Exploring the legacy of Ethelburga – a community project focused on the Anglo-Saxon heritage of Lyminge, a village in the Elham Valley in East Kent.
When we began to excavate burials within the chancel of the Anglo-Saxon church, we thought it was likely they were later medieval and not contemporary with the church itself. Up to now we have found no finds to give any kind of date. However, at last we have some pottery, from what appears to be … Continue reading Day 34 – Confirmation of some earlier speculation
Because of the bad weather over night, Day 29 was a wash-out so far as digging was concerned. We did however manage to get in our standard half day on Saturday, when we continued with excavating the burials in the chancel of the Anglo-Saxon church. At the moment, we have no reason to think these … Continue reading Day 30 – Round-up on a revelatory 5 weeks of digging
For the first dry site tour since the dig began, it was great to see 55 people crowding the viewing gallery to hear Gabor Thomas explain where we have got to so far. We are now half way through the dig and we have been thrilled at how much has come to light. We have … Continue reading Day 24 – Half way through the dig
With the end of machining on site, we now have more volunteers available and can begin exploring what we hope are the remaining archaeological layers. We don't know what Canon Jenkins left, but we are hoping that he concentrated on the walls and left undisturbed archaeology for us to investigate. The coming weeks will reveal … Continue reading Day 13, Week 3 begins
After a break of something over 900 years, the Anglo-Saxon church once again saw a church service within its walls this evening. Evensong began with prayers conducted from the chancel. These were selected from the Ionan tradition with which Queen Ethelburga no doubt became familiar when she was in Northumbria. This was a one-off opportunity. … Continue reading Putting the church back into use
As today is a rest day, there are no excavations on which we can report. Instead, a feature article has been added here setting out some of the story of how Canon Jenkins came to be in Lyminge in the first place, how he came to discover the Anglo-Saxon church, and why he developed what we … Continue reading Uncovering the history of the church in Lyminge
The picture above shows what appears to be the end of the chancel and the beginning of the nave of the Anglo-Saxon church. You can see that the wall turns, causing the width of the nave (at the top of the picture) to be greater than the width of the chancel (at the bottom of … Continue reading Day 9 – Re-interpreting Canon Jenkins’ discoveries
Nice though the brick path revealed yesterday appeared to be, on closer examination it was not in great shape. Many of the bricks were cracked and shattered, and clearly they had not done a good job although a lot of effort had gone into laying them. We believe that the bricks were laid in the … Continue reading Day 8 – The Anglo-Saxon church begins to take shape
At the start of our second week, it was good to see a steady flow of visitors to our viewing platform over the course of the day. We have continued machining off the tarmac paths and this surface has now largely been removed. By the Memorial Garden, there is no make-up under the path and … Continue reading Day 7 – Anglo-Saxon masonry is revealed
Work continued on site today in good conditions. Trench 1, opened yesterday in the New Churchyard has been taken down to the chalk bedrock and cleaned up. The pits appear to be natural formations. This trench will now be back-filled as there is nothing of further interest to be found. Close by, Gabor thought it … Continue reading Day 3 and the preparatory work continues
