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Romsey Abbey: Preliminary Report on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Survey

                                                                                                                       by Mary Harris

 

First published in Romsey Local History Society Newsletter Autumn 2019

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A ground-penetrating radar survey of Romsey Abbey was conducted on 17th June 2019. This was initiated by Roger Leech (Visiting professor, Southampton University) and Frank Green (member of the Diocesan Council for the Care of Churches) and carried out by KB GPR Surveys of Southampton and funded by them and Romsey Local History Society. It was undertaken to establish what might be located beneath the abbey floor and adjacent ground surfaces. On 5th September Professor Roger Leech gave a presentation to the Romsey Local History Anglo-Saxon group of the preliminary results. These suggest:

1. The late Saxon church (the foundations of which are still visible) was possibly preceded by an even earlier church with side chapels. At the west end of this was a substantial square structure. 

2. The west wall of the late Saxon church seems to have been at the west of the first four bays of the nave, at the point where the later Norman church terminated until it was then completed westwards in the Early English style. This means that the late Saxon church was about 32.5 metres (106.5 feet) in length. It also suggests that the west wall of the late Saxon church may have stood and been used as the west wall of the Norman church until the 13th century.

3. The east end of the late Saxon church seems to be more complex than previously thought, perhaps with a square chancel preceding the apse.

4. The area of the Anglo-Saxon burial with the preserved hair is not clear on the survey and no new conclusions on its context have been drawn as yet.