The site contains over 100 excavated structures, ranging from the 6th century onward; "the largest pottery assemblage in the county" and "remarkably full historical documentation including an early Extent of 1155 describing buildings."
The event will be held at the Leighton Buzzard & District Archaeological & Historical Society's Duncombe Drive Centre in Leighton, England at 8 p.m.
The site:
- Contains 6th and 7th century buildings
- Was later an Anglo-Saxon Royal Estate
- Was later a settlement on the Danish side of the Danelaw in the 10th century
- Was the hub of a major agricultural enterprise
*Was a medieval Royal Manor of Leighton with an entry in The Domesday Book - Was a priory grange of the double Order of Fontevrault in Anjou from 1165
- Was a minor palace of the Proctor of the Order soon after 1200
*Was in the hands of the king & a number of his female relations during the wars with France as an alien priory - Was, in 1480, a demesne manor of Princess Cecille, mother of Edward IV
- And eventually was a decayed and run-down farm.
The English Heritage Academic Referee wrote: "This report is a monumental piece of work resulting from one of the most important and certainly the most extensive excavations of a medieval manorial and monastic site to have been undertaken in the 20th century. It is not for the faint hearted, but I cannot over emphasise its national and international importance."
