In the previous two issues, I began on the Wirral coast of Merseyside, before heading inland to Liverpool and Greater Manchester, and then on to Cheshire. I continue my journey through the north-west of England in this column, travelling further east into Derbyshire.

The largest concentration of apotropaic graffiti, or ‘witch marks’, in the UK has been identified in the caves at Creswell Crags, a limestone gorge on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Our cover story takes us to the longest archaeological ‘site’ in Britain: the banks of the River Thames. For ten years, Thames Discovery Programme members have been braving all weathers to record the refuse of centuries of Londoners and newly exposed archaeological features before they are swept away by the tidal river’s ebb and flow. […]