ABSTRACT
The church did not show up clearly on the preexcavation resistance plots, largely perhaps because it had been covered with a dense rubble spread at the end of its life (see below and survey report, Section 3.2). Its location was first established in 1979 in the form of a small patch of the north wall of the nave, which emerged in the south section of the small trench C (Figure 5.1). In 1980 the eastern section, comprising the Phase I church and the east end of the lengthened nave, was revealed. This area was excavated further in 1981, 1982 and 1984. In 1980 the north wall of the church was identified further west and in 1981 the west end of the church was defined, and further excavated in 1982. It was completed in 1984. Also in 1982 and 1984 a central strip of the second nave was excavated, completing the whole plan of the church. Unfortunately the sections which were taken across the church in this piecemeal excavation did not usefully relate the apse and chancel to the nave and so the relationships of the various parts have been determined largely by
lateral stratigraphy, and the nature of the stonework. The extent of the building was defined in the
upper levels by a loam and rubble spread which had been deliberately packed over the building line of the robbed walls of the church (Figure 5.2 and Chapter 8). The densely packed rubble covering was bounded on the west by the north-south gridline 184 and on the east by north-south grid-line 205, so it did not overlap the eastern part of the church, and, as a consequence, the apse was the first element of the church to appear under the general soil and rubble covering of the site (Figure 5.3).
