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Concordia Winter 2022

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once stood at the heart of the Anglo-Saxon city, the ancient capital of England. Buildings of the first importance, honoured by Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings, these great churches were later demolished, and their locations lost. Following almost ten years of excavation under his direction, from 1961 to 1971, the story of these lost minsters was revealed, bringing back to life the history, archaeology, and architecture of Winchester’s greatest Anglo-Saxon buildings. The Committee still exists today and publishes the results of the excavations in a series of Winchester Studies. Winchester is where Martin met Birthe Kjølbye. Due to her skills in the techniques and management of excavation, she was given charge of the site of Old Minster, the Anglo-Saxon cathedral. Birthe and Martin were married in 1966 and had two daughters, Signe and Solvej. Martin and Birthe formed an extraordinary archaeological team. They revolutionised the discipline of archaeological excavation, introducing new recording techniques, and they trained a whole generation of archaeologists. Birthe died in January 2010. Martin is now based at the Winchester Research Unit in Oxford where he acts as general editor of the Winchester Studies Series.

Above: Professor Martin Biddle at

Martin Biddle Martin Biddle (1950-1955), CBE, FBA, FSA, is a British archaeologist and academic. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, and Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. His work was important in the development of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Great Britain. Martin conducted excavations of the Manor of the More, an important sixteenth-century palace of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, where Catherine of Aragon lived after the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII. The excavations ran from 1952 to 1955 and were carried out on behalf of the Merchant Taylors’ School Archaeology Society. A report of the excavations was published in 1959 in The Archaeological Journal. In 1961 Martin was asked to excavate the site of the proposed new ‘Wessex Hotel’ on the Cathedral Car Park in Winchester. The results were so important that Martin suggested that excavations should continue in the city, and in 1962 The Winchester Excavations Committee was formed, followed by The Winchester Research Unit of which he has been director since 1968. The original cathedral of Old Minster and the abbey church of New Minster

Winchester Cathedral on site of Old Minster