Archaeology

You should always look at the impact on archaeology when you want to do repairs or make changes to your building.

We can help you choose the right level of archaeological recording for your project, and sort out what permissions you might need.

Download our guidance

Guidance on Archaeology in churches (582.69 KB)

Archaeological remains of a well within the churchyard of a church

Works that impact on archaeology

You might come across archaeology when you’re doing:

Alterations, repairs or conservation work that will disturb your building’s fabric (e.g. floors)
Extensions
Works on monuments, boundary walls and gates
Removing or changing fixtures and fittings
Excavating drainage, service or foundation trenches in the church or churchyard

What's the first thing you should do?

You should:

Get early advice from your DAC or cathedral archaeologist

The need for you to include archaeological works in your project often becomes clear when you first ask about permissions.

The earlier you ask for advice, the better the chances of avoiding delays and expensive mistakes.

Contact your diocese or your cathedral archaeologist for help.

Write a statement of significance

You should explore the potential impact of your project on your church’s archaeology in your statement of significance.

This will help your Diocesan Advisory Committee give the right advice to your chancellor for your faculty application.

Include details of any archaeological provisions.

Archaeological appraisal

Your diocese’s archaeological adviser or your cathedral’s archaeologist will do an appraisal to judge the likely impact your project might have on your building’s archaeology. This may form part of determining what sort of permissions you need.

The likely impact depends on:

The area or depth of the work
The position of the work in the church and churchyard
The relationship of the work with any standing buildings
The known history of your area (e.g. previous finds, documentary references, clues in the fabric of the church itself)

Once the appraisal is finished, the adviser or archaeologist will tell you if more archaeological work is needed.

Types of archaeological work

There are several types of archaeological works that you might need to do before or during your project.

Your diocese’s archaeological adviser or your cathedral’s archaeologists will help you find professionals to do the work.

Desk-based assessment

After the appraisal, the next step is to read through all the existing archaeological information.

No holes will be dug, no plaster stripped.

If the information you get at the end is not enough, then you need to do a watching brief.

Watching briefs

A watching-brief means having an archaeologist on site during the work to double-check that nothing significant is disturbed.

This method is used for:

Minor disturbances (e.g. trench for a new pipe, minor stone replacement, re-pointing
Situations where you want to avoid digging deep (e.g. small extensions on a “raft” foundation)

This method is not appropriate for larger works.

Archaeological evaluation

This might involve:

A small trial excavation to test what you might find
A geophysical survey: using a small electric current to find buried walls, foundations, or ditches
A combination of both

Archaeological recording (buildings)

You might need to record the historic fabric of your church before, during and after any building works that involve:

Replacing historic fabric
Interfering with historic fabric
Like for like replacement of materials (e.g. stone parapets, monuments, roof timbers, parts of wooden screens)

Recording methods could include:

High quality photographs
Hand-drawn records
Photogrammetric records
Dendrochronology (tree-ring dating)
Carbon-14 dating
3D imaging

You might be able to get a grant to pay for this work through us, the Heritage Lottery Fund or Historic England.

Find out more about archaeological recording

Archaeological excavation

Because of the importance of your church building or site, you might have to hire archaeologists to do a normal excavation.

Don’t see this as just an extra burden.

The information you will learn can have positive benefits. It will add to what you already know about the history and development of your church. And it will help you with the future management of your building and its churchyard.