HAT granted Hyde900 just under £1200 for the preservation and publication of a unique set of photographs associated with Hyde Abbey.
A local resident, Barbara Hall, lived in Hyde in the latter part of the 20th century and made a unique record of the excavations of the east end of the abbey church carried out in the 1995-99 Community Archaeology Projects. The digs revealed the design of the choir, altar. ambulatory and chapels of the church and located the graves of Alfred the Great. The collection also records the construction of the Hyde Abbey Gardens by the Friends of Hyde Abbey Gardens. The garden was designed by renowned garden designer Kim Wilkes to commemorate this important site of the final burial place of the only English king to be termed “Great”
The grant covers the cataloguing and digitisation of over 120 high-quality photographs and their preservation on the Hyde900 website. It also covers the cost of banners which will show a collection of photographs showing the development of both the community dig and the construction of the gardens.
The Community Archaeology Project
Winchester Museums Service organised a series of excavations between 1995 and 1999. This work provided opportunities for local people to partake in excavations and has resulted in a greater understanding of the abbey and the development of the suburb of Hyde. This Project, in conjunction with a survey of the historical documentation, has resulted in a greater understanding of the layout of this important medieval monastery and glimpses of how it functioned.
Hyde900, as part of a community project researching Hyde Abbey, organised a series of community digs in the area of the abbey cloisters. These took place over 2016-18 and added considerably to the understanding of the layout of the cloisters and the architecture of the claustral buildings.
