St Mary’s Field Museum

A museum beside a disappearing dig.

The field museum on site, plywood figures and panels inside the excavation shed.
Client
L-P Archaeology
Sector
Heritage · Public archaeology
Services
Environmental graphics · Interpretation · Illustration
Format
Six character stands · pathology table · other exhibition graphics

L-P Archaeology built a field museum beside the dig at Old St Mary’s, Stoke Mandeville, so the public could see what was coming out of the ground while the excavation was still running. The church was being dug back to its foundations ahead of HS2. We designed everything inside.

Site team in hi-vis assembling the plywood pathology table, a printed skeleton across it.
Inside the museum, plywood character stands and A Room with a Pew panel.
A visitor in hi-vis looking through a cut-out church window.

A museum on an active dig.

A working excavation is hard to read if you aren’t an archaeologist. The museum’s job was to explain what was in the ground to the people who had come to see it, in a way they could touch and work out for themselves.

We designed the interpretation, illustration, lettering and artwork across the character stands, the pathology table and the printed graphics. Zector Architects drew the fabrication details. The pieces were made off site and assembled at the dig.

A1 panel, Welcome to the Church of St Mary the Virgin.
A1 panel, Damp, Marshy Meadows, with an aerial photo of the site.
A1 panel, A Room with a Pew.
The St Mary’s lettering, drawn for the museum.
Churchyard Trivia panel in an arched frame.
Did You Know? panel in an arched frame.
A second Churchyard Trivia panel, with a goat.
Render of the museum layout inside the shed.
Render of the Room with a Pew stand and figure.
Render of the plywood pathology table.

3D visualisations built from the original artwork and construction drawings.

Visitors among the character stands.
Visitors gathered around the pathology table.
A model of the church.
Site team putting up the hoarding graphics.
An archaeologist in an L-P and HS2 hi-vis jacket.
An archive photograph of St Mary’s church.
Colour swatches and panel proofs on plywood.

The work

Open day, 21–22 August 2021. The museum in use on an active excavation.

Visitors in hard hats behind the Field Museum lettering.

Credits

Client: L-P Archaeology · Architect: Zector Architects · Photography: courtesy of L-P Archaeology · Built 2021

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