UK History News [20 January 2026]
Treasure-hunting league table; Digging for Britain returns; TikTokers ruining Welsh heritage site…
Welcome to UK History News. In each fortnightly issue, free subscribers will receive the latest British history-related headlines, along with notable upcoming anniversaries. And below the paywall, paid subscribers will see many more news items, all of them briefly summarised here in one place.
Top headlines
England’s top treasure finds revealed by county [BBC News]: The British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme recorded Norfolk as England’s top county for treasure in 2024 – with 138 treasure finds and over 7,120 total objects – as part of a record 79,616 finds nationwide (mostly by metal-detectorists), while standout discoveries included a Romano-British copper-alloy vehicle fitting near Harlow and a hoard of Harold II pennies near York.
Sifting through the Roman rubbish of ‘the London lasagne’ [BBC News]: Prof Alice Roberts likens London’s archaeology to a ‘lasagne’ – layers from prehistory to the Victorian era – where constant redevelopment routinely reveals spectacular finds (from rare Roman frescoes, a mausoleum and villa to a possible earliest theatre, basilica and even a Roman bed), uncovered by teams like MOLA and detectorists, which shed light on a multicultural Roman metropolis and require both heavy machinery and meticulous recording to connect modern Londoners with 2,000 years of history. Some of these discoveries will be showcased in a new series of Digging for Britain.
Nuclear site’s princely burial reveals more secrets [BBC News]: Archaeologists excavating ahead of the Sizewell C power station in Suffolk have uncovered a rare 6th–7th century ‘princely’ Anglo-Saxon barrow cemetery – including an exceptional double high-status grave with a horse, sword, spear, shields and fine vessels preserved as sand-imprint ‘skeletons,’ plus an unusual post-ringed low burial mound – offering new insights into elite burial practices in East Anglia.
State of abandoned slate quarry a ‘disgrace’ as TikTok ‘living-the-dream’ visitors trash historic site [North Wales Live]: Dinorwig Quarry, a key part of the UNESCO-recognised slate landscape, is increasingly being damaged by visitors – who have been photographed dangling from brittle Blondin ropeways, graffitiing buildings and removing artefacts – prompting calls for rangers and preservation even as private ownership, legal/safety constraints, limited funding and the site’s vast scale make comprehensive protection difficult and risk further loss of heritage.
British Museum £100k away from Henry VIII pendant target [BBC]: The British Museum is appealing for the final £100,000 to buy the rare Tudor Heart – a gold, heart-shaped pendant inscribed ‘toujours’ and bearing the initials and emblems of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, unearthed in Warwickshire in 2019 – for £3.5m so it can be saved for the nation.
‘Extremely fragile’ Bayeux Tapestry at risk from British Museum ‘vanity project’, expert says [The Independent]: Professor Shirley Ann Brown, an expert who has closely studied the fragile 11th‑century Bayeux Tapestry, says the risks of transporting the 70‑metre relic from Normandy to the British Museum – including damage from handling, past repairs, unpacking/repacking and even potential protests – make a loan ‘not worth’ the educational or financial benefits, a view echoed by David Hockney despite the museum’s assurances about its conservation expertise.
Churchill’s desk and rare artwork among items donated to UK cultural institutions [The Guardian]: Items worth £59.7m have been allocated to UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives through Arts Council England’s cultural gifts and acceptance-in-lieu schemes, saving treasures such as Churchill and Disraeli’s mahogany standing desk, Vanessa Bell’s Vase, Flowers and Bowl, Degas’s Danseuses roses, Bill Brandt’s photographic collection and important political and historical archives for public display and study.
Our £3.7million investment is helping Talyllyn Railway preserve treasured transport heritage [The National Lottery Heritage Fund]: The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded £3,697,911 to Talyllyn Railway – the world’s first preserved railway, part of the UNESCO Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales and an inspiration for Rev. Wilbert Awdry’s Skarloey Railway – to refurbish historic stations into visitor experiences, provide volunteer accommodation and a bilingual community hub, and deliver major engineering and workshop upgrades to support volunteers, apprenticeships and local engagement as the line approaches its 75th anniversary.
You can soon step inside David Bowie’s childhood bedroom, restored to the way it looked when he was 16 [smithsonianmag.com]: The musician’s former home in south London is scheduled to open to the public in late 2027 following an extensive restoration, which will transport visitors back in time to 1963.
Dover heritage site changes hands [BE News]: A Kent-based private investor has purchased The Citadel, a 32.75‑acre, 217,371 sq ft historic fort complex on Dover’s Western Heights – comprising 54 buildings across four sectors, including listed structures and scheduled Napoleonic- and wartime monuments – for an undisclosed sum in a sale brokered by Carter Jonas, with the buyer said to have experience managing complex heritage assets.
The Citadel, Dover (BE News)
Notable anniversaries
21 January
50 years ago...1976: Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
22 January
125 years ago...1901: Edward VII is proclaimed King of the United Kingdom after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
26 January
100 years ago...1926: The first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird.
30 January
200 years ago...1826: The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world’s first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
1 February
175 years ago...1851: Death of Mary Shelley, English novelist and playwright (born 1797)
