Dimensions
156 x 235 x 10mm
Glastonbury Abbey is a cradle of British religious and historical identity. It was the burial site of three kings, the legendary resting place of King Arthur, the site of England's first Christian church and a place with connections to the true cross, the holy grail and Joseph of Arimathea. In 1908 the excavation of this unique site was entrusted to the respected though controversial architect Frederick Bligh Bond. Between 1908 and 1921 he was successful in locating many of the key elements of the great abbey. Both the Church and Bond's contemporaries were astonished at the speed and accuracy of his excavations; major discovery followed major discovery with almost routine regularity. How was this possible? In 1918 Bond's book "The Gate of Remembrance" revealed that he held regular site conferences with the spirits of medieval monks and that his excavation strategy caused an immediate backlash and led, eventually, to Bond's dismissal. Tim Hopkinson-Ball draws from a wealth of sources to discover the real Bond - a prolific author, an early pioneer of colour photography and a debunker of false mediums - and restore his reputation as a major archaeologist.
