Excavation looks for evidence of early monastery in Llantwit Major

Report from Dr Tim Young MA PHD Cardiff University

Glamorgan Star 14/09/2023

1 minute read

| Preparing the excavation site. Photo: Geoff Timms.

STUDENTS from Cardiff University Archaeology Department have been conducting an excavation in the Globe Field (just to the south of St Illtud’s Church) with help from members of the Llantwit Major Local History Society and other volunteers.

The work is part of a broader project (the Dr DG Smith memorial project) looking for evidence of the early medieval monastery at Llantwit. The project has already undertaken many geophysical surveys in and around Llantwit over the last few years, and these have identified several areas of interest.

The trench is located over a stone bank, once separating two fields, that was identified during one of the geophysical surveys in 2022. The geophysical evidence for the bank was very similar to that for the earthwork banks in the Great Ley (the ‘Dovecot Field’). The excavation is intended to determine the age of the bank, something that the geophysics cannot provide, and hence perhaps the age of the banks in the Great Ley.

The trench has also exposed the foundations of a more recent field wall, removed between the date of the Tithe map of 1840 and the first Ordinance Survey edition, made during the 1870s.

The excavations have already received plenty of attention from both residents and visitors, and the team extended an invitation for those particularly interested to visit the excavation recently, which was held on Saturday, 9th September.

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