It wasn’t all bad

The amount of rubbish on Britain’s shores has dropped to its lowest level in 20 years. Volunteers taking part in this year’s Great British Beach Clean found 385 pieces of litter for every 100 metres of beach – a fall from 425 in 2020, and 558 in 2019. Single-use plastic bags were down from 13 for every 100 metres in 2013 to just three. The most common items found by the 6,000 participants were fragments of polystyrene and plastic, followed by cigarette ends and crisp packets.

A group of around 60 people who spent three nights snowed in together at a pub in the Yorkshire Dales bade it a fond farewell this week, after roads became passable again. Customers were trapped at the Tan Hill Inn – 528 metres above sea level – along with staff, and the members of an Oasis tribute band who’d been performing there. For three days, they whiled away the time watching films, playing board games and doing karaoke. They had to sleep on mattresses and sofas, but had access to a well-stocked kitchen and bar. “It sounds a cliché, but they came as strangers and they’re leaving as friends,” said the pub’s manager, Nicola Townsend.

The remains of a Roman villa complex, complete with a rare mosaic depicting The Iliad, have been found under farmland in Rutland. Jim Irvine was walking in one of his father’s fields last year when he came across “unusual pottery” in the wheat. After further investigation he called in archaeologists, who excavated the remains of the complex and the 11-metre-long mosaic in what was probably a dining area. Only a handful of mosaics depicting Achilles’s adventures have ever been found, and this is the first known example in the UK.