Folk musician Eliza Carthy recently wrote of how appalled she was to find herself listed as one of far-right party leader Nick Griffin's favourite musicians. And who can blame her?

But this episode goes deeper than one folk singer's embarrassment. Griffin's championing of English folk music is one element of a wider cultural strategy being pursued by far-right parties. This involves forging a connection between the deeply felt sense of socio-economic marginalisation prevalent in some communities and the more overt espousal of pro-English, as opposed to pro-British, nationalism.

This shift in cultural politics on the far right is a prescient and overlooked one. According to research shortly to be published by the Institute for Public Policy Research, an attachment to Englishness has become a more significant feature within the social culture of England than many of our politicians have realised. This trend has also become powerfully intertwined with divisions associated with class.

Remains of one of the oldest members of the English royal family, Edith of England, have been located at the Magdeburger Dom in Germany. A lead coffin was discovered, bearing the name Eadgyth, the old spelling for Edith. Inside the coffin, a nearly complete female skeleton was found, wrapped in silk.

Queen Eadgyth, the sister of King Athelstan and the granddaughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex became the wife of Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor in 929. She lived in Saxony and bore Otto at least two children, before her death in 946 at the age of 36.

She was then buried at the Monastery of Mauritius in Magdeburg, Germany. Her tomb was later marked in the Cathedral by an elaborate sixteenth century monument, thought to be a cenotaph. If bones were to be found here, they would have had to been moved to this later tomb.

The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found has been unearthed on farmland in Staffordshire by a metal detector enthusiast, archaeologists revealed today.

Terry Herbert, 55, from Burntwood, came across the huge hoard as he searched a field near his home. The exact location of the discovery has not been disclosed but it is understood to be near the Lichfield border in South Staffordshire, in what was once the independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

Experts said that the collection of more than 1,500 military artefacts, including helmets, sword pommels and sword hilt ornaments possibly looted on the field of battle 1,400 years by a victorious warlord, is unparalleled in size and may have belonged to Saxon royalty.

The hoard contains around 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, far bigger than previous finds such as the Snettisham hoards. Some of it was lying in the open on top of the ploughed field.