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.
We were blessed with beautiful sunny weather on Saturday. This created perfect conditions for the visit by The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, who came to Lyminge to dedicate the new artworks commissioned from local artists for the church and churchyard as part of the Pathways to the Past project. Bishop Rose's visit … Continue reading Celebrating new contemporary art at Lyminge
Despite Covid, the Lyminge Anglo-Saxon Festival got underway in a socially-distanced way on Monday with the first event: Meet the Author Rob Macintosh, who has written a trilogy of novels on the Mission of St Augustine, who brought Roman Christianity to Kent in 597. Of particular interest to us in Lyminge is that a central … Continue reading Lyminge Anglo-Saxon Festival gets under way
The new archaeological display in the north aisle of the parish church has now been fully installed. The exhibits on display are a selection of the few tantalising excavated fragments that give an insight into how the Anglo-Saxon church was built. A graphic panel provides more information about these exhibits. We have used them, as … Continue reading A new archaeological display for the parish church
The simple answer is: 'you bet we have!' It's time to bring you up to date on what is planned and what you can expect to see unfold in the weeks and months ahead as we move towards the end of the project later this year. Glorious daffodils in the churchyard (picture courtesy of Liz … Continue reading So have we been busy over the Winter?
We are delighted to unveil the first view of how Queen Ethelburga's church may have looked around 650 AD shortly after her death. This view has been wonderfully recreated for us by Dom Andrews, archaeological illustrator. We have based the view above on as much actual detail as we have, but inevitably in order to … Continue reading Re-creating Queen Ethelburga’s church
Readers of this blog will know the strange story of St Eadburg (also known as Eadburh), the "forgotten saint" of Lyminge and how she has become confused with St Ethelburga and largely erased from memory, at least within the village. However she has not been totally forgotten and as I recounted in a recent post, … Continue reading St Eadburg’s Well – restoration of an identity
Despite the current lock-down, we are still able to carry on with some work streams for the project. Yesterday, Gabor Thomas and I had a video conference with the team at the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture (CSCC) at the University of York who will be preparing for us the digital reconstructions … Continue reading Exploring how our church has changed through time
Followers of this blog who have delved into the list of suggested reading may have downloaded my paper 'Antiquarians, Victorian Parsons and Re-writing the Past: How Lyminge Parish Church acquired an invented dedication', which was published in Archaeologia Cantiana, the journal of the Kent Archaeological Society, in 2017. This explores how the Rector of Lyminge … Continue reading Discovering St Eadburh of Lyminge
Mother Nikola and the sisters from Minster viewing the 7th Century church from the viewing platform We were delighted to welcome Mother Nikola and the sisters from Minster Abbey to view our Anglo-Saxon church at Lyminge today. This was special because of the ancient connection between Minster-in-Thanet and Lyminge. At the end of the 8th … Continue reading A very special visit
Welcome to the Lyminge Pathways to the Past blog. Thank you for joining us! The Project will progress over the next two years - or more - and is an exciting combination of activities that will include: Re-excavating the remains of what we believe is a very early Anglo-Saxon church. These were first uncovered in … Continue reading The Journey Begins
