We're back!

After just over 11 months, work begins on another exciting season at Thornton Abbey in North Lincolnshire. This time the team, led by Dr Hugh Willmott and Pete Townend from the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield are focussing on an area south of the main abbey precinct which should contain several buildings relating to the monastic occupation of the site. This year promises to be the most exciting yet, with five trenches being opened to understand an area which was previously thought to have contained little medieval occupation. The general layout of the trenches is shown here, with a more detailed description of each trench appearing below.

The location of this years trenches

Trenches N and P
Trenches N and P are situated over a large building, 25m long and 10m wide, which is orientated E-W. Investigations suggest it may be the remains of the medieval hospital of St James, the location of which is currently unknown.

Trench R
Trench R is located over a circular earthwork and geophysical anomaly which is possibly a building associated with the medieval hospital.

Trench S
Trench S is located in 'Stable Close' to the south of the prospective hospital. A rectangular geophysical anomaly which is also visible a series of rectilinear earthwork, it may be the eponymous stables to which the field name refers.

Trench T
Finally, another unidentified earthwork, this time rectangular, forms the focus of Trench T. Located to the west of the possible hospital, the date and function of this feature will be determined over the course of the next four weeks.

As always, you can keep up to date with the dig's progress online. As well as daily blogs appearing on this site, keep an eye on our Twitter feed and Facebook page for the all the latest news.

The view looking North from this year's trenches; it looks so peaceful...at the moment!