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An Archaeological Study of the Crossing Piers and Nave Arcade of the Great Church

Three massive baulks of masonry survive from the nave and transepts of the great church of Glastonbury Abbey. In recent years these surviving portions have been the subject of a painstaking programme of conservation. The erection of scaffolding for this work has provided a rare chance for these parts of the abbey to be examined and recorded in detail. The analysis, carried out by local archaeologist Jerry Sampson, has shown that the surviving portions embody an enormous amount of information about the building of the church after the fire at the abbey in 1184, and about subsequent changes to the fabric.

This report presents the results of Jerry's study and gives access to the full archive of line drawings and photographs which he has compiled. It is hosted by the Archaeology Data Service, the national body which publishes and archives archaeological records of this sort.

Click on the link below to access the report:

http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?glastonbury_abbey_2007

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The Author, Jerry Sampson

Jerry Sampson is a leading specialist in the archaeological study of medieval buildings, especially the great churches. He has carried out some of the most important building studies in south-west England, including those of the West Front at Wells and the Lady Chapel at Glastonbury, and is the author of several major publications in this field. He is the Consultant Archaeologist to St David's Cathedral and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and lives in Glastonbury.

The Archaeology Data Service

Based at the University of York and part-funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the Joint Information Systems Committee, The Archaeology Data Service is the leading body in Britain publishing a archiving the results of archaeological work through digital means. This appears on their web homepage:

'The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) supports research, learning and teaching with high quality and dependable digital resources. It does this by preserving digital data in the long term, and by promoting and disseminating a broad range of data in archaeology. The ADS promotes good practice in the use of digital data in archaeology, it provides technical advice to the research community, and supports the deployment of digital technologies.'