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.
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
So here we are at last breaking soil! We have the permissions in place to begin the dig and here is the first archaeology taking place today. Gabor has decided to carry out some test excavations in the New Churchyard before moving back closer to the church to explore the known remains there. The current … Continue reading The start of the dig!
We are delighted to report that Lyminge a history Part 10 is now published and there are two articles within it relating to the church. On the cover is an extract from Canon Jenkins's own field notes showing an early sketch of what he found and what we believe to be an early Anglo-Saxon church, … Continue reading So what are we hoping to find when we dig in the church yard?
We hope to achieve many things with the Pathways to the Past project, but the thing that set us off in the first place is the historical significance of the church site that has been occupied by a church for close to 1,400 years. The archaeological excavations planned as part of the project will hopefully … Continue reading Why is Lyminge Parish Church important?
If you have been following our posts, you will have seen that we are intending to create 3D visualisations of how the church looked at key points in its history. The site is now almost 1,400 years old and the church has changed dramatically over that time. It has changed remarkably even in the last … Continue reading Reconstructing our church through time
