@histories_arch For Three Generations, a Family Paid Their Neighbor to Preserve a Centuries-Old Oak, Only to Discover It Was Theirs All Along https://t.co/EoqHzqdp32
This tradition is part of an ancient ceremony known as the “Quit Rents,” where the City of London symbolically pays rent to the Crown for lands granted centuries ago.
The most curious part is that the exact location of the Shropshire land has been lost to history, yet the ritual continues unchanged. Instead of money, the City presents a billhook and an axe, tools that would have been practical payments in the medieval economy, when land obligations were tied to labor and service rather than currency.
Today, the ceremony survives as a living fragment of medieval governance, performed annually before royal officials. The tools are inspected, accepted, and recorded, preserving a legal fiction that has lasted more than 800 years.
It shows how deeply tradition is woven into British civic life: even when the land is forgotten, the obligation and the symbolism still endures.
What’s missing is the why behind the ritual’s survival, not just that the City of London still pays Quit Rents with a billhook and an axe, but the deeper political purpose it once served. The ceremony wasn’t just symbolic; it originally reaffirmed loyalty, land rights, and the Crown’s authority in a period when written records were fragile and power depended on public ritual. That context, the medieval logic that made such payments meaningful adds the layer that turns this from a quirky tradition into a window into how governance, land ownership, and royal oversight actually worked in the 1200s.
#archaeohistories
@tylerwardmusic Jonathan Goetz is asking if KNSJ can play your "Dashes" original on 89.1fm Descanso also until their tower comes up the Tune In app and at https://t.co/3gM8xLPH11
@IranArmyStan The President cancelled the envoy because word was you were canceling but then you sent people anyways.
We do not seek trouble. It sounds like you attended and we were interested in attending.
@0IvankaTrumpRV2 Obama was President. Trump still is. So Obama was the better President, but we'll know by the end of Trump's 2nd term who was the better President (or once the dust has settled). Who was the better ex President? Definitely Obama but Trump gets a second go around too so we'll see.
@realDonaldTrump Committeeman Juan Ge liked Becerra going in tonight's debate & warmed on ur pick in the California Gov. race, & says "I would hope Xavier Becerra would work w/ u having earned his rights 2 bring fwd legislative claims & b + constructive now like Hilton sounded."
@realDonaldTrump we should take the people the folks don't like. In China there's anti Japanese sentiment so those folks and the Arabs around the Holy City they seem to not want them anymore either and also I'd add the unemployed along the central western coast of Africa are also
@drpezeshkian there are probably a lot of confused people in Iran. They were promised by the last President that if he got Khameni to agree (and he did) to have Obama negotiate the peace on the uranium enrichment that they would be able to travel freely into the west. I'm sorry.
I have no intent to follow up. But folks like hunting & they explain as they teach their children about sparing the females in the season where they might be pregnant and not hurting their males during times when it would most bother his girl there's a lot of control over guns.
@LauraKellyKS I don't know that you need to Kathy Hochul on us but there was a rabies case and an animal euthanized. Might come into hunting season and actually a place where we want folks to come in and shoot the wildlife; i'm not sure: I'll keep you posted.
@drpezeshkian Totalitarianism is never a term I've heard used on the U.S.
We are so sad you rejected JD Vance's peace proposal it's probably bc Jared Kushner showed up instead of Pete Hegseth isn't it?
The U.S. demand on the ceasefire in Lebanon is that we are not a part of the agreement.
@realDonaldTrump could we downsize our European bases to embassies w/ a couple helicopters that can evac ppl who feel unsafe although RE: our shores really only the staff itself is eligible for full repatriation into the U.S. & their immediate family members & of course citizens.
@elonmusk Fiction used to be relegated to movies and shows now it's in the media though people don't take fact checking information they disseminate very importantly anymore now that we don't listen to the people who went to school for it.
@realDonaldTrump Could you use a 10 x 1 advantage on the Arc you want there in your swamp you promised to drain to drain for us and subsidize carburetors of U.S. origin massive subsidy so we can sell them for $50 around the world when we tell people how much the dollar is worth?
@realDonaldTrump Committeeman Juan 哥 is so pleased about your ballroom what a fabulous thing but could you change the arc to instead of statues incorporate light into the stone https://t.co/qxkP6TNvCQ please and thank you s/he says to Trump.
@realDonaldTrump@realDonaldTrump I really like your ballroom idea though. What is it some people reject ideas of yours just bc they don't like you or something? England has a ballroom.
I really thought the statues above the arc the gold statues profane it it looks awful to me but im Protestant.
@realDonaldTrump@realDonaldTrump Why would you paint a stone building white?wouldn't you have ACE hardware match the color and repair it? A grinder could also lend a fresh touch & repairs amended.
Thank you for bringing the disrepair of the thing into focus. It sounds like it's been neglected.
@realDonaldTrump does it suffer from leaks and drafts and is moisture damaging further into the building to the point that something beyond a sealant and wouldn't you grind it down more or is that part of the problem they don't want to lose anymore of it but if it's needing reinforcement?