Just out from Historic England:
"A collection of Second World War aerial photography has been made accessible to the public for the first time.
The photographs were taken by the United States Army Air Forces Photographic Reconnaissance units stationed around England in 1943 and 1944... continues...
Historic England releases map based on 500,000 aerial pictures
"More than half a million aerial images of historical sites in England have been used for a new mapping tool.
Photographs and 3D laser scans have been taken over the past 30 years to uncover "hidden archaeological landscapes", Historic England said... continues...
English Heritage has been given £80m in the government's Spending Review as part of plans for the organisation to become a charity. Some of the £80m awarded by the government will help to set up the charity so it will be fully operational by March 2015.
English Heritage and British Museum commission study into illegal metal detecting
English Heritage and the British Museum are so alarmed they have commissioned a £100,000 study into the practice. It could lead to new legislation to combat offenders.
Some information that may be of use to TMA-ers looking at OS maps of England and Wales, from "Field Archaeology - Some Notes For Beginners Issued by the Ordnance Survey" (1963 - Fourth edition), chapter entitled "Tumuli":
"Today the term tumulus is reserved for those earthen mounds either known or presumed to be covering burials. Formerly a class of larger mounds, now known to belong to early medieval castles also received this name in error ..., but now are given their correct technical description or are described as 'Mound' in the appropriate type. All piles of stones are called cairns whether their funerary character is known or not, but the use of an 'antiquity' type will mean that the Survey believes it to be sepulchral. In some very lofty situations it will be obvious that they are not graves. Where a mound has a local name which clearly indicates the belief that it is a burial place the descriptive name tumulus is not added."
Ancient craft is dedicated to the archaeology of primitive crafts and technologies that encompass the three prehistoric ages: STONE; BRONZE and IRON. This includes working with materials such as stone (also known as "flintknapping"), wood, bone, horn, leather, metals and cloth (plant fibres, and wools).
"The Scheme's database holds records of artefacts and coins found by the public, whilst pursuing a wide range of activities (the majority from metal detecting). We do not record details of objects found by archaeologists, and these data can be found within the local Historic Environment Office."
"The half a million objects recorded mark was reached on March 21st 2010."