![\"\"](\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/files\/2013\/03\/Mag-setup.jpg\" "\\"Bartington")
Over a very wet and cold winter Bournemouth Archaeology has been working on a geophysical survey in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, on the supposed site of the Benedictine Abbey around which the village grew.<\/p>\nOver a very wet and cold winter Bournemouth Archaeology has been working on a geophysical survey in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, on the supposed site of the Benedictine Abbey around which the village grew.<\/p>\n
Following liaison with English Heritage and the granting of a Section 42 licence our geophysical survey team have been carrying out a magnetometer survey, using Bartington Grad 601-2 fluxgate gradiometers, and a resistivity survey over the same area with the Geoscan RM15-D Resistance Meter. The exact location of the Abbey is unknown and today all that remains are the Guesthouse, Abbey Barn, and Abbot’s Porch. The main focus therefore was to survey a plot of land to the immediate east of the Abbot\u2019s Porch, north of a small cemetery, where some evidence might exist.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/files\/2013\/03\/Res-survey.jpg\" "\\"Resistivity")
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The Abbey at Cerne Abbas was founded in AD 987 and became a significant landowner, dominating the area for more than 500 years. However, in 1539 the Abbey surrendered to Henry VIII and was mostly destroyed; the Abbey lands subsequently passing into private ownership. The Abbey itself fell in to ruin and was probably used as a quarry for building material. Using a little detective survey work it is still possible to find some recognisable fragments of the Abbey which have been re-used in the construction of houses and other buildings around the village.<\/p>\n
So far the survey results have been very encouraging. \u00a0By overlaying the results from both geophysical techniques we have been able to identify a number of anomalies which may prove that some sub-surface evidence of wall foundations do indeed survive. Following consent from English Heritage, and working alongside Cerne Abbas Historical Society<\/a>, the next phase of the project will be to excavate a number of test pits to try to locate the foundations and start to map the layout of the Abbey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bournemouth Archaeology Project Manager Jonny Monteith will be giving a talk on the results of the survey and the next phase of the investigations to Cerne Abbas Historical Society on the evening of 28th<\/sup> March.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Find out more about our services here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over a very wet and cold winter Bournemouth Archaeology has been working on a geophysical survey in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, on the supposed site of the Benedictine Abbey around which the village grew. Following liaison with English Heritage and the granting of a Section 42 licence our geophysical survey team have been carrying out a… Read more » about Cerne Abbas Archaeological Investigations Project, Dorset<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[52,49,36,37,47,4,38,42,41,39,40,48,43,44,45,46],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","tag-archaeologists-in-dorset","tag-benedictine-abbey","tag-cerne-abbas","tag-cerne-abbas-historical-society","tag-english-heritage","tag-geophysical-survey","tag-geophysics","tag-gpr","tag-ground-penetrating-radar","tag-magnetometry-bartingon-grad-601-2-fluxgate-gradiometer","tag-resistivity-rm15-d-resistance-meter","tag-section-42-licence","tag-test-pits","tag-test-trenches","tag-trial-excavations","tag-written-scheme-of-investigation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1723,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/1723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/buarc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}