Saxon workshop evidence found by amateur archaeologists in Somerset

Amateur archaeologists have unearthed what is believed to be a Saxon workshop in a dig in Somerset.

The foundations were uncovered along with a large Norman building at an undisclosed location on the Mendip Hills.

Saxon keys and a 13th Century jug were also among the finds.

Project leader Pip Osborne, said: “There’s no written record of a building here but ever since I moved here I’ve been intrigued by the field.”

The find was made by a community archaeology group on a plot of land near the centre of a Mendip village.

The land, according to Ms Osborne, was given to the Abbey of Jumieges in Normandy in France by William the Conqueror in about 1080. Read more.

Medieval Mansion Found at U.K. Construction Site

It sounds like a case for Sherlock Holmes: a 900-year-old medieval manor mysteriously vanishes, only to be uncovered later by British archaeologists.

The ancient site has been stripped of its materials except for the foundation — and there is no record of it ever existing.

Got chills? So do the archaeologists who discovered it.

"This is a significant find and therefore very exciting, particularly as there are no documentary records that such a site ever existed here," said Wessex Archaeology’s senior buildings archaeologist Bob Davis, who participated in the excavation. Read more.

Iron Age house at Westhay by Wessex Archaeology on Flickr.