The JiscMail Britarch forum closed on the 3rd April 2023. As closure approached without any replacment materialising, this webpage was created by Mike Haseler together with the forum. However things got strange: not only did the CBA shut down the old Britarch discussion forum, but posts informing users about new site(s) were blocked. That led to ...
Posted on 25 February 2026 | 11:14 am
Metal detectorists have discovered two "exceptionally rare" lead blocks on farmland in west Wales.
The ingots date back almost 2,000 years to AD87, based on lettering written on the objects, which refers to the Emperor Domitian, who was known for his empire building, including expansion in Britain.
The objects, which were used to produce tools and weapons, were found on grazing land in Llangynfelyn, Ceredigion, by Nick Yallope and Peter Nicholas.
Posted on 25 February 2026 | 11:10 am
Hull timbers thought to date from the 16th or 17th Century were found on Hemsby beach in Norfolk a week ago.
Natalie Fairweather, of the Time and Time Museum in Great Yarmouth, said that despite the exciting find, a lack of records made it difficult to track down any official details abut the vessel.
Retired fisherman Kenny Chaney, who has seen about 25 shipwrecks surface along the Norfolk coastline over the years, said he believed this one, buried for possibly hundreds of years, had served as a cargo ship.
Posted on 25 February 2026 | 9:03 am
Archaeologists have described their race against time to document rare 2,000-year-old footprints uncovered on the Angus coast before the winter storms which had revealed them also wiped them away.
The human and animal prints were discovered by dog walkers Jenny Snedden and Ivor Campbell in ancient clay deposits at Lunan Bay beach near Montrose.
They had lain undiscovered beneath sand dunes but were exposed when they were scoured away by strong winds and high tides.
A team from Aberdeen University was despatched to document the scene, stopping to pick up supplies like plaster of Paris from craft shops on the way, before the site was destroyed by the weather forever.
Posted on 20 February 2026 | 10:43 am
Christine Clark, 64, was hunting for fossils during a Boxing Day walk on Holy Island, Northumberland when something caught her eye.
A tiny pebble seemed to be "smiling at me", she said. "It looked like someone's fake teeth."
...
Christine holidays every year to Northumberland with her husband Gerard where, she said, they regularly go hunting for Cuddy's beads on the Holy Island.
A spit of land with only 150 residents and cut off twice daily by the sea, it is considered the cradle of early English Christianity.
The "beads" are fossilised parts of the stem of a marine animal called a crinoid, but they earnt their nickname from St Cuthbert, considered the patron saint of the North of England.
Posted on 19 February 2026 | 1:54 pm
A history professor with a passion for metal detecting uncovered a hoard of 18 Iron Age gold coins.
The coins are the largest known find from the reign of Iron Age king Dubnovellaunos, who ruled the Trinovantes tribe what is now mostly Essex and Suffolk, between 25BC and AD10.
Prof Tom Licence, 46, from the University of East Anglia, says he has family history in Bury St Edmunds and likes to "imagine that the coins were buried by one of my ancestors".
Known as The Bury St Edmunds Hoard, it is being auctioned off and is expected to make £25,000.
Posted on 15 February 2026 | 9:55 am