THE team behind the seven-year-long archaeological dig in Hungate are to move on to the site of an historic church in York.

Archaeology Live! will be starting work at All Saints North Street in late March, excavating in the churchyard and hoping to find evidence of medieval, Viking, and even Roman life on the site.

Church warden Dr Robert Richards said: “We are absolutely thrilled. We like to think we are one of the most archaeologically active churches in York.”

The church has already done various investigations and found evidence of late Roman activity on the site.

Although the finds are waiting expert analysis, the implications could be very exciting for the church’s history, Dr Richards said.

The decision to relocate Archaeology Live! to All Saints North Street came as the excavations at Hungate came to an end. Since bookings opened for the new site the team have seen renewed interest in the training courses they will run at the church.

The first two weeks of digs begin on Monday, March 31, and there will be more work in May, June, August and October.

Assistant field officer Arran Johnson said: “It’s nice to have a fresh site and we expect to find archaeology from the Victorian period going back to medieval, Viking and Roman times. This is a very interesting spot right by the river, and will have been the centre of York for a very long time.”

The digs will take place on the north-east side of the church, and could show evidence that the medieval buildings which surround the site could have at one point extended over it.

Dr Richards said: “It’s very exciting. We have already cleared the site after the church hall was demolished and have found a Norman roof tile lying on the surface.

“It is the site of the medieval rectory as well, and we have already found the 18th-century floor and, beneath that, 12th-century evidence, so very quickly we should be getting back to quite an early period in time.”

To book or raise questions, email trainingdig@yorkat.co.uk or for more information, visit http://www.dighungate.com/content.asp?ID=43