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Archaeologists return to 8th Century monastery

University of Reading An aerial view of the site, next to a church where archaeologists are digging, with the River Thames close byUniversity of Reading
The dig continues in Paddock Field, next to Holy Trinity Church, in Cookham

Archaeologists are carrying out further excavations at an 8th Century monastery to provide more insight into life and death more than 1,200 years ago.

The team from the University of Reading first discovered the Anglo-Saxon site in Cookham, Berkshire, in 2021.

This will be the fourth dig on land belonging to Holy Trinity Church.

Professor Gabor Thomas, who is leading the excavations by the University of Reading, said they had "begun to paint a detailed picture of the layout and social conditions of the monastery".

Prof Gabor Thomas smiling at the camera, wearing a blue T-shirt. He has short grey, white hair and facial stubble. In the background people are digging with trowels at the site
Prof Gabor Thomas says "there is still a huge amount more to discover"

He explained: “There are records of a monastery existing in Cookham - a royal monastery - but the precise location wasn't known until we came along and started doing work within this area.

"We can say unequivocally that the monastery stood on this strategic site right next to the River Thames.”

He continued: "We’ve got a rare opportunity to understand the physical layout of a monastery, at this period, on quite a large scale.

"What we're trying to understand is what different activities took part within the monastery and how did that play out on a day-to-day basis."

Dirty, muddy hands holding an item found on the dig - part of a wooden bowl that was preserved in a well
During this years dig, excavators found part of a wooden bowl

In one of the trenches, archaeologists found a wooden bowl which Prof Thomas described as “unbelievable”.

“What we're looking at here is the fragments or half fragment of a lathe, turn wooden bowl," he explained.

“The reason it is so remarkable is that wood doesn’t normally preserve on archaeological sites, which are predominantly dry, but down in the bottom of the well we have preserved waterlogging.”

He explained that utensils that normally survive on sites like this are ceramic but that’s “only a biased view of the vessels that people used in daily life” and in his opinion wooden bowls would have been more prevalent.

“We don't get them surviving in the archaeological record, so to have evidence like this is just breathtaking really,” he added.

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