Archaeological monitoring and recording at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset

An archaeological excavation was undertaken by Oakford Archaeology in March 2014 at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset. The site lies in a Scheduled Monument and the work was therefore required by English Heritage. The Written Scheme of Investigation was prepared by the Consultant Archaeologist to Glastonbury Abbey. The trench was cut to the south of the Lady Chapel built in 1184-6, which stands on the site of the vetusta ecclesia - the abbey's old timber church, traditionally identified as the church which served the earliest (pre-Saxon) monastery. The area to the south of the church was the ancient cemetery, enclosed by Dunstan in the late 10th century. The work comprised the hand excavation of a single trench to improve drainage around the south and west side of the Lady Chapel. This extended from the junction with the Galilee immediately to the south-west of the Lady Chapel, heading west, then north between St Dunstans Chapel and the Lady Chapel- a distance of c. 25m. The work showed that the ground had been disturbed to the depth of at least 0.8m probably by early 20th-century archaeological excavations probably undertaken by Frederick Bligh Bond. In addition, the trench exposed a large quantity of discarded archaeological finds, including glass furnace and iron working fragments, medieval floor and roof tiles, medieval and post-medieval pottery, medieval architectural fragments, clay pipes, miscellaneous ceramic objects, worked stone fragments and metalwork