Community Dig

Hyde900 is in the privileged position of having a number of prized sites for excavation literally on our doorstep. And we also have a number of local householders more than happy to have their gardens dug over to discover what lies beneath. It presents the kind of opportunities that Time Team could only dream about!
2016 with the help of WARG and forty volunteers – many of whom were getting their hands dirty archaeologically for the first time ever – we excavated a garden in Alswitha Terrace. And we got a result! To our great satisfaction we discovered, on the final day of the dig, the ‘robbed out’ (as archaeologists describe it) wall of the lost South transept of the church – exposed for the first time since the Dissolution of the monastery in 1538. We weren’t totally surprised to find it there but by establishing its exact location we have added significantly to the sum of precise knowledge about the abbey establishment.