The Church of St Basil, Toller Fratrum

Dorset Diggers have undertaken a geophysical survey at the church of St Basil to see if we can find the earlier structure under this Victorian building. 

These images will give you a basic history of the area. Although the information on these sheets starts with the Knights Hospitallier in the 1300s it may be that an even earlier church stood on the site going back to the Early Medieval period, either Early Norman or Late Anglo-Saxon. 

Christ washing feet as an act of humility.

As can be seen here the church has some much older stone carvings, the most impressive being the Font. These may have been kept when the old churches were demolished and the present building erected. 

The previous church had two bells in a tower and was a narrow building with a chancel, nave and porch. It could sit 80 people. As a result we are going to contact the Church of England to see if they have any records. The church is now owned and run by The Friends of St Basil's through subscription and still used for services. They have given us permission to do these investigations.

This is the geophysics result. The darker area to the right is low resistance and just dirt and some graves, which do not show up. The lighter areas to the left, situated around the existing building (pink), is where we think the foundations of the earlier building is situated. The existing building sits on the original footprint. 

Thanks to all members of the team that came out to help with the survey.   

 

 

The Bottle Inn update

 After digging two small trenches at the front of The Bottle Inn we found no archaeology. Two larger trenches cannot be excavated due to not having access to a digging machine. So we will have to leave that project for the time being.