Stoke Mandeville, England, September 23, 2021
Photo: heritagedaily.com
Underneath the ruins of a late 11th-century Norman church in a village outside London sits what archaeologists believe to be the ruins of an even older Anglo-Saxon church.
St. Mary’s Old Church in Stoke Mandeville, the original church being excavated, was built in 1080, meaning the older church underneath was built firmly in the pre-schism period before the West fell away from holy Orthodoxy.
The site of the old Norman church sits on the route of the High Speed 2 (HS2)—a high-speed railroad network under construction in the United Kingdom, reports Buckinghamshire Live. The site is being investigated by a team of more than 40 from LP-Archaeology and HS2’s works contractor, Fusion-JV.
Photo: heritagedaily.com
The team was pleasantly surprised by their discovery, calling it “truly remarkable.”
Flint walls underneath the Norman levels were found forming a square, which the team believes is an Anglo-Saxon church.
“To have so much of it remaining, including the walls and even some flooring, will provide a great deal of information about the site prior to the construction of the Norman church in 1080AD,” said lead archaeologist Dr. Rachel Wood.
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