It wasn’t all bad

Thousands of rare items dating back to Tudor times have been found in an attic room at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. The trove ranges from a page of a 600-year-old illuminated manuscript that the Bedingfield family – devout Catholics – may have used during illicit masses, and fragments of Elizabethan textiles, to a wartime chocolate box. The artefacts were found under floorboards during works to restore the roof of the 15th century moated building, now run by the National Trust.

A pair of golden eagles has successfully reared a chick on a Highland estate that is being

“rewilded”. The birds had taken up residence on a large artificial eyrie – built by hand in 2015 on a rocky outcrop at the

Dundreggan estate, west of Loch Ness; and their chick flew from the nest for the first time last week. It is the first time golden eagles have reared offspring on the estate since 1980, and it has raised hopes for the recovery of the species – the second largest native bird of prey in the UK after the white-tailed eagle – which was hunted to extinction in England and Wales in the 19th century.

An Oxford-based company has made a breakthrough which, it says, puts it on track to produce the world’s most effective solar panels by the end of the year. Oxford PV’s panels are coated with a crystal called perovskite, which can absorb different parts of the solar spectrum, making them able to generate more energy. The crystalcoated panels will convert up to 27.3% of available solar energy into electricity; standard panels convert just 22%. And instead of being blue, the new panels are black, like roof tiles – so they blend in better too.