ULAS News

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – Discovering more about John Wilson Ottey (1810 – 1851)

Over a year ago, we learnt about John Wilson Ottey (1810-1851) and uncovered what historical records can tell us about his life. John Ottey, one of a few of the named dead excavated from Leicester Cathedral, is well documented in newspapers for his youthful indiscretions. However, his death, many years later, marked him as a…

Roman Leicestershire Unearthed

A new student archaeology training excavation in Laughton, Leicestershire has been launched by ULAS and the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History. The project enables undergraduate students at the University, along with members from local heritage groups, to develop their archaeological skills. The settlement site, discovered only recently in rural Leicestershire, dates…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – Leicester Uncovered

It’s been a while since we posted about the archaeology at Leicester Cathedral. The digging is now done and the project has moved into its post-excavation phase, and the Cathedral has reopened its doors to the public again. This is a good time, then, to resume our regular posts on the archaeological discoveries. In this…

Coventry Charterhouse – A tale of two trenches

In this month’s instalment from Coventry Charterhouse we move clockwise around the footprint of the former monastery and move from the eastern range of cells to the southern range. Site director, Andrew McLeish tells us more… While geophysical survey can often give us an idea of what might be under the ground it has its…

Globalisation: The Republic of Venice in Tudor Leicester

The history of Leicester contains a great variety of different stories, peoples, and historical events. Archaeologist Joshua Cattermole investigates the Tudor town’s links with the Republic of Venice. During the transition from the medieval to modern era we see much tumult, including some of the great national events of the age: the Wars of the…

Coventry Charterhouse – If you want answers dig holes!

We return to the Coventry Charterhouse and in this blog, site director Andrew McLeish takes a look at the (re)excavation of two of the monks’ houses on the eastern range of cells in the summer of 2020 and how archaeology has progressed in forty years. The title of this particular post I can attribute to…

Coventry Charterhouse – The World Is Your Oyster

In our second blog from Coventry Charterhouse, site director Andrew McLeish and environmental archaeologist William Johnson introduce us to an often-overlooked aspect of archaeological projects but one which can contribute greatly to them… In our last blog we talked about the discoveries made during the excavation of the area forming the extension to the new…

Coventry Charterhouse – a project in retrospect

With our excavation at Leicester Cathedral now finished, we are going to move away from Leicestershire and focus on another National Lottery Heritage Funded project that we have been involved with, the Coventry Charterhouse. This is the first of a series of blogs over the forthcoming months which will catching you up on our excavations…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – a Roman shrine beneath the Cathedral?

Well, we have finished our excavation at Leicester Cathedral. It has been a long project, starting a year and a half ago in October 2021, and although it was a modest sized area, the dig has produced a remarkable amount of archaeological information which will allow us to tell the story of an area of…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – A Curious Case of a Lead Coffin

Updated 18/10/2023. We have another exciting update from Leicester Cathedral. Project archaeologist, Amber Furmage, tells us more about the excavation of our first lead coffin and a newly named individual, Edward Entwistle Wilkinson (1796-1846). The coffin, recently found in the middle of the excavation area, was interred in one of the final burial rows in…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – The Romans are coming!

Today is ULAS’s last day in 2022 digging at Leicester Cathedral, we will be back in the New Year to wrap up the excavation by mid-February if all goes to plan. Whilst the team shuts down the site for the Christmas break, excavation director Mathew Morris reveals some of the latest discoveries from the site….

Trenches, Training and Television: the importance of community engagement to the success of the Rutland Villa Project

The story of the magnificent discovery of the Trojan War mosaic and the Rutland Roman Villa captured the world’s attention when its discovery was finally announced to the public in late 2021. We were incredibly proud that the media attention shone a very positive light on the archaeology of Rutland, and in turn the collaborative…