Even though most of the country is in lockdown there are still plenty of ways to get explore the past! Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of online resources for you to peruse from home.

As we write this, many parts of the UK are in different stages of lockdown, and it is uncertain how COVID-19 restrictions will affect the opening of museums and heritage sites in the coming weeks. Whatever happens, though, there are still many ways to get involved in heritage, history, and archaeology-related activities from home. Amy Brunskill has gathered a wide variety of options below.

Among the 856 heraldic shields emblazoned on the ceilings of the cloister of Canterbury Cathedral is hidden a story of the social and political history of 14thand 15th-century England. In this large and intensively researched volume, Paul A Fox sets out to unravel the connections between the families and individuals recorded here, and the man behind its construction, Archbishop Thomas Arundel.

As we find online resources more necessary than ever, we have put together a selection of options to ensure that you can still get your heritage fix wherever you are.

Dorset is rich in heritage, with an array of historical sites and towns, as well as unique natural landmarks. This book offers a beautifully illustrated introduction to the county’s history through a selection of pictures from the Historic England Archive.

In this book, Sally Foster and Sian Jones examine the history of the Cross and its replicas, challenging the traditional dismissal of historical reproductions as of less importance than the original. Their study shows that replicas play their own role in heritage landscapes, which is worth considering when looking at object biographies.

A selection of archaeology-related activities and resources that you can enjoy from your sofa, and places you can visit in person.

A lack of sources regarding the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia has often led to it being overshadowed by other contemporary kingdoms, such as Wessex, in discussions of the Heptarchy, but in this book Annie Whitehead has gathered all of the available historical references to tell the story of the kingdom and the people who shaped it.

A survey of the area around the site of an Augustinian priory near Harlow, Essex, has uncovered the location of an annual medieval fair granted to the priory’s patron by Edward III in 1332.

New research involving a combination of geophysical mapping, sediment sampling, and the study of place-names has identified a network of waterways that ran through West Mainland Orkney in the Viking and late Norse period.