ABSTRACT
Church Field lies about half a kilometre east of the present village and faces out northwards across Shapwick Heath. The precise location of the old church was only marked on maps for the first time by the Ordnance Survey in the 1970s, but the earthworks have long been known for what they were by local people. When the Shapwick Project began nothing in detail was known of prehistoric, Roman or postRoman activity and there had been no work on the origin and development of the church at Shapwick, nor was there any understanding of what other medieval buildings might lie nearby. The chapter focuses on eleven trenches excavated in or adjacent to Church Field between 1993 and 1999. The density of grave markers was higher south of the church; traditionally the more favoured side for burial, but the north side was also in use at some time.
