Excavations are continuing on the ruins of a monastery in Dorset.
Cerne Abbey was founded in 987 AD as a Benedictine monastery by Æthelmær the Stout, nevertheless in 1539 it fell victim to the Dissolution – the destructive campaign by Henry VIII to suppress the monasteries.
The Dissolution was essentially a royal land and power grab, by which Henry VIII acquired much of the wealth held by the monasteries to be used by the royal treasuries. Eliminating the monasteries also served to remove Catholic resistance to the Protestant reformers.
The ruins of Cerne Abbey had lain largely undisturbed until 2022, and it was not until 2023 that a team of archaeologists from Sheffield University conducted the primary dig at the positioning. The excavations uncovered an intact burial and further work in 2024 revealed evidence of a medieval hall.
Now researchers have uncovered a lot of recent findings, notably that the hall originally served because the abbot’s lodging and later was changed into a glazier’s workshop.
Numerous pits have also been discovered. These date back to the very earliest days of the monastery and contained pottery and animal bones.
Dr Hugh Willmott told the BBC, “Everything we’re doing here is brand recent and telling us things we didn’t already know.
“We’ve found one other a part of the late medieval abbey – the north end of the east range of the essential cloister constructing.
“That’s a part of the monastery where the monks would have had their dormitory.”
The discoveries included numerous iron nails. Blacksmith, Will Sherman, arrange a forge at the positioning and has been using them to make copies of medieval artefacts.
Sherman said, “The nails usually are not interesting archaeologically but I’ve been making them into copies of things, so it’s medieval iron forged right into a medieval shape. It’s cool to indicate people here who dig these items up how they are literally made.”
 Excavations are continuing on the ruins of a monastery in Dorset. Cerne Abbey was founded in 987...){kind=link}