Festival of Archaeology 2024
Events at St Helen's - a talk, a church tour and a brand new churchyard tour
Festival of Archaeology Talk - Leicester Cathedral Revealed
Mathew Morris, Project Officer at University of Leicester Archaeological Services, visited on 9th July.
Our speaker, Mathew Morris
Mathew has over 20 years of commercial archaeological experience. He has excavated a wide range of rural and urban archaeology across the Midlands, from the prehistoric period through to the Industrial Revolution. He has spent much of his career digging up Leicester and, in 2012, he supervised the successful archaeological search for the lost grave of King Richard III. His interests include urban archaeology, Roman and medieval archaeology and communicating archaeology to new audiences.
Leicester Cathedral Revealed
The construction of Leicester Cathedral's new heritage learning centre has revealed a fascinating snapshot of life in Leicester over the past 2,000 years, including a possible Roman shrine, an Anglo-Saxon building and a burial ground in use from the late Saxon period to the 19th century. Mathew talked about the recent archaeological excavations at Leicester Cathedral and what they tell us about the lives of the people of St Martin's parish and the story of Leicester.
The Leicester Cathedral Revealed project has been made possible thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players.
Guided Tour of St Helen's Church
Saturday 13th July at 2 pm
This was a great opportunity to explore this Grade 1 listed 15th Century church with our experienced tour guides and learn more about its history and some of its people. St Helen's has close connections to royalty and to the early Puritan movement in England. We also have a unique 15th Century sundial on the south face of our church tower.
In 2012 an archaeological dig on the site where our Community Heritage Centre now stands revealed important new information about our site. Trent & Peak Archaeology found the remains of a medieval vicarage, a causeway to the town's original Grammar School (founded in 1557) and the remains of trenches dug by Civil War soldiers protecting the Castle. A display board in the Heritage Centre describes the dig in detail and important finds are on display, along with interpretive murals.
The church contains many important memorials and artefacts. No other church in England has a pilgrim memorial and we know of only one other finger pillory in England.
Churchyard Tour on 15th July
We were delighted to welcome 38 people to this brand new tour, developed for this year's Festival of Archaeology.
Our churchyard is an ancient burial place. The earliest church built here was Anglo-Saxon, so the churchyard is probably at least 1,000 years old and may contain as many as 10,000 burials. For centuries, it was the only burial place in Ashby, so it accommodated everyone, whatever their faith. In the 1850s it was declared full and was closed to all but burials in existing family plots which still had space.
There have been a few more recent burials by special arrangement - a longstanding 19th century vicar and a member of the Hastings family are among these.
Visitors learned about some of the Ashby personalities of centuries gone by who are buried here. Our guides discussed the grim report of the Board of Health in 1849 and explored the tale of the bodysnatchers. They also explained when the gravestones were laid flat - and why.