They’re bolt on earths I think which is why they’re exposed. Easy and safe to check.
FIXED IT!!! Found that 120amp fuse to be blown 
can only imagine that when i put the original battery back on after charging it must have been faulty and popped the 120amp fuse. The fuse IS on the underside of the 2x 6mm nuts so not really visable, you have to take the black cover off, unclip and lift out the wiring tray with all of the relays and fuses in, then tilt and look on the left hand side you will see a white square about 20mm with a clear plastic ‘window’ that has the numbers 120 on it. This is the main fuse for the fuse box, you are supposed to be able to look through this window to see if the fuse link has broken, very difficult and awkward to see this. I decided to loosen off the 2 x 6mm nuts on top of the wiring tray which enabled me to remove the fuse - be very careful not to let the retaining nuts drop down into the lower reaches of the fuse box, the nuts tend to find the most difficult places to hide, believe me, I know from experience and donating some knuckle skin in the process of retrieval - you can then closely examine the fuselink through the plastic window, you can also pop off the window to look closer if it is a bit mucky, (see pics below )I also put the multi-meter across the copper terminals to see if there was continuity, low and behold, fuse blown !! This confirms why I wasn’t getting continuity across the 2 x 6mm nuts on top when I tested earlier. Not having a spare 120amp fuse I used a piece of 60 fuse wire to do a test. Bingo! all ignition, all little red lights AND the radio came on without needing a code !! 
Happy days, panic over
Thanks for all of your input / suggestions / help earlier, I hope this helps if someone else has a similar problem. 
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Thanks for the info, everyday is a learning day.
Glad you got it fixed, well found the reason for the electrical woes
seams a bit strange to me are you sure the new battery you got had the terminals the correct way around, when I got my replacement battery the garage told me that all batteries come with the - + either way round on the battery (so positive is not always on the same side)
100% sure that the battery and terminals were in the right way for the car, I have a few toys to play with so I am always charging one or two batteries so I make a point of writing on each battery in black indelible ink POS & + on the red and NEG & - on the black so as I can see them before connecting.
wow, 120A fuse blown, that’s a lot of current, sounds like something shorted straight to earth…
Only thing i can think is that the original battery just didn’t like being charged off the car and the plates shorted out , maybe no water inside? then when I connected the battery back onto the car terminals…Boom, Crackle, Spark Short ?
Anywho’s, as Mick say’s, everyday is a school day
An internal battery short is just that. It won’t blow car fuses. The short was somewhere in the car, which you need to find, or the battery was connected the wrong way round, Sorry…
Js
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