It wasn’t all bad

Plans are being drawn up for what could become Britain’s highest-altitude lido, in West Yorkshire. If built, the chemicalfree “natural pool” will sit on moorland not far from the Brontë sisters’ village of Haworth, at a site that is 378 metres above sea level. Though the project is at an early stage, the team behind it have been granted outline planning permission to transform a disused water treatment plant into “an accessible, safe, natural outdoor swimming destination”.

A member of a giant tortoise species thought to have died out more than 100 years ago has been found alive and well on the Galápagos Islands.The female, who is thought to be about 50, was discovered on Fernandina Island in 2019; now, having compared her DNA to that of the last known “fantastic giant tortoise” – a male who was found in 1906 – they are confident that she is of the same species. “Our hope is that there are still a couple of other of these tortoises out there on the island,” said Stephen Gaughran, who led the research. “But most likely there aren’t very many of them.”

The wreck of a Royal Navy warship that went down in 1682 while carrying the future king James II has been officially identified off the coast of Norfolk. HMS Gloucester, which sank after a collision with a sandbar, was found 28 miles out to sea in 2007, but the news was kept quiet to allow artefacts to be salvaged from the wreck, which lies in international waters. Prof Claire Jowitt, a maritime history expert, said it could be the “most significant historic maritime discovery” since the raising of the Tudor ship the Mary Rose in 1982.