Welcome to Hyde900

Local resident and owner of the garden yielding the arch fragments, Chris Prior, spotted interesting stonework and tiles in a skip outside a house at the top end of his road. The discovery was to lead him to the remains of a previously unknown medieval building:

• Flint faced foundations of a wall, over one metre wide, is in exact alignment with the cloister buildings.
• A densely packed 10 to 20cm thick layer of shells, mainly oyster, but including mussels, whelks, and winkles, possibly indicating the site of the abbey kitchens.
• Other finds including stonework, brick and tiles dating mainly from the 12^th century to late medieval..

A hugely exciting discovery – to be investigated further in the Hyde900 Community Dig.

For further information see the press release and to see additional additional photos please click read more below.

Hyde900 King Alfred Weekend 2020 – 22nd to 25th October

2020 marks ten years since the original 900th anniversary celebrations of the inauguration of Hyde Abbey, Hyde900’s original mission. Organisation of this year’s programme has necessarily been influenced by the situation and limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Provided the events can take place within government guidelines, the community dig postponed from May will go ahead from 22 to 25th October as part of the King Alfred Weekend. It will then coincide with the CBA (Council for British Archaeology) Festival of Archaeology. More details about the dig can be found here, including a link for those who would like to take part to register their interest here, if you have not already done so.

The King Alfred Weekend programme will also include the very popular guided walks of the Hyde Abbey site, and guided visits to Hyde Abbey Garden, which marks the actual burial place of Alfred the Great and some of his family.

We hope to stage the annual Hyde900 King Alfred Lecture on Friday 23rd, and the AGM with guest speaker and exhibition reflecting some of the last decade’s activities on Saturday 24th. We also hope to provide some sort of cultural – perhaps music or drama – entertainment event on Saturday evening, but all these indoor events particularly, will be very much subject to government restrictions prevailing at the time, which may of course change at short notice.

In the meantime, we have put together a range of free online resources and downloadable activities for adults and children to enjoy at home. More activities will be added regularly, for example, educational worksheets, jigsaws, stories, quizzes and craft activities. We hope you enjoy them.   

More details of the programme will be available shortly. To receive regular updates on these and other Hyde900 activities do register here.

Hyde900 have taken the decision along with other similar organisations and events to postpone the annual community dig until October. We hope very much to be able to offer an exciting opportunity for you to get involved in the dig with many opportunities such as excavating, finds processing and logging finds. We will keep you updated on the website. In the meantime the Hyde900 team are working hard to create an extra activity pack this year which will be featured online in the coming weeks, so that you can learn more about Hyde900 and the history of Hyde.  This online pack will have a variety of activities for adults and children, which we hope you will enjoy. In the meantime, please do feel free to register your interest in our future dig.