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Replica Bronze Age tools and weapons which can be handled and used as educational exhibits can be bought from John Mainwaring in Hampshire. The two spearheads illustrated cost £25 each. John also accepts commissions and can demonstrate how Bronze Age implements were made. For more details contact John Mainwaring, Bronze Edge, 72 Gudge Heath Lane, Fareham, Hants PO15 5AY, tel: 01329 285825.

The UK Homefront Re-enactment Group is seeking reminiscences from people with memories and experiences from the Second World War covering the Midlands, North Wales and the North of England (the area covered by UK Homefront). The information and stories gathered from as many individuals as possible will help bring even more authenticity to the group’s re-enactment activities, often at the invitation of other organisations wanting to bring their own events to life in a more dramatic way. The group’s website contains hundreds of photographs of members dressed in all manner of period uniforms and clothing from the period and showing what goes on at the events they attend and organise. If you can help (you may know of written or oral reminiscence in local collections managed by societies, libraries etc.), contact UK Homefront, Organising Secretary, Mrs S Day, Hall Cottage, Melmerby, nr Ripon, North Yorkshire HG4 5HA, tel: 01765 640643, email: ukhomefront@hotmail.com, web: www.ukhomefront.co.uk.

The history of a specific Warwickshire building is the subject of a competition organised by Warwickshire County Council and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. You can either work alone or as part of a team of up to six people to choose a building in the county which interests you, locate documents in the archives of the sponsoring organisations (and other places) to help you research the history of your chosen building. The challenge is then to present your findings on one or two A1 size cards. How you do this is up to you, but there is a website with examples of what can be achieved. The closing date for the competition is 31 January 2007 and the entries will be judged on 28 February 2007, with the winning entry being professionally re-presented for a tour round the county. At present there are no plans to make other entries available to a wider audience, but we have asked the organisers if we can see the entries after they have been judged with a view to publishing more information on this website Local History Magazine, as it's a great idea which deserves wider publicity. More importantly, all participants need to have their work and research acknowledged. For more details contact Rob Eyre, Warwickshire Record Office,Priory Park, Cape Road, Warwick CV34 4JS, tel: 01926 738954, email: roberteyre@warwickshire.gov.uk or Robert Bearman, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, tel: 01789 201816, email: robert.bearman@shakespeare.org.uk web: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/buildingmemories.

Wolverhampton Local History Symposium organisers are seeking potential contributors who are researching some aspects of the city’s history for the symposium due to take place in February 2007. For more information contact City Archivist, tel: 01902 552480, email: david.bishop@dial.pipex.com.

The archive of all the Local Heritage Initiative’s 1,400 projects are to be housed at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham. The LHI came to an end earlier this year but information about all the projects can be found on the web already at www.lhi.org.uk, and local historians and researchers can now see all the documentation, together with copies of any publications, tapes etc. of a particular project, in the University’s Archive at 48 hours notice. For more information contact Lorna Scott, Archivist, University of Gloucester, Francis Close Hall Campus, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ , tel: 01242 714664, email: lscott@glos.ac.uk.

Itchen Ferry Village at Woolston on the banks of the Itchen, Southampton, is the subject of a major oral history project by the Diaper Heritage Association with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Project Leader Anna Welch says ‘This is the last chance for us to capture memories about the village which was nearly destroyed by Second World War bombing’. Anna and her colleagues are still looking for people with memories of the village and the ferry to interview. There is an associated exhibition, ‘Fisherman, Ferryman, Sailor, Spy: The Diapers of Itchen Ferry’ at The Wool House Museum, Town Quay Road, Southampton, Tue–Sat 10am–1pm & 2–5pm (Sat 4pm), Sun 2–5pm, admission free, tel: 023 8063 5904. For more details about the project contact Diaper Heritage Association, Cheryl Butler, 121 Bernard Street, Southampton SO14 3EA, tel: 0800 078 9083 (oral history hot line), web: www.diaperheritage.com.

A Copyright minefield looms on the horizon as more and more copyright owners realise the potential of the Internet to increase their income from both new and historic publications. A British Academy Policy Review, ‘Copyright and Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences’, says ‘The problems lie in (the) narrow interpretation, both by rights holders and publishers, of new works which refer to existing copyright material. These problems are acute in some subjects, particularly music, history and film studies? as a result of the development of new media and have become more aggressive in seeking to maximise revenue from the rights, even if the legal basis of their claims is weak’. At the moment there is an absence of case law because of the costs of litigation, but an unsuspecting local historian or society could find themselves in the firing line if a copyright holder decided to threaten action for the ‘publication’ in print, on a CD or the Internet, of text or images in conditions which go beyond ‘research and private study’. The British Academy’s report makes ten recommendations, including a proposal that ‘research’ should treated as distinct from ‘private study’ and should allow ‘the analysis and publication of the results’. Another recommendation makes the point that publication by a research council or charitable body should be protected and treated as ‘presumptively non-commercial’. A four page summary of the report can be downloaded from the British Academy website www.britac.ac.uk. Contact: British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, tel: 020 7969 5200, email: chiefexe@britac.ac.uk.