The Society for Church Archaeology

05/09/2025

This little fellow is popping up to remind you that our next online talk is taking place next Tuesday (9th September) at 7pm. Our secretary, Dr Rachel Askew, will be giving a talk entitled 'Stories of the Stones, a Biography of Mercian Sculpture at Breedon Priory, Leicestershire'. Full details appear below and you can book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-eagkded . Talks are FREE for members and £3 for non-members. We look forward to seeing you there!

Abstract:
Breedon Priory Church (Leics.) is famous for its Mercian sculpture, created c.775-825 and one of the largest collections of early medieval sculpture in England. The site has a complex ecclesiastical history, in turns Mercian monastery, Augustinian priory and parish church, and this is reflected in the role played by the sculpture, which has been variously celebrated, hidden and destroyed. This talk will examine the later medieval and post-medieval biography of Breedon and its sculpture and demonstrate that the current appearance of the sculpture can only be understood through the way it has been treated through time.

26/08/2025

Just a quick reminder to book your tickets for our next online talk on Tuesday, 9th September at 7pm. Our secretary, Dr Rachel Askew will be giving a talk entitled 'Stories of the Stones, a Biography of Mercian Sculpture at Breedon Priory, Leicestershire'. Full details appear below and you can book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-eagkded . Talks are FREE for members and £3 for non-members. We look forward to seeing you there!

Abstract:
Breedon Priory Church (Leics.) is famous for its Mercian sculpture, created c.775-825 and one of the largest collections of early medieval sculpture in England. The site has a complex ecclesiastical history, in turns Mercian monastery, Augustinian priory and parish church, and this is reflected in the role played by the sculpture, which has been variously celebrated, hidden and destroyed. This talk will examine the later medieval and post-medieval biography of Breedon and its sculpture and demonstrate that the current appearance of the sculpture can only be understood through the way it has been treated through time.

21/08/2025

Do you exciting research on any aspect of ecclesiatical places of worship that you want to share with the world? If so, our editor would love to hear from you! We are now looking for submissions for next year's volume and welcome papers both large and small. If you think you may have something suitable, please contact our editor Carolyn Twomey at editorchurcharchaeology @ outlook.com for further details.

19/08/2025

Booking is now open for our annual conference, which this year is in Lincoln on 11th October 2025. This year's theme is Church Archaeology in 2025, and we have a broad and exciting range of papers exhibiting the wide range of approaches to ecclesiastical sites. Our keynote speaker will be Prof David Stocker, who will also be leading a walking tour of Lincoln churches the following day (additional charges apply). Admission is £30 for members and £55 for non-members, for more information and booking details please see https://www.churcharchaeology.org/current-conference . We hope to see you there!

17/08/2025

We are pleased to announce that booking is now open for our next online talk on Tuesday, 9th September at 7pm. Our secretary, Dr Rachel Askew will be giving a talk entitled 'Stories of the Stones, a Biography of Mercian Sculpture at Breedon Priory, Leicestershire'. Full details appear below and you can book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-eagkded . Talks are FREE for members and £3 for non-members. We look forward to seeing you there!

Abstract:
Breedon Priory Church (Leics.) is famous for its Mercian sculpture, created c.775-825 and one of the largest collections of early medieval sculpture in England. The site has a complex ecclesiastical history, in turns Mercian monastery, Augustinian priory and parish church, and this is reflected in the role played by the sculpture, which has been variously celebrated, hidden and destroyed. This talk will examine the later medieval and post-medieval biography of Breedon and its sculpture and demonstrate that the current appearance of the sculpture can only be understood through the way it has been treated through time.

01/07/2025

There are still tickets available for this next Tuesday's talk on Tuesday on 'Buried Treasure: telling the hidden stories of the past to today’s audiences - but what are we telling them?' by Dr Louise Hampson. The talk starts at 7pm and you can book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-yaopyao . Talks are FREE for members and £3 for non-members. An abstract appears below and we look forward to seeing you there!

This talk is about two church projects in which archaeology is or has been central to public engagement with the history of the site and understanding the church and its work today. The first is Hull Minster, where extensive archaeological intervention and excavation of the church surroundings, its churchyard and its detached burial ground (necessitated by both significant reordering, the creation of Trinity Square for City of Culture, and the demands of the Highways Agency works to the A63!) have enabled us to tell new and untold stories about the church, the community and the development of Hull. This has drawn in new people, built skills and engagement, and connected the heritage to their current life. The second church is St Michael le Belfrey, a very significant church in York which is undergoing a radical internal reordering and installation of a baptism immersion pool. These works have required extensive internal archaeological excavation which have revealed fascinating insights into the church origins, former parishioners (via previously concealed ledger slabs) and the story and role of the church in the city. These findings have significantly improved the current community's understanding and appreciation of the history of the building and how their current project is just the latest chapter in a long story. But both projects have also opened up some questions about how these stories are told and where. This talk will explore some of the ethical and philosophical considerations and discussions which have taken place, and reflect on some of the decisions taken and the basis on which these were made.

Tickets are now available for SCA Online Talk: Buried Treasure: telling the hidden stories of the past to today’s audiences at Online, Online on Tue 8 Jul 2025 at 7:00PM. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

12/06/2025

We are pleased to announce that booking is now open for our next online talk on Tuesday, 8th July at 7pm. Dr Louise Hampson from the University of York will be giving a talk entitled 'Buried Treasure: telling the hidden stories of the past to today’s audiences - but what are we telling them?'. Full details appear below and you can book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-yaopyao . Talks are FREE for members and £3 for non-members. We look forward to seeing you there!

This talk is about two church projects in which archaeology is or has been central to public engagement with the history of the site and understanding the church and its work today. The first is Hull Minster, where extensive archaeological intervention and excavation of the church surroundings, its churchyard and its detached burial ground (necessitated by both significant reordering, the creation of Trinity Square for City of Culture, and the demands of the Highways Agency works to the A63!) have enabled us to tell new and untold stories about the church, the community and the development of Hull. This has drawn in new people, built skills and engagement, and connected the heritage to their current life. The second church is St Michael le Belfrey, a very significant church in York which is undergoing a radical internal reordering and installation of a baptism immersion pool. These works have required extensive internal archaeological excavation which have revealed fascinating insights into the church origins, former parishioners (via previously concealed ledger slabs) and the story and role of the church in the city. These findings have significantly improved the current community's understanding and appreciation of the history of the building and how their current project is just the latest chapter in a long story. But both projects have also opened up some questions about how these stories are told and where. This talk will explore some of the ethical and philosophical considerations and discussions which have taken place, and reflect on some of the decisions taken and the basis on which these were made.

11/05/2025

There are still spaces available for this Tuesday's Online Talk at 7pm, so if you haven't booked your place already, do so now! Prof Tom Pickles (University of Chester) will be speaking on Early Christian Churches and Landscapes (ECCLES): Co-Creating a Database with Educational and Infrastructural Resources. A full abstract appears below. Tickets are available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-molkaez and are free for society members (£3 plus booking fee for non-members). We look forward to seeing you there!

Early Christian Churches and Landscapes (ECCLES): Co-Creating a Database with Educational and Infrastructural Resources
Inspired by a European project - Corpus Architecturae Religiosae Europeae (CARE) - ECCLES is a project aiming to create a publicly accessible, searchable database of the evidence for churches in Britain and Ireland before about AD 1100. Using a UKRI AHRC Research Network grant and then Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement, we have been co-creating the web resource and database with three types of stakeholders - strategic (those concerned with policy about churches), educational (those interested in teaching about churches), and infrastructural (those responsible for on-site presentation of churches). This talk will discuss how we have approached the project, what pilot data we have produced, what educational resources we have co-created with teachers, and what we have learned from 'social value' workshops with local communities.

Tickets are now available for SCA Online Talk: Early Christian Churches and Landscapes (ECCLES) at Online, Online on Tue 13 May 2025 at 7:00PM. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

14/04/2025

We are pleased to announce that booking is now live for the Society's next online talk, on 13th May. Prof Tom Pickles (University of Chester) will be giving a talk on Early Christian Churches and Landscapes (ECCLES): Co-Creating a Database with Educational and Infrastructural Resources. A full abstract appears below. Tickets are available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca/t-molkaez and are free for society members (£3 plus booking fee for non-members). We look forward to seeing you there!

Early Christian Churches and Landscapes (ECCLES): Co-Creating a Database with Educational and Infrastructural Resources

Inspired by a European project - Corpus Architecturae Religiosae Europeae (CARE) - ECCLES is a project aiming to create a publicly accessible, searchable database of the evidence for churches in Britain and Ireland before about AD 1100. Using a UKRI AHRC Research Network grant and then Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement, we have been co-creating the web resource and database with three types of stakeholders - strategic (those concerned with policy about churches), educational (those interested in teaching about churches), and infrastructural (those responsible for on-site presentation of churches). This talk will discuss how we have approached the project, what pilot data we have produced, what educational resources we have co-created with teachers, and what we have learned from 'social value' workshops with local communities.

13/04/2025

Those who enjoyed Chiz Harward's talk on his work on Holy Trinity Church, Minchinhampton will be pleased to know that his book will be published! For those that missed his talk, it will be available shortly on our website, see https://www.churcharchaeology.org/events for a link. Full details of Chiz's book (which we are very much looking forward to read) can be found below).e

If you have a paper you would like to give to the society, our call for papers for our Annual Conference (held this year in Lincoln) is now open. See https://www.churcharchaeology.org/current-conference for futher details

17/03/2025

We are pleased to announce our Call for Papers for this year's Society Conference, which will be held in Lincoln on 11th October (with a tour of Lincoln churches the following day). The theme for this year's conference is 'Church Archaeology in 2025', and we are considering papers that reflect the diversity of current approaches to ecclesiastical sites. Topics might include (but are not limited to):

- New approaches to church archaeology
- New discoveries at ecclesiastical sites
- Recent work on material culture including memorials, bells and furnishings
- The use of heritage and community archaeology in engaging new audiences

For more details, please see https://www.churcharchaeology.org/current-conference

Image: Lincoln Cathedral by Thomas Girtin (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

09/03/2025

This is a friendly reminder that our next online talk is at 7pm this Tuesday (11th March). Dr George Nash (University of Liverpool) will be speaking on his recent work on Llanddwyn Island, Ynys Mon (Anglesey). A full abstract appears below. Tickets are free to SCA members (£3 for non-members plus booking fee) and can be booked through the society's TicketSource page: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/sca We look forward to seeing you there!

Abstract for SCA Online Talk: For over a millennium, a small monastic community resided on Llanddwyn Island, located off the coast of Ynys Môn (Anglesey). The island, associated with St Dwynwen—patron saint of lovers—later became the site of a Benedictine monastery, with a church dedicated to the saint. The only visible remnants of this prolonged ecclesiastical history are the ruins of the church, which was abandoned in the 18th century. The original architectural layout of the monastery remains uncertain. In recent years, George Nash and his research team have conducted extensive excavations and surveys of the ruined church. This included a targeted excavation between 2013 and 2014, as well as a geophysical survey in 2022, focused on land immediately south of the churchyard precinct, where both buried and standing remains of a monastic building complex are situated. In this lecture, Dr Nash will present the findings from these excavations and surveys, offering insights into the historical and archaeological significance of this remote site.