SWX1119 - Report on excavations at Abbotsbury Abbey, Dorset, 1967; Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

Interim report on excavations on the north wall of the north nave aisle at St. Peter's abbey church, Abbotsbury. The site had been excavated in 1871-2 by the Rev. G. H. Penny when several walls and patches of tile pavement were uncovered. Some of these walls remained in view for several years, but were subsequently filled in to ground level. The site of the north wall of the north nave aisle was re-excavated by the Greens in 1967: '…on the N. side of the wall the turf only has been removed to reveal the line of the wall and the outl;ine of a substantial buttress. A trench on the south side of the wall passed through loose soil containing modern rubbish to a depth of 2 ft. where undisturbed patches of original tile pavement remain. The pavement consists of plain red square and rectangular tiles with a border of smaller tiles bearing worn traces of pattern, apparently arranged in a haphazard fashion. At the eastern end of the trench a rough stone slab of irregular outline replaces the tile pavement. Where the tiles are lacking, the mortar impression of their reverse survives in places; elsewhere a foundation of undressed stone is visible…' The north wall of the abbey is built of Corallian oolitic limestone. The base of two piers were excavated along with their intervening bays. The bays contain stone benches that project slightly into the aisle. An attached octagonal base rises from the front of each pier. These appear to have supported circular monlithic shafts of which no trace remains, save for the hollow in the pier into which the shaft engaged. The moulding of the bases is typical 15th century work. Excavations were continuing at the site at the time this article was written.