10th Year of the Berkeley Dig - Talk by Dr Stuart Prior, 2 May 2014

Once again, a large group of Friends of Berkeley Castle were entertained by the inimitable Dr Stuart Prior as he brought us up to date on the Berkeley Dig, now in its 10th year, and in the process managed to turn history on its head!

  

This year’s Dig in Berkeley will concentrate on the Paddock, hoping to find more evidence of Robert Fitzharding’s ‘Norman Town’ with its houses down both sides of High Street; the Norman Hall, or house, discovered a couple of years ago at the west end of the paddock, alongside the High Street, is very similar in layout to a rare ‘Jew’s House’ in Lincoln and indeed to Robert Fitzharding’s own house in Bristol which was excavated in the 1980’s.  Also under investigation will be Anglo Saxon layers in the Paddock and the Norman Cess Pits which were placed on top of a massive Anglo Saxon ditch and which have already yielded good finds.  As there are also signs of a Roman road or trackway, it looks as if there may have been continuity of Christianity in Berkeley from Roman times to the present day! 

Much more to follow in the next issue of “The Buttress”!