The Big Athelstan Dig is a unique professionally led opportunity to dig through Malmesbury's history at test sites across the centre of town. We've seen the excavations taking place, finds recovered and the start of expert interpretation.
The Athelstan 1100 Big Dig Project – ‘Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig’ - has been awarded a grant of £14,540 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which was made possible by National Lottery players. It is being used to support the professional involvement of Cotswold Archaeology in planning, organising and delivering the project, the excavation of the test pits that took place in and around the town on Saturday and Sunday July 6 and 7 2024, and the reporting that will follow. Cotswold Archaeology are also providing generous matched professional staff resource and support to the project.
With Cotswold Archaeology we are enabling people of all ages, including local primary and secondary students, to learn about being archaeologists and taking part in real excavations, finds recording and cleaning. The weekend Big Dig Trail enabled visitors and people from the wider community to see what is going on and learn more about how archaeology works. The finds were on view after each day’s excavating and a report is being produced to explain what was found to all.
On behalf of Athelstan 1100 and Malmesbury Town Team we would like to thank the National Heritage Lottery Fund and National Lottery players for this grant and Cotswold Archaeology for their direct support. We are confident our Big Dig project project will be engaging and will help raise the profile of archaeology and Malmesbury’s important history to a much wider audience.
Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig – 6th and 7th July 2024
Thirteen live dig sites, three interpretative sites, a Finds Centre in the Town Hall, children’s activities, metal detecting demonstrations and a great discovery trail that linked them all together.
We worked with Cotswold Archaeology, students from Malmesbury School, members of the Young Archaeologists Club, Malmesbury 1st King Athelstan Scouts, and volunteers to create a trail of test pits and experiences across Malmesbury. We enjoyed professional finds interpretation, explanations of Malmesbury’s Anglo-Saxon and historic landscape and special discovery locations for children.
Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig Trail was open for viewing on Saturday the 6th and Sunday 7th July between 10:30am to 4:00pm. This priceless event attracted over 200 volunteer diggers and stewards and well over 1,000 visitors and was free to attend.
The finds are now being cleaned and recorded at Cotswold Archaeology. We are aiming to show them back in Malmesbury on the weekend of the 15th and 16th March 2025. More details soon.
Enjoy an inside view of Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig in this short video by Fiona Scott Associates
What is the Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig?
Malmesbury, a beautiful market hilltop town in North Wiltshire, has a fascinating continuous history of human habitation from at least 800 years BC.
From being the site of an Iron Age hill-fort to becoming a town of European significance in the Anglo Saxon period, the chosen burial place of the first king of England, the most important town in Wiltshire by 1066, the birth-place of Thomas Hobbes, and ‘the most Rotten Borough in the country’ in 1832, its past can be felt everywhere.
Malmesbury’s Big Athelstan Dig is a unique professionally led opportunity to dig through this history at sites across the centre of town and to see the excavations taking place, finds recovered and, comung soon, expert interpretation.
The locations of our thirteen sites have offered a fascinating range of possibilities to discover more from all periods of Malmesbury’s past…
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Malmesbury on the 15th and 16th March 2025 to see what we found!
VOLUNTEER?
We are closed to volunteering opportunities at the moment but we may have or know about more digging opportunities in Malmesbury in the future. If you would like us to contact you if there is another call out for volunteers please send an email to volunteers@athelstan1100.co.uk with your contact details and what you would most like to do, for example, stewarding, historic intrepretation, or digging and we'll keep you informed.