Country · 25 places dug
The history of the United Kingdom
50 digs · 704 sourced records · last reviewed 16 October 2026
Strata has dug 25 places in the United Kingdom — London, North Leigh, Edinburgh and more: 50 spots of ground, 704 sourced records, from deep time to the modern era. Each place below is a page of its own, assembled from what happened on particular ground there, with every record linked to its source.
Places dug in the United Kingdom
The history of LondonA prison turned museum in Southwark — London is a city of layered ground: a Roman bathhouse beneath a Shadwell monument, a cholera pump traced by John Snow in Soho, a Norman fortress begun by William the Conqueror, and a square of Saxon knights. 18 digs263 records The history of North LeighA mansion that became a maternity ward — North Leigh carries an Iron Age fort, a sixty-room Roman villa, a vanished medieval village at Tilgarsley, and a Georgian hunting lodge rebuilt as Eynsham Hall. 5 digs
71 records The history of EdinburghA 17th-century graveyard around a Reformation church — Edinburgh's Old Town holds a buried close, a Reformation kirkyard and a market square beneath the castle, each layered with centuries of use. 3 digs
44 records The history of SilverstoneThe championship that crashed itself — Silverstone, Northamptonshire, carries ground that passed from an Iron Age hillfort and a medieval moated farm to an RAF bomber station, and then, from 1948, to a motor racing circuit that staged the first world championship Grand Prix and has held the British Grand Prix in most years since. 3 digs
43 records The history of LincolnA Norman castle, still a working court — Lincoln Castle on Drury Lane began in 1068, when William the Conqueror ordered it raised over an earlier Roman legionary fortress. 1 dig
16 records The history of High WycombeA show cave under West Wycombe Hill — High Wycombe's record here centres on West Wycombe Hill, where an Iron Age camp and Roman-era activity gave way, in the 1740s, to Sir Francis Dashwood's chalk mine and the secretive Hellfire Club, before the tunnels reopened as a show cave in 1951. 1 dig
15 records The history of LancasterA medieval castle and former prison — Lancaster's story gathers on the hill above the River Lune, where a Roman fort gave way to a castle raised by Roger the Poitevin around 1093. 1 dig
15 records The history of YorkThe ruined keep of York Castle — At Tower Street, beneath Clifford's Tower, York Castle has stood since William the Conqueror raised a timber mound in 1068. 1 dig
15 records The history of ArnoldA quiet street in Arnold — Arnold, Nottinghamshire, grew around its parish life and quiet residential streets. 1 dig
14 records The history of AshfordA Kent village with a dark-tourism reputation — This record gathers Swan Lane in the Kent village of Pluckley, part of Ashford's wider parish history. 1 dig
14 records The history of BodminA Georgian prison, now a hotel and museum — Bodmin's recorded ground centres on Bodiniel Road, where a Georgian jail built in 1779 from granite quarried by prisoners of war held more than 35,000 inmates over nearly a century and a half, before closing in 1927 and reopening in 2021 as a hotel and museum. 1 dig
14 records The history of InvernessA Jacobite battlefield, now a protected moor — Inverness holds Culloden Battlefield, the open moor where the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was defeated by government troops under the Duke of Cumberland on 16 April 1746, a day that ended Highland clan life as it had existed for centuries. 1 dig
14 records The history of OxfordA quarrel over bad wine ended in a massacre — Oxford grew up around the crossroads at Carfax, where the city's medieval walls, its castle and its town hall now stand close together. 1 dig
14 records The history of Stoke-on-TrentThe chapel Hanley built twice, then let go empty — Stoke-on-Trent's record here centres on Hanley, where a Methodist congregation expelled in 1779 built its own chapel, rebuilt it larger in 1819, and watched it rise as the so-called Cathedral of the Potteries before closing for worship in December 1985 and passing to the Historic Chapels Trust in 2002. 1 dig
14 records The history of AltarnunA coaching inn on Bodmin Moor, now a hotel and museum — Altarnun gathers its history on Bodmin Moor around Jamaica Inn, a stone coaching inn built in 1750 on ground where an inn had stood since 1547. 1 dig
13 records The history of Barley-with-Wheatley BoothA sandstone hill in Lancashire — Barley-with-Wheatley Booth sits beneath Pendle Hill in Lancashire, a sandstone summit worked by named tenants from 1323, shaken by the 1612 witch trials, and later marked by George Fox's 1652 vision that founded the Quakers. 1 dig
13 records The history of Fort WilliamA Gothic church built for a divided glen — Fort William's record here gathers around a single point on the A82, beside Glencoe's Episcopal Church of St Mary. 1 dig
13 records The history of South LuffenhamA dead girl the parish refused to bury — South Luffenham grew around its church and its railway cutting, a village marked by refusal as much as record: Rose Boswell, a Romani teenager, was denied a churchyard grave in 1794 and buried instead within the church, near the corner where a well was later disputed and where the Syston and Peterborough line ran from 1848 to 1966. 1 dig
13 records The history of WoodstockThe princess locked in a rotting hunting lodge — Woodstock grew around a royal manor and a coaching inn, holding a future queen as prisoner, an earl's death, a poet-rake's end, and the rise of Blenheim Palace nearby. 1 dig
13 records The history of Wotton-under-EdgeA medieval house once a pub, now a haunted guesthouse — Wotton-under-Edge is a market town whose surviving record here centres on one building: the Ancient Ram Inn at Potters Pond, a house and wool-trade workshop raised around 1495-96, later a pub for nearly 150 years, and since the 1960s a guesthouse kept from demolition and known for its haunted reputation. 1 dig
13 records The history of Berry PomeroyA Tudor mansion inside a ruined castle — Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, grew from a manor named 'Berri' in the Domesday Book of 1086 into a castle raised by the Pomeroy family in the late fifteenth century, then an Elizabethan mansion built by the Seymours within its walls, left to ruin after 1688. 1 dig
12 records The history of BicesterA sergeant beaten bloody on the Bicester road — Bicester grew up around an early Christian cemetery, a Saxon church tower, and a medieval priory that drew pilgrims to a saint's relics and held a countess among its dead. 1 dig
12 records The history of ChillinghamA medieval castle, now a historic house museum — Chillingham, in Northumberland, grew up around a border fortress that began as a monastery and became, by 1344, a licensed quadrangular castle with walls up to 12 feet thick. 1 dig
12 records The history of Lillingstone Dayrell with Luffield AbbeyA sheep, a stopwatch, and a world championship — Lillingstone Dayrell with Luffield Abbey gathers ground that passed from Iron Age hillfort and Benedictine priory to a medieval village cleared away in 1493, then to a wartime bomber station whose runways became Silverstone Circuit, birthplace of motor racing's world championship. 1 dig
12 records The history of PortsmouthThe admiral shot on his own quarterdeck — Portsmouth's dockyard ground has carried the weight of empire and its punishments: a parish recorded from 979, the Mary Rose lost offshore in 1545, and, on a single quarterdeck at № 10 Storehouse, an admiral shot in 1757 for failing to do his utmost. 1 dig
12 records