In January, the Cathedral’s team of Conservators found more than they expected when they removed the Henry Hyde Monument from the Cathedral’s South Aisle wall in order to repair it.

Hidden behind the monument erected in 1660, was some beautifully written English text, believed to be over 350 years old.

Conservator Tom Beattie said that their first job of the new year was to remove, repair, clean and then re-fix the monument, which consists of forty-four pieces of marble alabaster and Chilmark stone.

It was only when the inscription table at the centre of the monument was removed that they made the exciting discovery. The text has been painted on a lime wash base layer rather than on the stone itself.

Tom and his colleagues are used to uncovering information about the fabric of the building but this is one of their best finds.

Tim Tatton-Brown, the Cathedral’s Archaeologist, said that Sir Henry Hyde had been quietly buried in the Cathedral in 1650 after his execution by Parliament for supporting King Charles I.

Unfortunately, the text has been subsequently whitewashed over making it difficult to read but the gothic lettering is clearly visible. Although a specialist needs to confirm, Tim thinks it is a biblical text put there probably in the Elizabethan period when the nave was fitted out with high pews for people to sit in to listen to the ‘new’ sermons preached there.

Inscriptions of the bible, the Word of God, would have been written on the inside walls of the building following the Reformation, having been translated into English in Cranmer’s bible.

At the time of writing, the Cathedral is taking advice on the best way forward, as all these monuments the Conservators work on have to be put back into their places within a limited time span. The expected route will be to consolidate the text to preserve it in its present state and then carry out a comprehensive photographic record of it before it is covered up again when the monument is returned to the wall. Watch this space!