boundaries

Offa’s Dyke: Excavating the CA archive

My column this month is on one of the least-known ‘great sites’ of all: Offa’s Dyke, the linear earthwork that stretches along the Welsh/English border. Most people know Hadrian’s Wall, and a fair few the Antonine Wall, but how many of us can say that we are familiar with Offa’s Dyke, either the standing sections of it that survive or the National Trail of that name that runs from Sedbury in the south to Prestatyn in the north?

Gates of the City of London

Review by AB The City of London’s seven historic gates – Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Moorgate, Bishopsgate, and Aldgate – were first constructed in the Roman period and continued to play a central role in controlling access to the city…

Opposite Looking north east over recent excavations led by the University of Reading in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church, Cookham. Headed by Dr Gabor Thomas as part of the university’s Middle Thames Archaeology Partnership, the project’s findings are helping to illuminate the location of a long lost Anglo Saxon monastery, associated with a powerful 8th century queen.

A lost monastery revealed? Investigating an Anglo-Saxon community at Cookham

In the 8th century, Cookham minster was the focus of a decades-long power struggle between early medieval kingdoms, but over time the religious community’s location faded from memory, despite its association with a powerful Anglo-Saxon queen. Now excavations in Berkshire are thought to have brought its remains to light once more. CA Editor Carly Hilts spoke to Gabor Thomas about what has been found.