Archaeologists explore 8th Century cemetery in Berkshire village
It's the third summer in a row university of Reading scientists have carried out an excavation on the site of an early medieval abbey in Cookham
Last updated 14th Aug 2023
Archaeologists from the university of Reading are back at the site of an 8th century monastery on the banks of the river Thames at Cookham.
It's the third summer in a row the student archaeologists have explored the extensive site.
The four-week excavation is conducted as a Field School for the University of Reading’s Department of Archaeology. Archaeologists and students carried out the first in-depth exploration of the monastery site next to the churchyard of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Cookham since it was rediscovered by Reading archaeologists in 2021 after centuries of debate over its location.
The monastery thrived in the 8th and early 9th centuries AD reaching its peak under a royal abbess, the powerful Anglo-Saxon queen Cynethryth, after the death in 796 AD of her husband King Offa who ruled the Mercia kingdom. It was seemingly abandoned towards the end of the 9th century.
Professor Gabor Thomas - who is leading the dig - said:
"Sites like this are like gold dust many are just buried deep under modern occupation you just can't get to the archaeology. This site was abandoned towards the end of the 9th century so it's a really rare opportunity to investigate at scale one of these institutions.
"We know it existed here for a couple of hundred years so we're interested in answering basic questions like 'when was this monastery was first founded?', 'What was the political context on which that foundation happened?', so if you like an understanding of change through time as well as how things were organised in terms of space.
"This year we have emerging what seems to be a quite extensive monastic cemetery we know from finds last year these burials date from the 8th century smack bang on the period we're interested in."
Amongst the visitors to the site has been local resident and children's TV personality Timmy Mallett he says it's fascinating to discover the history of the place:
"It's not a stone abbey it was made of timber so that has deteriorated over the period so what you find is evidence of where buildings used to be and that leads you to ask questions and asking questions reveals all sorts of wonderful things and now you've got people from all over Cookham coming down and saying 'ooohhh I never knew this was here!'"
Tours of the site are taking place every Saturday morning during the four-week dig which ends on 2 Sept.