"He is the oddest little gentleman; he sits and talks about archaeology, the fourth dimension and the mathematical relation of form to colour, till you don't know if you are on your head or your heels."
So said novelist Dorothy L Sayers about her contemporary, the eccentric archaeologist and architect Frederick Bligh Bond (1864-1945). Bond was Glastonbury Abbey's first official archaeologist, starting work there in 1908. Now a new exhibition at the Somerset landmark unearths the story of this intriguing character and marks the centenary of his appointment to the Abbey.
The exhibition, which looks at Bligh Bond's achievements and discoveries, also coincides with Glastonbury Festival and the Summer Solstice. It's fitting, as Bligh Bond was a psychical researcher and highly spiritual man, and played a key role in establishing Glastonbury as the heart of English spirituality (even employing a medium to aid his research at the Abbey).
He was the first person to carry out a detailed archaeological survey of the site, and used scientific methods that were by no means standard at the time.
Full story here.
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