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.
As the autumn leaves start to fall on the foundations of Ethelburga's church, we are slowly beginning the process of restoring the churchyard following the end of the dig and the start of the next phase of the project. The viewing platform has now been dismantled. Our contractors, Astral, will return to site on Monday … Continue reading Restoring the dig site
We have at last got to inspect in more detail the area where we think the west wall of the nave lay. When this area was cleaned initially back on Day 10, there was a fragment of the tell-tale pink mortar in a place that would make the nave twice the length of the chancel. … Continue reading Day 23 – The west wall revealed
We have begun to uncover the first burial within the chancel, which is up against the eastern wall of the Anglo-Saxon apse. This is a prominent position in the church. As the body is of a juvenile, perhaps 8 or 9 years old, it seems unlikely that this is a burial that took place when … Continue reading Day 22 – Face to face with a villager of the past
After the big excitement of yesterday finding the column fragment, we have put more effort into reducing the interior of the chancel. This is ground that was not dug by Canon Jenkins. As expected, we have found burials. What is not clear yet is whether these were intentionally buried in the Anglo-Saxon church while it … Continue reading Day 21 – Continuing to explore the chancel and more
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 … Continue reading Day 20 – A day of star finds
We had the highest number of volunteers so far on site today and they made short work of the 20th Century backfill within the chancel. What you see in the picture above is the Anglo-Saxon 7th Century chancel wall to the right, and to the left curving around within the chancel, is a retaining wall … Continue reading Day 19 – Interesting revelations
This is real-time archaeology. Ideas come and ideas go when more evidence comes to light. So yesterday we were quite convinced that there was a wall between the chancel and the nave of the Anglo-Saxon church. Today we know otherwise. The fragment of wall with the tell-tale pink mortar, that yesterday we thought proved there … Continue reading Day 17 – The Chancel triple arcade is revealed
It is strange how one can pass something familiar many, many times and not appreciate what it actually is. So we have the remarkable discovery that the round arch of the original Norman south door to the current church is still preserved in the stone work above the existing pointed Gothic doorway. You can see … Continue reading Day 15 – A discovery and some questions
There has been more heavy work requiring machinery than we had originally anticipated, but the work is now complete. We have taken out the concrete and flints from around the base of the chancel of the standing church, as you can see here at the east end. The guttering has also been removed from the … Continue reading Day 11 – The site is ready
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
