January 25th – Feb 11th 2023 – Blanchland Abbey Evaluation Excavations
Back in 2019, during the Blanchland Abbey Resillience Project, Dr Andrew Newton suggested we should commission some geophysical surveys of the Abbey floor as at that time we were considering installing underfloor heating and a small extension behind the tower to house a toilet and servery. The ground penetrating radar showed that there were features of interest which we would need to evaluate further so informed plans could be made. Then the pandemic intervened, but now, a mere three years later, we have the funding and permissions in place to find out what is really beneath the surface!
The four excavation trenches are maked on the above plan as black outlines – three inside the church building and one at the rear of the tower.
Our digs are being led by Dr Rob Young, who was the regional Inspector for Historic England, and has been running community archaeology digs for many years. He’s assisted by our volunteers Drs Andrew and Sheila Newton, and of course our vicar Helen was a professional archaeologist before being ordained.
As the digs go on, we’ll be publishing a dig diary each day on facebook, twitter and instagram, and they will be published on here and emailed out every week.
You can sign up for our email updates here: www.bit.ly/BlanchlandUpdates
