Time Team - Looe, Cornwall - Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results

Wessex Archaeology

The evaluation produced no definitive evidence for prehistoric activity on either site, although a large stone, apparently deliberately buried within the grounds of Island House on Looe Island may have been a prehistoric standing stone that had been demolished during 19th century landscaping.

Two ditches on the island produced Romano-British pottery, and one also contained a small hoard of eight late Roman coins. While the latter ditch seems to be fairly securely dated on this basis, the second ditch could have been later in date, and could form part of an enclosure, perhaps early Christian in date, previously recorded around the summit of the island.

A small priory occupied by monks from Glastonbury Abbey is known to have existed on Looe Island from c. 1200 AD. A 'church' is referred to in a document of 1239, but the building in question is generally called a 'chapel', and is now known as St Michael’s Chapel. It still existed at the time of the Chantry Commissions of 1546-8, but its final date of demolition is unknown. The evaluation confirmed that the chapel was of two-celled construction (nave and chancel) and built in a single phase, although at least one buttress was added in the 13th century. An inhumation grave was uncovered which would have lain beneath the chancel arch; this had been disturbed, probably during an antiquarian episode in the late 18th century when, it is recorded, a 'remarkably large human skeleton' was discovered. A second inhumation burial, and a possible stone-lined cist grave, were found outside the southern wall of the chapel. Neither of these were investigated further, nor were they securely dated, although 15th/16th century pottery came from the upper fill of the inhumation grave.

The Time Team evaluation confirmed the ground plan of the chapel as a two-celled building with a southern porch and a secondary, northern entrance. There were some indications of a rood screen in front of the chancel arch. One disturbed inhumation burial was found beneath the chancel arch, and traces of two other possible graves, as well as a stone-lined possible reliquary. Bone from the disturbed inhumation burial provided a 13th century radiocarbon date.

No further dating evidence was found during the Time Team evaluation for the foundation, but the inhumation burial shows that the chapel was in use in the 13th century. The evaluation also showed that, contra Croft Andrew, the two-celled chapel comprising nave and chancel was of a single phase in construction, although it confirmed his assertion that the southern porch was a later addition. The evidence points to the Lammana Chapel post-dating the island chapel in construction. It is probably no coincidence that both chapels are at the same elevation, and the Lammana Chapel may have been deliberately situated to provide a sight-line to the island, which might explain its use of somewhat unsuitable topography, and the deviation from the standard east-west orientation.

The Time Team evaluation has provided useful evidence with which to augment Croft Andrew's findings, and have established connections between the mainland and island chapels. Little firm dating evidence was recovered, but the radiocarbon date obtained from a burial in the Lammana Chapel is important in establishing the period of use of the chapel, and the limited examination of the human remains from both chapels provides evidence for the individuals buried there.