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Education

Herefordshire Through Time contains an Education section geared primarily to Keystages 3 and 4, but which is also suitable as a teaching resource for primary schools and further education courses. It includes three sections: a Teachers' Guide to using this website for teaching and field trips; hints and tips for students on How to do your History Homework; and Education Resources, which provides suggestions for questions and tasks for classwork and homework, linked to the relevant pages in the Herefordshire's Past section of this website. Students can also apply for work placements with Herefordshire Archaeology.

The extensive Herefordshire's Past section contains general information pages on all historical periods and a wide variety of topics of use in the curriculum, including medieval castles, transport and industry, workhouses, Non-conformist chapels, and prisons. There are also essays by specialist guest authors on specific topics. To access these pages, click on the link above or the link in the menu on the left-hand side of this page.

Guidance for metal detecting

If you choose to metal detect other than as part of an organised project then please:

Remember that you must always have the landowner's permission to metal detect. This applies to both private and publicly-owned land. Any finds that you may make on private land without permission belong to the landowner, and you may be prosecuted for trespass.
Remember it is illegal to metal detect on a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) without a licence from English Heritage.
Remember that, on land under the Environmental Stewardship Scheme, metal detecting is not permitted on sites of archaeological interest without the written consent of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Where legally-protected sites (SAMs) on stewardship land are concerned, permission from English Heritage is also required.
Only metal detect on ploughed fields and do not dig below the ploughsoil.
Record where you discover finds as accurately as possible, giving the date of discovery and providing a six- or eight-figure National Grid Reference. Ordnance Survey maps tell you how to work out the correct grid reference.
If you make an important find, contact Herefordshire Archaeology. This will not affect your legal rights, but may allow more information to be recovered. Removing all the artefacts can damage the very information that we are trying to recover.
Take your finds, with the information on when and where you found them, to the Herefordshire Museum for identification. The museum will not keep the objects. The person to contact is Judy Stevenson (telephone 01432 260692). Alternatively, you can take your finds to the local Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) for identification. The FLO for Herefordshire and Shropshire is Peter Reavill, who is based at Ludlow Museum. His telephone number is 01584 813641. Again, the FLO will not keep the objects.

Hereford Cathedral tower, showing ballflower decoration

Welcome to Herefordshire Through Time

Welcome to Herefordshire Through Time, the website for Herefordshire Archaeology and the Herefordshire Sites and Monuments Record. This website provides access to a wide range of information about the archaeology and history of Herefordshire, and the work of Herefordshire Council's archaeology service. To consult the pages you are interested in, click on the links on the left hand side of the page, or on the tabs at the top of the page.

The SMR Search function allows you to search the Sites and Monuments Record's databases. These include the monuments database (which currently contains around 20,000 records), the sources database (giving details of the origin of the information held in the monuments database) and the historic field names database. All of these can be searched in a variety of ways, allowing for general or very specific searches.

To learn more about Herefordshire through the ages, go to the Herefordshire's Past pages. Arranged primarily by time periods, these pages provide more detailed information on a wide range of topics, including castles, the Romans, the Middle Ages, the Civil War in Herefordshire, buildings, transport and industry, and prehistoric Herefordshire. Some of this information has been designed for use by schools.

Other sections of the site provide further information on Herefordshire Archaeology, its staff members and their work. The News, Events and Projects pages include the latest archaeological news from the county, details of forthcoming events, and background information on our projects. The Resources pages allow access to downloadable project reports and our Historic Environment Today newsletter, suggestions for sites to visit, information for archaeological contractors working in Herefordshire, an Education section, and information of interest to metal detectorists and people thinking of getting involved in metal detecting.