David Cooper looking at the finds trays
Our church is built on the site of a 14th century Manor House, built for the then Lord of the Manor, Sir Roger Beler. Yesterday, 26th May, a Crich local history group, the Crich Heritage Partnership conducted an archaeological dig on the church front lawn, to see if anything of the old Manor House could be found. It was a very small dig, with only one 1 metre wide test-pit. This was the first dig that the group had done, and they conducted the investigation with great professionalism. Although they did find numerous very small items, mainly from the Victorian period – the period when the old house was demolished, and the church built in its place – the area chosen for the dig, unfortunately did not yield anything of great significance. They did however find in the buildings surrounding the church, high quality stonework which the lead archaeologist on the dig was convinced came from the period when the Manor House was built, possibly even from the Manor itself. They have now gone away to consider their findings, and we may well have them come back sometime in the future, to investigate other areas of the site.
To read something of our history please check out the following link – The History of Crich Baptist Church.