'Fantastic remains' discovered at Cookham archaeological dig
A team from the University of Reading is examining an 8th century monastery on the Berkshire-Buckinghamshire border
Last updated 30th Jul 2025
Archaeologists including students and volunteers have been carrying out a summer dig at an 8th century monastery on the banks of the Thames at Cookham in Berkshire.
The site is one of the rarest in Britain because it's not been built on - meaning the history beneath the ground is untouched.
It's the fifth year the archaeology department at the University of Reading has examined the site.
This year work has continued on a cemetery and new exploration has taken place on a watermill and leat (water channel).
Journalists have been shown around the site to mark the halfway point of the dig.
Thom Hayes is director of the summer field school:
"We have found some fantastic remains, so we have found quite a few fragments of worked bone in the form of hair combs and we're found that in the leat itself which has been pushed in there.
"We've also found some remains of some Anglo-Saxon glass which is incredibly rare both in terms of some beautiful blue glass but also some very delicate very rare vessel glass possibly from a wine goblet."
He also says there's a lot more to discover.
"We know that in these type of sites there would be multiple satellite chapels and we haven't found any of those, we've also not found the full extent of the cemetery either we have so much more to do and so much more to find."
Experts believe the monastery, led by Queen Cynethryth more than 1,200 years ago, was used as a care centre where surgeries, herbal remedies and other medical support was offered to the sick and dying.
Initial analysis of the 23 skeletons excavated from the 80 burials previously discovered at the site showed monastery residents suffered from poor health, ranging from skeletal trauma, to infections, to tumours.