#DiggingforBritain returns on 7th January with a new 6-part series on BBC Two with @profaliceroberts.bsky.social, and includes two @nationaltrust.org.uk properties: 4th February - Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire 5th February - St Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Tune in to find out more!

Our very own Jim Parry (archaeologist covering South Devon and Cornwall) has appeared in a national roundup of archaeological discoveries!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🎨 The Royal Archaeological Institute visit to Lincoln Cathedral, 1880

Just been whamageddoned twice in the space of 10 minutes

Cover to Cover: Christmas at Scotney in Kent Each room of the Victorian Mansion has been transformed with decorations inspired by books from Scotney's collection. From Alice in Wonderland to A Christmas Carol there's enchantment around every corner 🎄 www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/kent/s...

For #Hanukkah, we're visiting 1 Home Farm Drive, part of the Upton House estate. A former farm outbuilding, it was converted in the 1930s by the owners of the estate, the Bearsteds, for their family Rabbi to live in. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays/oxf... Chag Sameach 🕎 #JewishCountryHouses

Very much looking forward to next week’s @royalarchinst.bsky.social lecture @antiquaries.bsky.social by Dr Al Oswald - ALL WELCOME! #Neolithic

NEW Toolkit: working with experts across a number of different institutions & with support from the Royal Historical Society, we're delighted to share this FREE resource for anyone interested in or involved with the conservation & interpretation of ruins. heyzine.com/flip-book/77... #ruins 🏰

*NEWS* from #Chartwell for Sir Winston Churchill’s 151st birthday! To introduce this post is a painting by #Churchill showing the landscape & house that were so close to his heart. 🧑‍🎨C286 "A View of Chartwell", by Winston S. Churchill, c.1938, © Churchill Heritage Ltd. 🧵 @nationaltrust.org.uk

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Last month a small group was granted permission by the Port of London Authority to undertake a walkover survey of the #TowerBeach: the team was interested to examine the remains of structures recorded during the 1990s-2010s & to collect any significant artefacts found on the foreshore surface. 🏰🏺🧵

We had a great day in Canterbury yesterday for our Autumn Meeting! Many thanks to our Meetings Secretaries for arranging a fabulous programme, and to our guides at St Martin’s Church, St Augustine’s Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.

Can you believe it - it's 8 years since we set up our Facebook & 4 years since we started on Instagram! A huge THANK YOU to all our followers on both channels (nearly 17,000 of you on Facebook & 8,000 on Instagram) & also to the 4,000+ of you who are following us here. ✍️ Tom Gauld / New Scientist

Knole Revealed: Archaeology & discovery at a great country house by National Trust Archaeologist Nathalie Cohen and Curator Frances Parton describe discoveries made in this former archbishop's palace, and in the garden and park during the “Inspired By Knole” conservation project.

This month we’re sharing different ways in which you can learn more about the archaeology at the places in the care of @nationaltrust.org.uk. As the colder, darker nights set in it can be nice to curl up with a good book, so here are some recent publications you might find interesting. 📚🧵

Did you know there's a website dedicated to helping you discover more about the archaeology and heritage cared for by @nationaltrust.org.uk? NT Heritage Records Online has been developed to promote, and provide access to, the National Trust’s archaeological and historic building database. 🧵

Aymer's wife Lucy is in our @beyondnotables.bsky.social database beyond-notability.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q3...

Aymer Vallance, the owner of Stoneacre, was an active member of the RAI during the late 19th - early 20th centuries:

The fireplace is ornately decorated & covered in 15th- 16th century text. Throughout the rest of the house are examples of ritual protective marks, such as compass-drawn designs & taper burns 🔥 A huge thank you to @kentarchsoc & the William & Edith Oldham Charitable Trust for funding the survey.

Vallance actively 'collected' both structural elements & interiors to add to the house - one of these was the fireplace in the Great Hall. The fireplace is recorded to have originally been located at the George, an inn or hotel at 31 High Street Sittingbourne.

We're delighted to be working with MJC-Associates to record the graffiti & inscriptions at Stoneacre. The house is a medieval timber-framed building, with many later alterations to the fabric, including those undertaken by Aymer Vallance, who presented the house to the National Trust in 1928.

We've partnered with Essex Place Services to offer a practical, 3-day building recording course in May 2026 at Knole, focusing on the Garden Wall to create a stone-by-stone record. The course includes a tour of Lord Sackville's Private Garden: www.placeservices.co.uk/conservation... #CPD #Training

I like to think @classicfm.com is playing the Indiana Jones theme tune regularly to inspire my afternoon email marathons - many thanks!

Sissinghurst: Delos Garden, the well and the Priest’s House 🍂 @nationaltrust.org.uk @nattrustarch.bsky.social

We're excited to be working with Wealden Archaeology Group at Scotney Castle! During October, the team has been undertaking GPR survey to learn more about the lost buildings depicted on 18th-early 19th century plans, to the west of the Old Castle. heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRec...

𝐑𝐀𝐈 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐙𝐄 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝟭𝟬 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 The MA Dissertation Prize will be for the best dissertation written in 2024 or 2025 on the archaeology or architectural history of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and other countries. Details at www.royalarchinst.org/grants/disse...

Booking is now open for our Autumn Meeting in Canterbury! We will be visiting St Martin’s Church, St Augustine’s Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral during the day, with guided tours at each location and a special visit to the archives at the Cathedral ⛪️ www.royalarchinst.org/events/2025/...

Are you a student at a UK university and looking for support to come to TAG York? Did you know the Royal Archaeological Institute Cheney Bursary is available to support you? You can find more details here: www.royalarchinst.org/grants/bursa... @royalarchinst.bsky.social

Explore the story of the 3rd Earl of Sheffield & his enduring love & patronage of #cricket, from childhood games to creating a world class cricket pitch & hosting the Australian Cricket Team in 1896 in a new exhibition at Sheffield Park, until 23 November 🏏 www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex...

*NEWS* We are delighted to share that Kayleigh Hibberd has been shortlisted in the Early Career Archaeologist category #ArchaeologicalAchievementAwards. The winners will be revealed on 28 November at Queen’s University Belfast. The event will be live streamed on @archaeologyuk.bsky.social's YouTube.

How’s everyone feeling?? #FridayFun

Find out more about some of London’s oldest pubs - including our very own George Inn - in this new article by @jpwarchaeology.bsky.social, cheers! 🍻

We are seeking a new Editor for the Archaeological Journal to succeed @nannonstevens.bsky.social. #archaeology #editor #journal @royalarchinst.bsky.social Please share to your networks! ✍️

A snapshot of recent history at Sutton House - as part of a fire alarm upgrade project, we have some floorboards lifted & were able to look below them. All the finds post-dated the 1980s-90s restoration, including this @nationaltrust.org.uk centenary leaflet - lost almost 30 years ago to the day!

A splendid final day for our Summer Meeting was spent exploring Kings Lynn. Huge thanks to Peter Jackson for the tours at the Minster & St Nicholas Chapel and to Lynn Museum, Stories of Lynn, St George’s Guildhall & the Fisherfolk Museum for having us to visit! 🔔🎭🐟

Six site visits for Day 4 of our Summer Meeting! We started at Warham Iron Age hillfort, then on to Binham Priory (many thanks to Matt Champion for the tour!). We then visited the intriguing North Elmham, Bircham Windmill, a Bronze Age barrow on Peddars Way & finally the spectacular Castle Rising

Day 3 - Caistor #Roman town then Norwich Castle and Cathedral! 📷 @nathaliecohen.bsky.social

Another busy day! Today we visited the ruined church at Appleton, the royal estate at Sandringham & spent the afternoon at Castle Acre, with a guided tour by our former President Jonathan Coad around the Priory and Castle, which he excavated during the 1970s. ⛪️👑🏰 @englishheritage.bsky.social

Day 1 has been brilliant! We started at the Neolithic flint mines at Grimes Graves, then on to Oxburgh Hall & spent the afternoon in Thetford. We visited the Charles Burrell Museum (AMAZING cakes), Thetford Priory, Castle & Warreners Lodge 🏰⛪️🐇 @englishheritage.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk

It’s our Summer Meeting this week & we’ll be visiting sites around Kings Lynn in Norfolk. Our programme begins tonight with a lecture in the Great Hall at Thoresby College by Dr Clive Bond, about the prehistory of Norfolk & the (in) famous site of Seahenge. 📷 Wikipedia & @nathaliecohen.bsky.social

Check out the great line up for our 2025 - 2026 lecture programme. Full details at www.royalarchinst.org/events/lectu... Lectures are held in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, at 5 p.m and on our YouTube channel.

The deadline for the Archaeological Achievement Awards has been extended, which means there’s still time to nominate! 🏆 That colleague who’s smashing it? The TikTok creator sparking a conversation? The project changing lives? Don’t let them go unrecognised! Closing noon 10/09👉 shorturl.at/6q5bx

The deepest excavation in Trench 14 recorded a large paleo channel used for drainage during the 19th & 20th centuries. Environmental sampling will help us to understand more & inform future land management. The discovery of a worked stake rounded off a very successful field season! #Bodiam100

In Freren Mead, Trenches 11 & 12 found ditches, demolition layers & in the very last hour of the dig, a post hole! Finds included large amounts of #Roman pottery & CBM, including an imbrex tile with a complete Classis Britannica stamp.

Around the castle, we explored a possible location for the watermill (we’ll be looking again for this next year) & excavated a small trench west of the castle: from Trench 15 came ceramics of medieval to Victorian date, including a lovely #medieval jug handle.

Metal detecting across Dokes Field recovered a scatter of artefacts including medieval, Tudor & Georgian coins. Most of the finds were modern & related to the use of the field for medieval re-enactment events - we have now found three replica pilgrim badges!

In Trench 9 we explored the route ways across Dokes Field & found further evidence for the road / track with more ruts & metalling, suggesting that the route was in use over a long time, perhaps beginning in the Roman period. Five Mesolithic flints were also recovered.

And just like that, Season 2 of #Bodiam100 is complete! We’ve had an amazing 3 weeks on site with around 140 participants joining us #OutInTheField. We’d like to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers & to our property colleagues for making us so welcome at Bodiam. 🏺🧵 @nationaltrust.org.uk

In need of a little more #MondayMotivation? The archaeology team at Bodiam Castle are here to provide just that! ⛏️🏺🧘‍♀️ #ArchaeologyYoga #OutInTheField #Bodiam100 @nationaltrust.org.uk

#MondayMotivation from all of us at Bodiam Castle! #yoga #wellbeing #archaeology @nationaltrust.org.uk 🏺🧘‍♀️ #Bodiam100