EDO5342 - Milton Abbey Church, Milton Abbas; excavations 1955-57

The Royal Commission undertook three seasons of excavation in and around the abbey church at Milton Abbas, in order to try to understand the plan of the present church and the earlier church on the site which burnt down in 1309. The excavations were directed by E A Gee. The three seasons work revealed elements of the 13th century and earlier church, but the complete plan and extent of this church was not revealed. They did reveal the plan of the ambulatory and east chapels of the later church which were subsequently demolished. The excavations confirmed that the early church did not extend beyond the west wall of the later church and that the nave of the present church had not been started at Dissolution. The east end of the earlier church lay to the east of the present church.