Ivan Clowsley

2013 Leiston Abbey Suffolk

A new archaeological crowd funded organisation Dig Ventures started up in 2012 digging at Flag Fen, unfortunately I couldn’t make that dig. In 2013 however, I went along for a week, to their field school at Leiston Abbey. My partner bought me a tent I bought some camping accessories and a load of beer and off I went to Suffolk another new county for me.

The custodians of Leiston Abbey are Pro Corda a music school. They were concerned that a planned new nuclear power station near Sizewell B could have a major impact on their site. They wanted an archaeological investigation which Dig Ventures were there to undertake.

The Abbey in the evening sunshine.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon pitched our tents and then had a look around the Abbey it was a very beautiful place. We met some of the other participants, Raksha and Kerry Ely from Time Team we’d met before, we had some dinner and then cracked open a beer.

The dig had already been going on for a week and Monday’s was a day off so we set off for Sutton Hoo which was quite close by. We had a great day visiting the museum although most of the ‘treasures’ are in the British Museum now. We saw a recreation of an Anglo Saxon burial. We also had a guided tour of the site. Our guide was brilliant and she finished off the tour as we stood overlooking where the ship burial had been and she read a passage from Beowulf. It described the lavish furnishings of Beowulf’s burial mound. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

In mid week a genial fellow turned up in his Land Rover it was Adam Sandford of Aerial-Cam. He had come along to do some photographic work of the site and excavations. He took some great shots of the Abbey and our work there, he also did a nighttime photography master class and did a talk about his work on Easter Island.

Aerial- Cam’s image of the Abbey from above.

The rest of our week consisted of digging the site that had had Geo Phys work done previously by Jimmy Adcock and Emma Wood. Various areas of interest had been ear marked. Our small band of diggers found a prehistoric drove way. This was a major revelation as there was no record of prehistoric activity on the site. Mary Ann Ochota came to do some digging with her very large dog for a few days, she mucked in and got on with everyone. We had a site visit from Helen Geake and family who live in Suffolk as well as many of the locals who took an interest in what we were up to. As it was a field school we also did some more archaeological practical work. Using a level, doing some recording eg drawing up site plans and writing up recording sheets. It was a very interesting and productive week. There were various activities of an evening to keep us occupied as well as drinking! We had some lectures on various archaeological topics. We had a quiz and also a striped jumper party in honour of Mick Aston. Excavations at Leiston Abbey continued for the next two summers the site reports can be accessed using the link below.

Our time in Suffolk was up so we headed off for the long journey home. I was glad to get home to my own bed I’d under estimated how cold it would be camping in July and ended up sleeping fully clothed inside my sleeping bag.

The ditch associated with the prehistoric droveway and the team excavating it below Photo Jules Hynam.

The proud team. Photo Finn Einer Steen.

The skeleton of a large dog was found and later a story appeared in the press that Black Shuck had been found. Black shuck is a local legend about a devil dog!