Church site set to reveal secrets (From Gazette & Herald)

Church site set to reveal secrets

WORK on Malton and Norton's flood defences come under the scrutiny of archaeologists next week when the top soil on a 1,000-year-old site is lifted.

Project organisers say work could be temporarily halted if anything interesting is found near the Priory in Old Malton.

Most of the existing Priory was built 900 years ago by the crippled son of a Norman knight who ordered the building of the church on top of a Saxon site. The Priory, which has since had two of its towers destroyed and its cloisters dismantled, was once much bigger than it is today and used to stretch into the site where work will take place.

The £1 million project is set to be completed by the end of this year.

"Work will start next week on a site where part of the remains of the original building are believed to be buried," said Dinah Keal, from project co-ordinators Interserve.

"Flood defences are being installed there and the top soil at the site has to be removed.

"Because this is the site of the former Priory we will have an archaeologist and members of English Heritage on site to identify anything of interest.

"We aren't expecting to find anything of major importance but if something is found it should only delay work on that section of the river by a matter of days."

Meanwhile, project co-ordinators have submitted a planning application to amend plans for the defences. "A wall by the river at Safeway in Malton is not sufficient to keep the water out," said Mrs Keal.

"The plan is that a new wall will be built alongside the existing wall to prevent floodwater seeping through."

The planning application is set to go before Ryedale planners on Tuesday.

Updated: 10:41 Saturday, June 08, 2002