Saxon workshop evidence found by amateur archaeologists in Somerset Published duration 29 January 2017

image copyright Pip Osborne image caption The foundations were uncovered along with a large Norman building, at an undisclosed location on the Mendip Hills

Amateur archaeologists have unearthed what is believed to be a Saxon workshop in a dig in Somerset.

The foundations were uncovered along with a large Norman building at an undisclosed location on the Mendip Hills.

Saxon keys and a 13th Century jug were also among the finds.

Project leader Pip Osborne, said: "There's no written record of a building here but ever since I moved here I've been intrigued by the field."

'Had a hunch'

The find was made by a community archaeology group on a plot of land near the centre of a Mendip village.

The land, according to Ms Osborne, was given to the Abbey of Jumieges in Normandy in France by William the Conqueror in about 1080.

"I had a hunch about this empty field. I ran the machines over it and there was an image of something quite strong on the geophysics and I thought this has to be investigated," she said.

image caption Pot shards of a glazed 13th century jug were among the finds

Beneath a 35m (114 ft) building, which was believed to have been erected "just after the Norman conquest", the archaeologists found a thick black soil containing industrial waste.

It was within this "black ashy soil" that crucible fragments and artefacts suggesting "some kind of furnace" or a "Saxon forge" were found.

"The furnace maybe was to do with glass manufacture or recycling," said Ms Osborne.

"But whatever they were doing here was in small quantities."

The Anglo-Saxon period lasted about 600 years from the 5th Century to the Norman invasion of 1066.