More than one million photographs and documents relating to England's historic buildings and archaeological sites have been made available to the public online.

The information - amounting to 1,055,102 records and 82,561 images - is held by the National Monuments Record (NMR), English Heritage's (EH) public archive, and until now could only be accessed in person at the NMR's public search rooms in Swindon, Wiltshire. Using a range of search terms, users can establish whether or not EH holds any items in its archive relevant to the topic in which they are interested. Such items are mainly photographs but maps, plans and reports are also available. Searches can be made for a type of building - such as schools or churches - or for an exact address.

The database, for which registration is free but with customers being charged for any documents ordered, can be accessed at wwww.englishheritagearchives.org.uk