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Move over Downton Abbey - a new trailer for BBC drama War and Peace promises love, sex, battle and intrigue and is certainly not for the faint hearted with passionate scenes in the bushes. It's been hotly tipped as the must-see drama of 2016, and now the BBC has released the first...

A Roman carving of a phallus is to go on public display for the first time after being used as a garden ornament for 20 years. The limestone carving was dug up in a garden in the Lincolnshire village of Braceby in 1995. The family that found it have donated it to The Collection museum in...

From ancient times to the present day, battles have been lost to dire weather, insufficient weaponry and bad luck. But what about those for which poor judgment and bad planning are to blame? Here, historian Rupert Matthews explores 10 of the worst military blunders in...

I bet they dropped their melons during the scuffle.

I will do. They were fighting over fried chicken, after all.

Were they black?

MPs are to debate and vote on whether England should adopt an official national anthem. The UK anthem, God Save the Queen, is currently used during some sporting events but Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins believes England should have its own. He intends to bring his English National Anthem...

A new British drama, one of the most expensive ever made for ITV, could rival A Game Of Thrones. "Beowulf" is based on the epic Anglo-Saxon poem of over 3,000 alliterative lines, the first great work of literature ever written in the English language. It tells the story of Beowulf who comes to...

According to government figures, 2014 was a bumper year for treasure finds in Britain with 1,008 precious items discovered around the country — the highest since 1996. Norfolk topped the table with 226 items uncovered in 2013 and 2014. It’s why the county has become a huge draw for treasure...

A former physics teacher has completed a 700-year-old pilgrim's journey using only medieval clothing and equipment. Steven Payne began walking from Southampton's Mayflower Park to Canterbury on 16 December, carrying a goodwill message from the Pope. The 52-year-old slept in his cloak...

They immediately succeeded the Tudors, and reigned over some of the most monumentally changeable times in British history – civil war, rebellion, the beheading of a king, plague outbreaks, a disastrous fire and a successful foreign invasion. Yet the Stuarts remain a largely overlooked...

A landslide on a Dorset beach has attracted dozens of fossil hunters in search of relics. Some 200 enthusiasts combed the beach in the village of Charmouth, on the fossil-rich Jurassic Coast, collecting scores of ammonite fossils. The majority are said to have picked up ammonites...

A Roman glass bowl has caused museum staff a headache after having to be put back together four times. The bowl, which was excavated in 1988, had already been reconstructed three times when it was smashed by a skull at Colchester Castle in September. Work is under way to restore the "50 or...

The 50th anniversary of England's victory in the 1966 World Cup is among dates being commemorated next year by English Heritage. The charity, which runs the London blue plaques scheme, will be erecting a plaque to Bobby Moore, captain of the team which beat West Germany 4-2 in the Final...

Britain's economy is powering ahead of our faltering European neighbours, according to forecasts that appear to strengthen the case for a UK exit from the EU. We are predicted to overtake Japan and Germany within 20 years to become the world’s fourth largest economy. In France by contrast, the...

It is nearly 13 centuries since the English nation first appeared in the historical record thanks to the Venerable Bede, the monk who chronicled how the Anglo-Saxons moved to Britain and became Christian. The country has changed almost unimaginably since then, with waves of migration, war and...

Panicked shoppers fled for their lives after a man armed with a two-foot long machete was spotted running through a packed shopping centre. Families visiting Glades Shopping Centre in Bromley, south east London, screamed as they feared the area was under an ISIS-style terrorist attack...

Christianity faces "elimination" in the Middle East, the region where it began, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned in his Christmas Day sermon. The Most Reverend Justin Welby said so-called Islamic State is "igniting a trail of fear, violence, hatred and determined oppression". He also...

A choir of nurses, doctors and other NHS staff have beaten Justin Bieber and X Factor winner Louisa Johnson to the UK's prestigious Christmas number one spot. The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir's song A Bridge Over You topped the chart ahead of Bieber's Love Yourself. The choir overtook...

Workers preparing the ground for a new £250 million Army barracks have discovered at least 11 Roman skeletons and a rare coin dating back nearly 2,000 years. Artefacts found with the bones included a coin of the emperor Valens, who reigned between 364 and 378AD. Archaeologists were...