In 1908, architect Frederick Bligh Bond was appointed to excavate Glastonbury Abbey. He made a series of remarkable discoveries, including the long-lost Edgar Chapel.
Then he revealed that dead monks had been telling him where to dig.
In this episode of DIRT BAGS, Louise, Nat and guest host Harriet investigate Britain’s most famous psychic archaeologist, his automatic-writing sessions with John Allen Bartlett and the mysterious voices that appeared to provide measurements, plans and extremely convenient excavation advice.
Along the way, we meet a medieval stonemason with strong opinions about beer, fishing and being fat-shamed by his fellow monks.
Was Bond receiving messages from beyond the grave, unconsciously drawing upon his considerable archaeological knowledge, or simply making the evidence fit a very good story?
DIRT BAGS is a comedy archaeology podcast sponsored by DigVentures.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Frederick Bligh Bond, The Gate of Remembrance (1918)
Roberta Gilchrist and Cheryl Green, Glastonbury Abbey: Archaeological Investigations 1904–79, Society of Antiquaries of London, (2015)
https://research.reading.ac.uk/glastonburyabbeyarchaeology/
“Glastonbury Abbey,” Current Archaeology. An overview of the modern reassessment, including Bond’s unsupported reconstruction of the apsidal Edgar Chapel:
https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/glastonbury-abbey.htm
Tim Hopkinson-Ball, The Rediscovery of Glastonbury: Frederick Bligh Bond, Architect of the New Age, Sutton Publishing, 2007.
And a shout-out to Zakia Sewell, whose brilliant book helped send us down the Glastonbury rabbit hole. Zakia Sewell, Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain, Hodder Press, 2026:
