Category Archives: Heritage

Test runs and a shock-absorbing cage: how Bayeux tapestry was moved to UK

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Medieval artwork safely delivered to British Museum before display from September in carefully controlled conditions

The Bayeux tapestry has survived myriad perils, from cathedral fires to its potential destruction for use as wagon covers. Now, with the embroidery about to be displayed in a blockbuster London exhibition, experts must contend with a host of more insidious dangers.

The arrival of the tapestry at the British Museum in the small hours of Friday morning was a historic moment – albeit less dramatic than the landing of William the Conqueror it portrays.

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‘Vanishingly rare’ copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives

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One of 11 surviving copies of ‘Exeter printing’ and only one known outside US was taken from American privateer ship

For Michael Scurr, a volunteer at the National Archives in Kew, west London, it was “just a boring old Thursday morning” when he sat down in late May to catalogue a collection of documents from the British national collection that had never previously been recorded in detail.

As he opened a volume of 18th-century Royal Navy correspondence, however, Scurr unfolded a document whose opening words he recognised. “In Congress, July 4, 1776. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America …”

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Israeli attack on Tyre in Lebanon kills eight as evacuation ordered for Christian quarter

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People flee historic district of ancient city after airstrikes hit residential areas and damage archaeological sites

Israel has bombed the city of Tyre, killing eight and injuring at least 32 people, and struck dozens of other villages in south Lebanon as it issued forced evacuation orders for the historic Christian quarter of the ancient city for the first time.

Israel struck the al-Masaken neighbourhood without warning on Tuesday morning, sending smoke plumes high above the city’s buildings and igniting fires. Further airstrikes were carried out across the city and a series of bombings hit Abbasieh, a village north of Tyre.

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Grave in Norfolk of 119 sailors may be exhumed due to coastal erosion threat

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Bodies were buried in Happisburgh after HMS Invincible sank in 1801 on way to join Nelson at Battle of Copenhagen

A mass grave for 119 sailors who drowned more than 200 years ago could be exhumed to avoid their remains being exposed by coastal erosion.

HMS Invincible sank off the Norfolk coast in 1801 on its way to join Horatio Nelson’s fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. The recovered bodies of those who drowned were buried at St Mary’s church in Happisburgh, the nearest village to the shipwreck.

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Musket balls and a burnt hull: evidence of real pirates of the Caribbean found in Bahamas

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Exclusive: First shipwrecks found in Nassau harbour on New Providence, once the hideout of Blackbeard and Calico Jack

The first shipwrecks linked to the real pirates of the Caribbean in the Bahamas have been discovered by an international team co-directed by a British marine archaeologist.

Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham were among pirates who, between the 1690s and 1720s, turned Nassau on the island of New Providence into a hideout where they plotted their next heists on the high seas and divided up their plunder.

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‘What happened to the testicles?’: mockery in Milan over bull mosaic’s restoration

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Rampant Bull needed a makeover after wear and tear from tourists, but refurbishment ‘castrated’ it, critics say

The restoration of a floor mosaic in Milan called the Rampant Bull has been mocked after the works appear to have erased a crucial anatomical detail – its testicles.

The 19th-century mosaic in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade needed a makeover because a small crater had formed in the tiny pink tiles featuring the bull’s testicles, due to the constant stream of tourists performing a heel-spinning gesture.

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Future of first Bramley apple tree in doubt as cottage where it stands is sold

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Campaigners had hoped to buy property from Nottingham Trent University to maintain public access

Bramley apples are a staple in supermarkets across the UK and it all started in a house in Nottinghamshire. But now the future of the original fruit-bearing tree is in question after the garden where it stands has been sold by Nottingham Trent University (NTU).

The news has left campaigners aiming to turn it into a heritage site “gobsmacked”.

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Lost copy of seventh-century poem in Old English discovered at Rome library

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Dublin scholars find 1,200-year-old manuscript of Caedmon’s Hymn composed by Northumbrian cattle herder

A lost copy of a poem composed in the seventh century by a Northumbrian cattle herder – the earliest surviving poem in the English language – has been discovered in Rome.

Scholars from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) uncovered the manuscript that contains Caedmon’s Hymn at the National Central Library of Rome.

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Cultural venues in England to share £130m under Arts Everywhere scheme

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Galleries, theatres, museums and libraries to benefit from largest cash injection into the arts for a decade

More than 100 cultural venues, museums, and libraries will share £130m extra funding as part of the largest cash injection into the arts for a decade, ministers have announced.

The investment forms part of the Arts Everywhere Fund, a £1.5bn package to support cultural infrastructure projects over the course of this parliament, which was announced by the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, earlier this year. The fund aims to save more than 1,000 arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings across England.

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Mysterious Lake District barn joins national treasures on heritage list

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Officials grant Grade II* protection to ‘rare building that raises more questions than it answers’

It is an elite list with some of the most significant and beautiful buildings and structures in England, including Battersea power station, Middlesbrough’s Transporter Bridge and the London Coliseum.

Now the Grade II* landmarks are being joined by a mysterious, limestone rubble “barn” on a grassy knoll in the Lake District, which was most recently used as a shelter for sheep and cows.

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‘It’s amazing’: stolen 2,500-year-old Romanian gold helmet has been found

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Priceless artefact snatched in Netherlands museum heist has been recovered, ending international search

A priceless gold 2,500-year-old helmet from Romania, stolen last year in the Netherlands, has been recovered, according to a Dutch art detective.

“It’s amazing. It’s the best news we could have got,” Arthur Brand said on Thursday, confirming that the Helmet of Coțofenești had been found.

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Firefighters in Sicily rescue 400 rare library books from precipice after landslide

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Landslide in Niscemi in January tore away entire slope of town and carved 4km chasm

Firefighters in Sicily have rescued about 400 rare books from a library in Niscemi that hangs on the edge of a mudflow, after a devastating landslide in January tore away an entire slope of the town and carved a 4km chasm.

The library stands on the lip of the precipice gouged out by the landslide, with part of the building in effect hanging in mid-air. The recovery operation, which began on Monday, was preceded by a detailed study of floor plans and interior photographs to map the position of the books.

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Firefighters in Sicily rescue 400 rare library books from precipice after landslide

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Landslide in Niscemi in January tore away entire slope of town and carved 4km chasm

Firefighters in Sicily have rescued about 400 rare books from a library in Niscemi that hangs on the edge of a mudflow, after a devastating landslide in January tore away an entire slope of the town and carved a 4km chasm.

The library stands on the lip of the precipice gouged out by the landslide, with part of the building in effect hanging in mid-air. The recovery operation, which began on Monday, was preceded by a detailed study of floor plans and interior photographs to map the position of the books.

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Royal Artillery under fire after denying access to looted Asante treasure

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‘Extraordinary’ golden lamb’s head pillaged in 1874 from what is now Ghana remains hidden in officers’ mess

The Royal Artillery is facing criticism after it emerged they are refusing public access to an “extraordinary object” looted by the British army in the 19th century from the Asante people in modern-day Ghana.

The glistening golden ram’s head would seemingly be worthy of any museum, but it remains hidden within the regiment’s mess at Larkhill in Wiltshire.

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Rare bronze and iron age log boats reveal details of Cambridgeshire prehistory

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Well-preserved oak and maple boats used for transport and fishing to be displayed in Peterborough

After lying undisturbed in mud for more than 3,000 years, three rare bronze and iron age log boats have emerged to offer fresh insights into prehistoric life.

The boats were among nine discovered in a Cambridgeshire quarry 13 years ago – the largest group of prehistoric boats found in the same UK site. Most were well preserved, with one still able to float despite its long incarceration.

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Bad Bridgets podcast about crime among Irish women in US inspires film

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Margot Robbie’s company to make movie based on Northern Ireland academics’ stories of poverty and prison

It started as a trawl of dusty archives for an academic project about female Irish emigrants in Canada and the US by two history professors, a worthy but perhaps niche topic for research.

The subjects, after all, were human flotsam from Ireland’s diaspora whose existence was often barely recorded, let alone remembered.

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Garden shed of vaccine pioneer Edward Jenner added to heritage at risk register

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Hut where father of immunology trialled first smallpox vaccine among 138 additions to Historic England list

A rustic, ordinary-looking English garden hut regarded as the birthplace of immunology – revolutionising global public health and saving countless lives – has been added to the nation’s heritage at risk register.

The hut belonged to Edward Jenner (1749-1823, regarded as someone who has saved more lives than any other human. It was there that he first trialled a vaccine for smallpox in the late 18th century.

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Rome: worker trapped and one injured after part of medieval tower collapses

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Three others rescued at the Torre dei Conti, which was undergoing restoration works

A medieval tower in central Rome has partly collapsed twice during renovations, injuring one worker and trapping another.

Falling debris from the initial collapse of the Torre dei Conti, just after 11.30am (0930 GMT), close to the Roman Forum ruins, hit a 64-year-old worker, the Ansa news agency reported. He was taken to San Giovanni hospital in a critical condition although Francesco Rocca, Lazio’s regional president, said his injuries were not life threatening.

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Egypt’s vast $1bn museum to open in Cairo after two-decade build

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Grand Egyptian Museum next to pyramids of Giza billed as world’s largest archaeological facility for single civilisation

A vast $1bn museum billed as the world’s largest archaeological facility dedicated to a single civilisation will open outside Cairo on Saturday, after countless delays over the course of its two-decade construction.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, located a mile away from the pyramids of Giza, covers an area of 470,000 sq metres. The complex was announced in 1992 but it was not until 2005 that construction began. Some areas of the museum opened in a soft launch in 2024.

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Bronze age gold jewellery stolen in raid on St Fagans museum in Cardiff

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South Wales police issue public appeal for information after burglary at one of Wales’s most beloved museums

Raiders have broken into one of Wales’s most beloved museums and stolen gold jewellery from the bronze age.

Staff at St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff said its “Wales is …” gallery was specifically targeted in the burglary, which was discovered in the early hours of Monday.

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