We are grateful to Sally Henshaw of the Midlands East Branch of the Richard III Society, who has kindly supplied us with the above photo, which she took through the barriers at the beginning of the dig.

Great news from Leicester:  archaeologists have found an area of paving, made up of re-used medieval tiles.  This is thought to be the garden of Robert Herrick.  Robert Herrick, alderman and sometime mayor of Leicester, bought the site of the Greyfriars after the dissolution.  Christopher Wren, the father of the architect who built for instance St Paul’s Cathedral, recorded that there was a stone pillar in Herrick’s formal garden with the inscription “Here lies the body of Richard III sometime King of England“.  It is assumed that the stone pillar was on the spot where the choir of the Greyfriars church had been.

The third trench meanwhile revealed large fragments of window tracery as well as bits of lead, as it would have been used in stained glass windows.  The archaeologists think that this might have come from the east window of the church, behind the high altar – which means near the choir, where Richard III was known to be buried.  This is really getting exciting.  To quote Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist of the project:

Having overcome the major hurdle of finding the church, I am now confident that we are within touching distance of finding the choir – a real turning point in the project and a stage which, at the outset, I never really thought we might reach.

There is more good news.  Although the dig was supposed to finish on Friday, it has now been extended for at least another week, as the prospect of major discoveries becomes more and more likely.

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III