All articles in Archaeology
12th August, 2024 in Archaeology, Local & Family History
Castles of Northumberland: A gazetteer and history of the county’s castles
Northumberland has more castles, fortalices, towers, peles, bastles and barmkins than any other county in the British Isles. Castles of all periods were the private residences and fortresses of kings and noblemen. Read an extract from the new book Castles and Strongholds of North…
13th June, 2024 in Archaeology, Local & Family History
‘A Gallery of Sculpture’: Bath Abbey, Bath’s forgotten Georgian tourist attraction
Dr. Oliver Taylor author of the new book Bath Abbey’s Monuments: An Illustrated History tells the full story of Bath Abbey’s monuments for the first time and highlights the significance of the collection. By the beginning of the 1800s, Bath had one of the largest populations in B…
5th May, 2023 in Archaeology, History
Six archaeological sites: A journey through the ages of Britain’s archaeology
Archaeology is all around us. Head into the countryside and there will be some remnant from times past not far from you. Sometimes it’s ‘only’ a couple of hundred years old and other sites may be thousands of years old. But how can you tell how old a stone circle is, or an ancien…
23rd November, 2022 in Archaeology
Durham Cathedral – a medieval document in stone
Durham Cathedral was completed nearly 900 years ago, after 40 years of construction. Inevitably it has suffered from the effects of time: physical erosion, from the weather and increasing pollution on stone that was never of the best quality, and cultural erosion, the impact…
26th September, 2022 in Archaeology, History
Rome’s legacy: How the Roman Empire shaped Britain
As you exit Tower Hill tube station in the City of London, to the left stands the largest surviving section of Roman London’s land wall. Over 10m in height, it soars enigmatically over commuters and tourists, many of whom pass by oblivious to its unlikely story. The wall, one of…
7th September, 2021 in Archaeology, Local & Family History
The history of Gloucester
Someone visiting Gloucester today will see an active, complex city, a mix of old and new. It is a vibrant place full of people living their lives. But it is also one of the most important and complicated archaeological sites in the southwest of England and a fulcrum on which…
10th June, 2021 in Archaeology, History, Local & Family History, Natural World
Top 10 stone circles in the Lake District National Park
For those interested in British prehistory, nothing beats a ring of big stones. Indeed, people all over the world are fascinated by them. Together with henges, passage tombs, and burial cairns, stone circles stand as icons of Britain’s prehistory. But while most only know of Ston…
20th December, 2019 in Archaeology, Local & Family History
Cotswold Arts and Crafts architecture
Arts and Crafts design and craftsmanship flourished in the Cotswolds between 1890 and 1930. This achievement is now widely acknowledged and there is plenty of opportunity to appreciate its impact throughout the region. Chipping Campden and Broadway are ideal starting points, wher…
31st July, 2019 in Archaeology, Maritime
Titanic wreck stories: fact or myth?
It’s no secret that the story of Titanic is interwoven with legends, myths and misconceptions due to its complexity and worldwide popularity. However, this ubiquitous mythology has also penetrated even into a relatively new branch of Titanic science, namely, into the history of t…
26th February, 2019 in Archaeology, Transport & Industry
Ask the author: Phil Stride on London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel
Leading civil engineer and Tideway’s Strategic Projects Director Phil Stride reveals an inside look at how the ‘Super Sewer’ was planned, designed, approved, funded and is being built in his new book The Thames Tideway Tunnel: Preventing Another Great Stink, which provides…
4th July, 2018 in Archaeology, Maritime
Diving the wreck of Carpathia
The circumstances and details of Carpathia’s sad ending were typical of the many thousands of merchant vessels sunk by enemy action in the First Word War. Consequently, stories of more publicised and controversial losses, such as the Lusitania in 1915, tended to dominate public a…
22nd February, 2018 in Archaeology, History
The Victorian Society: Campaigning for Victorian and Edwardian architecture
60 years ago 33 cultural luminaries including John Betjeman and Nikolaus Pevsner gathered at 18 Stafford Terrace, Kensington to found a body dedicated to the protection of threatened Victorian and Edwardian buildings. Today the Victorian Society is thriving, with 3,000 members na…