Students unearth Saxon nunnery

Archaeologists believe they could have found the first-ever excavated Saxon nunnery, on a dig in Gloucestershire.

The annual dig, by the University of Bristol, has unearthed remains of a Saxon building in the grounds of the Edward Jenner Museum, Berkeley.

The Berkeley Project to find Saxon Berkeley and the missing nunnery has been going for five years.

This year the Saxon church has been found at the foot of the museum garden next to the church tower.

Dr Stuart Prior, of the University of Bristol, said, "If the church was associated with the buildings and they do turn out to be part of the Anglo-Saxon nunnery it will be the first time that a nunnery of this date (7th - 9th Century) has ever been excavated.

"All the evidence to date including the Anglo-Saxon records support this hypothesis! Which is very exciting."

This year's dig began on 19 May and will finish in a weeks time.

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