James Bond, pioneer detectorist

That’s not a lost novel, or even a short story: it’s true. It’s one of the surprising stories (courtesy of Edward Biddulph) featured in the new British Archaeology. Many regular readers of this blog will be getting their magazine in the post (mine came this morning), but if you’re not one of those you can …

Old Sarum in the snow

I had to visit the museums in Devizes and Salisbury yesterday (hence the cathedral photos), in connection with an exciting little exhibition I'm helping with, as a guest of directors David Dawson and Adrian Green respectively (I earlier referred to British Museum curators as heroic: the challenges they face pale beside those of being responsible …

Salisbury Cathedral in the cold

 

Silence

Dawn

My small daughter can't yet write, but she can handle a Nikon. She woke me just after 8 this morning, and her first excited words demanded that I fetch my camera to photograph the sky. Only later did I realise it looked as it did because of the partial eclipse. "It's too wide", she said, …

Romans at Silbury Hill

English Heritage testing the geophsysics plots. There are now some good films about Silbury Hill itself on the web. English Heritage 2007 Four short videos (total 35 minutes) about the recent conservation work, including a fabulous tour of the section exposed inside the tunnel with Jim Leary – every excavation should have records like that. …

Avebury in late spring

Some photos for anyone unable to be there.

Memorials

Spooky. No sooner had I written about our disappearing churchyards, than in the post this morning comes the latest Conservation Bulletin from English Heritage, featuring places of worship – cathedrals, churches and, yes, memorials. (If you have doubts about the value of English Heritage, you should read this bulletin, full of wise, informative stuff about …