as a segue to remind everyone that next week is #IMC2026 and that on Wednesday there are four fantastic sessions all about loyalty (and disloyalty!) in the Newlyn Building, GR.01 that you should all totally come to. #medievalsky #skystorians

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jun 14

Next up: something a little different with some fantasy vibes. And as we all know, classic fantasy settings have absolutely nothing in common with any sort of medieval aesthetics (real or imagined). Nothing whatsoever...

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jun 14

Finally managed to finish painting these little Norman dudes from Victrix. I'm not going to be winning a Golden Demon any time soon, but I'm honestly pretty chuffed with how they came out after just shy of a decade not picking up a brush. I can't take credit for the shields though, I used transfers!

Four mounted milites with spears/lances. Interestingly there is a theory that Norman knights threw their spears rather than used them couched under their arms...

Some crossbowmen. Gluing the one quarrel into the nearest figures mouth was honestly trickier than painting it.

A selection of armoured Norman infantry, equipped with swords and shields, and mainly in chainmail. Thought I'd add a little extra collie to three of them by painting their helmets.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· May 11

I was given this by a friend the other day.

A square drinks coaster, white background, with 'Introverted but willing to discuss Medieval History' printed on it.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Mar 2

It's been eight years since I last painted a miniature, so I'm honestly pretty excited to get back into a hobby that will provide a much welcome break from being in front of a screen! Think I might make the arch pillager himself, Robert de Bellême, the leader of this little warband.

An old school plastic bag with a cardboard info card stapled to the top. The contents are the Norman Warband starter.set from Victrix ltd (in 28mm, no less!).

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 24

Unfortunately some of the town, including the lovely looking pub The Robin Hood, were still closed after last year's horrendous flooding. As such I sadly had to skip getting a double vodka to aid my recovery after contending with the great keep's staircase.

An image of a part of the millennium mosaic, located next to St Thomas's and the bridge. It details Monmouth's history over at least two thousand years, with a bit of history written underneath a relevant image. For example here you can see some great seals, Henry V, and the grim reaper, below which is a brief note about the Black Death.

A better image of what was my personal favourite tile on the mosaic, depicting a battle in 1233 between Richard the Marshall and Baldwin de Guisnes. It's done in the style of medieval manuscript art.

An ominously threatening campaign to recycle your rubbish. 'Recycle, or the fish get it'

A view of The Robin Hood pub, with its lovely stonework surrounding the door.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 24

We also popped into Monmouth for a wander, and who doesn't love a good fortified bridge??

The Monnow Bridge, creatively named due to it spanning the River Monnow. It's got a quite slender all things considered gatehouse. To the left of the image is the church of St Thomas the Martyr.

A view of the bridge's gatehouse head on, St Thomas's is just behind me to the right.

Info about said bridge: the important (medieval) bit is it's construction between 1272 and 1300 to control the river crossing and deter any potential Welsh raiders.

An extract from the patent roll of 27 August 1297, detailing the murage for the town, for example on every quarter of corn for sale, one obol (a halfpenny) was to be taxed.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 24

I very much have a love-hate relationship with the keep. I love it, because it's a keep. I hate it, because getting to the top of it via the winding staircase consistently makes me regret my desire to see the view.

A view of the ceiling from the ground floor of the tower, showing off the lovely modern wooden staircase that is a joy to walk up before you hit the abominably thin spiral one, the door to which is behind the railings on the right.

From the first floor of the keep, an arched window sits inside an alcove.

The floor above, showing off more arched windows, and the wonderfully sturdy bricks of the building.

The view from the top, looking back towards the visitors center a little way down the path past the trees on the right. The buildings on the left, between the castle and the foothills, are the modern remains of Flanesford Priory.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 24

There's just something about the place. It's not the biggest, it isn't the most imposing (though I certainly wouldn't want to try and storm the place), but it never fails to impress.

A view of the great keep from the courtyard. To my left is a building containing a staircase up to the walls and the gatehouse.

Another view of the solarium from the gatehouse, with a very scenic (and exceedingly mossy) wall

A view of the courtyard from the wall. The keep is just on the left hand side of the photo, opposite me (and left of the solarium) is the hall.

Rear view of, you guessed it, the solarium. There is also a badge of a spooky little ghost person on the railing.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 24

I hadn't had the chance to share these, but I went to one of my favourite castles on Sunday: Goodrich! And the weather was remarkably lovely given this year's track record so far.

A view of Goodrich from the path to the castle's gate. The keep is in the middle, poking up from behind a collapsed wall, and two towers are either side.

A view of the river Wye and the surrounding countryside, taken from the barbican.

A view of the castle from the barbican. To the left of the gatehouse is the chapel, and left of that the wall runs to one of the towers.

The solarium. A single column runs up from the floor below, before ending as a divide between two arches.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 23

But wait, there's more! Now the knight is in the manuscript himself, and has been joined by... whatever the hell the guy with a face on his derriere is (I gave him a lute). Unfortunately I am very much enjoying this, so will probably end up buying it, which is a terrible predicament to be in.

The knight has now done a self insert, and is perched on a rock with his sword and shield, next to some water with a fish in it. He is now joined on his left/behind by an odd little demon with a face for a bum that the game added as part of the tutorial, and I gave this odd fellow a lute.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Feb 23

Exciting news for anyone into manuscripts: Scriptorium (from the makers of the very fun game Inkulinati) has a demo on Steam!

A knight, armoured as if from the 13th century, sits alone in an (as of yet rather bare and undecorated) Scriptorium, quill in one hand, knife in the other, ready to accept a new order!

A little green Yoda-looking fellow, with bright yellow hair, sits on a bench reading a book next to a cat that seems to have a naked flame emanating from its head.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Dec 5

A few days late to the party but I am excited to say I've been accepted for #IMC2026 as part of the fantastic Loyalty in the Medieval World network. I'll be giving a talk on cool rebellion related stuff to see if attitudes towards them changed with time, and I'm moderating a session too (spooky)!

Final Session Number: 1123

Session Timeslot: Wednesday, 8 July 2026: 11:15 AM-12:45 PM

Paper Title: Rebellandum et resistendum: Evolving Attitudes to the Rebellions of Guy of Brionne and William of Arques in Norman Histories

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Nov 17

So I would like to preface this by saying that I have not painted anything in 7 years. And I have only ever been of modest skill (no Golden Demon awards let me put it that way). But doing this Robin Hood cookie, as silly as it sounds, has made me want to crack on with my SAGA vikings at long last.

An absolutely gloriously painted (if I say so myself) cookie. Obviously I had to make his shirt green, but I had eight colours to use and by god I was going to use as many as I could. Went with yellow hair, the underside of his hat is brown, the top a dark navy and the (literal) feather in his cap, is some sort of mauve, or a lilac.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Nov 4

When your computer freezes on the day Crusader Kings 3's new dlc releases and this evening while trying Europa Universalis V on release day your monitor breaks and won't turn back on but you can't prove these weren't just coincidences.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Oct 13

Not medieval I'm afraid, but things are getting wonderfully autumnal at Croome Court. That said the first image is not just a church on the grounds of the Court, but also the parish church of Croome D'Abitot. Who was the first Norman sheriff of Worcester? Urse d'Abetot.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Sep 8

Finally here is a video of me wandering around the inner tower and the walls of the earlier shell keep, on top of the motte. If I sound out of breath, it's because I am. Apologies for the shoddy camera work and basic commentary, I didn't expect to use this.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Sep 8

And obviously I went to the castle. I had to fight my way through a literal marathon and ended up in what I can only describe as a torrential downpour that soaked me through my coat. So don't say I never think of you all. The whole design of the castle was quite striking actually.

Launceston castle (or at least the keep/inner bailey) sits above the outer portions of the castle, in the middle of the town, on a quite frankly ridiculously steep motte. The land slopes up gently to the right as you approach the gate the remains of the gate (now just two lonely towers either side of the path), but the steps are exhausting. Well they were for me.

To give you a better idea of the height. Either side of these modern stairs are the remains of a wall that ran all the way up from the gate to the towers entrance. The tower itself is two separate parts, the remains of the inner tower, where the main bedroom was, stands above the remains of a wall that surrounded it. Best way I can describe it is imagine an upright cardboard tube, then around this imagine a slightly lower, but bigger tube.

The keep! On either side of the image you can just make out the walls of the earlier shell keep, and in the middle is the round tower Richard of Cornwall plonked in the middle. Approximately half way up are some (relatively) evenly spaced square/rectangular holes running the entire circumference of the structure. In the middle one of these holes sits a pigeon, sheltering from the rain.

A view from inside the tower of the window that looked out from the earls bedroom. Some steps or a cutaway sitting space can be seen beneath the hole where the window stood, with an almost arched point at the top. Beyond the now empty hole is a portion of the rather hilly countryside that can be found immediately around Launceston itself.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Sep 8

I have plenty more pictures from Tintagel, but I am struggling to choose them, so please also feast your eyes on these images from a 16th century (I believe) church at Launceston. Some of the outside paving stones look to me like they had a precious life inside a church.

Narrow wall of the church, it is covered top to bottom (and so are all the walls as a matter of fact) in rows of carvings. Various tree or plant like imagery on some rows, intertwining shapes on others, and on certain rows are shields carved with different designs that repeat: some have two chevrons one above another others have a cross going from each "corner" and a single dot in each triangle formed from that division.

Some paving stones outside the church. There were various ones (further along I think I saw one that may have originally been next to this one). This particular one has writing down it's left side, and what look to me like carvings of various parts of a cadaver. On the right is what looks like the arm and part of the ribcage of a skeleton.

More floor carvings, this showing more writing in a border, the corner of which contains a cross in a circle. The paving slab ahead of it bears no such inscription.

The opposite end of the church, the wall continues with the repeating rows of patterns, but this time in the center is a figure lying face down next to a spherical object, almost like an urn. Either side of this figure are smaller carved figures, possibly representing saints? Each figure is looking towards this larger carving, so the ones of the left are looking to the right, and vice versa.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Sep 8

"...no power on earth can get us to her in the stronghold of Tintagel? It stands completely surrounded by the sea and can be reached only by a narrow cliff. Three armed Knights could hold it against you, even though you had the whole kingdom of Britain at your back." De gestis Britonum

A view of the ruined barbican of Tintagel from just outside the castle's main entrance. A rugged hill rises up from the valley to the right, and the sea can be seen through the dip in the landscape

The (thankfully very sturdy) bridge that joins the mainland courtyards and their collection of buildings to the island courtyards over the isthmus. The island portion rises up above the mainland part of the castle, though the buildings are somewhat harder to notice without zooming in as the stone blends in quite well with the surroundings

Looking back towards the bridge (right hand side, background) from the island courtyard are the remains of a small two storey house, the walls have been reduced to about waist high on the right length, but the width closest to my position taking this photograph goes up to (or perhaps just above) the first floor's floor level. Two straight rows of stone foundations run parallel to each other and this small building, and represent earlier stages of the castle's construction. The row closest to the house marks where an earlier, slightly larger hall once stood, and the row further to the right shows where the wall of the original (even bigger) 13th century great hall stood.

No grand sweeping vista of the castle here I'm afraid, this was just my attempt at being a bit arty. Above what is a dividing wall from the expansion of the kitchen in the castles second phase, are the remains of a window set in a very jagged wall made from quite flat stones of varying sizes, giving the appearance of almost a bed of razor sharp clams (not the best description perhaps, but there's a reason I didn't go on to do English at university). Through the remains of this window is an almost green-grey sea, waves crashing against a steep portion of coastline with a large rock sticking out a few metres into the sea.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 17

Three images of what I thought was just a very lovely building. Called The George, it was built in the 16th century to accommodate pilgrims

A broad gate set in an old wooden frame with floral decorations at the top. It's open, and you can see right through a long courtyard to an open gate in the distance underneath a structure. Lots of black wood and whitewashed walls that you would think of when imagining Elizabethan buildings

A slightly more zoomed in image of the open courtyard, on the left is a wood framed covered staircase.

Josh Baker-Cox@joshbakercox· Jul 17