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.
Thursday was a very hot day and it was decided to work only a half day to avoid the heat and humidity of the afternoon. Nevertheless we made reasonable progress over the morning. The focus was on the cross-wall separating the chancel from the nave. If you have been following the blog, you will know … Continue reading Day 16 – The chancel cross-wall revealed
It was a very hot day on site on Tuesday. Progress is now necessarily slower because we are hand-digging everything, but also it is hard work in the heat. We are taking down the ground level east of the apse and have encountered burials that may well be early and associated with the Anglo-Saxon church. … Continue reading Day 14 – Questions around the porch
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
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
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?
