medieval

Dartmoor National Park is pleased to once again take part in England’s largest festival of history and culture and will be shedding a light on how people lived in the 14th Century.

From 13-22 September 2019 the Heritage Open Days festival returns to Dartmoor with a packed programme of medieval-themed activities. Every September places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history.

This is your chance to try out new experiences - and they're free!

Get involved

Join Dartmoor National Park for a rare opportunity...

Archaeologists working on the site of The Royal Clarence Hotel have this week discovered a medieval wall decoration of a peacock.

Previously hidden, and exposed only as work moved onto the medieval timber frame within the Well House, the peacock matches others examples the hotel group understands have previously been found across Exeter.

The discovery comes as the team of structural engineers from Thomasons continues to work with archaeologists on the restoration and rebuilding of The Royal Clarence Hotel.

Estimates are that a further three months of work remains to...

Christopher Cooper, aged 48 from Trallong, Brecon has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison following thefts from churches throughout England and Wales.

Christopher Cooper appeared at Hereford Crown Court last Friday (6 May 2016) where he admitted to 37 thefts from churches, dealing in tainted cultural items and fraud. The sentencing has made West Mercia Police one of the first forces in the country to secure a conviction of dealing in tainted cultural items.

The investigation began in 2013 after a man in Kent was arrested for purchasing a gorilla's head...

THE iconic image screen on the front of Exeter Cathedral is to undergo an extensive renovation – made possible thanks to the support of The Prince of Wales who made a donation through The Prince of Wales’ Charitable Foundation.

The three rows of statues on the West Front were added to the already constructed Cathedral between 1340 and 1470, and depict angels, kings and prophets and disciples of Jesus.

Dozens of figures also peer out from the battlements above and the whole screen is decorated with plants and animals. Originally, the statues were coloured in bright paint,...

Excavations being carried out at Tithebarn Green, Redhayes, near Exeter are revealing a complex ancient landscape with occupation dating from the Neolithic through to the Medieval period.

The Bronze Age Pin Brook enclosure, located at the northern end of the Tithebarn Green site has been particularly interesting.

The enclosure may have been built to adapt a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and there is evidence of ongoing use of the site in the late Roman and/or post Roman British or Anglo-Saxon periods. There is also evidence of the post-medieval enclosure of the landscape...

An ancient tiled floor described as the "finest medieval tile pavement surviving in Devon and Cornwall" has been revealed for the first time in decades.

The floor has been uncovered as part of planned renovation work to the Cathedral. It is in a room above a Chapel, which in the Middle Ages was used as the Exchequer and in the 20th century as the Song School for boy choristers.

The decorative tiled floor has intricate patterns and was laid in the late 13th century.

The nearest similar medieval floor is in Winchester Cathedral.

The Cathedral’s Archaeologist,...