An amateur archaeologists found a Medieval city in South Wales, called Trellech. The land was bought by him 12 years ago with the intent of finding the lost city – now the excavations confirmed its existence.
The team of volunteers excavating the site has found pottery, coins, walls and even a well. The finds date back the site to the 13th century AD. The city is believed to have housed possibly up to around 10000 people. According to the archaeologists the settlement was the home of several Norman lords of the de Clare family who used it as a place to mass produce iron.
Archaeologists found also a manor house with two halls and a courtyard. The courtyard is enclosed with curtain walls and a massive round tower measuring six metres across. Within the manor house complex researchers have discovered several different rooms. One of them contained a fireplace and chimney stack and another one had a central fireplace.
The architectural structures are believed to date to 1300 AD. That is when the town was built in stone after earlier attacks by English and Welsh forces. Archaeologists found evidence for an earlier settlement below these remains, which shift the first date of the sites occupation 100 more years to the past. According to the historical sources, the town has fallen into ruin by 1400 and was abandoned by 1650, after the Civil War.
(after Wales News Service, Daily Star & Lost City of Trellech Project)