Day 20 – A day of star finds

Work continued today to investigate the interior of the chancel.  The Victorian revetment for the path to the porch was removed leaving an island of archaeology in the middle of the chancel that, so far as we know, was never investigated by Canon Jenkins.  Ironically, as the revetment was removed, we in fact found something that Jenkins’ workmen had found but no one at the time had identified.  This was a piece of what we believe is oolithic limestone, apparently a fragment of one of the columns from the triple arcade dividing the chancel from the nave.

The limestone is a distinctive colour, very different from any stone found locally.  We know that such stone was used for the arcades at both Reculver and St Pancras in Canterbury, at around the same date as our church.  Possibly this is a re-used column salvaged from a Roman building like the brick that is found so frequently at Lyminge.  The picture below shows the curve of the fragment, from which it will be possible to work out the diameter of the column.

The discovery of a 14th century penny in the path was captured on film and can be viewed on this Twitterfeed

It’s been a great day for finds.  It is also nice to see that we are now advertising our project partners and our principal project sponsors, on a panel at the entrance to the churchyard.  Which is also an opportunity to remind everyone that we may have raised enough money to start the project, but we still need further funding to complete all our objectives.  If you would like to help us, please donate here

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