Public donate to heritage project

Oxford University has called out to the public to donate their art, poetry or songs that relate to Old English and the Anglo-Saxons as part of its new Project Woruldhord.

The aim of the project is to create the world's largest online archive of the Anglo-Saxons, a major era in the UK's cultural heritage.

Professors were inspired to create the archive after a hoard of artefacts from the period was discovered in Staffordshire last year.

Project leader Dr Stuart Lee commented: 'The archive will be the first mass observation that has ever been done on the period, and will be of use to historians, English literature students, archaeologists, art historians, and the general public.'

It will provide the public with free access to vast amounts of information and material on the period, which is marked by Alfred the Great, Harold Godwinson and poems such as Beowulf.

The university also has a Great War Archive, which contains 6,500 objects from the public.