New clues to the development of Beverley Minster

Two small trenches excavated against the nave walls of Beverley Minster by York Archaeological Trust over the winter of 2003 - 4 revealed a sequence of deposits spanning the Anglo-Saxon to modern periods. This is the only modern archaeological excavation carried out within the present bounds of the church. A small number of pre-conquest features cut into natural clays formed the earliest activity encountered. These were overlain by a number of pre-conquest burials, no doubt relating to a contemporary church. Succeeding burials, probably spanning from around the time of the Norman Conquest to the 12th century, again relate to a church for which we have no direct in-situ archaeological evidence. It is suggested that the early churches relating to these burials are likely to lie within the footprint of the existing nave. The earliest stone structural remains were of a late 12th - early 13th- century nave with buttresses. This was a short-lived structure and was soon replaced by the existing 14th-century nave with buttresses. Remaining deposits and features related primarily to later medieval and post-medieval graves.