For our June session MAYA visited Cleeve Abbey near Washford. We were met at the abbey by Teresa Pratt who gave us an introductory talk before taking us on a guided tour around the site. Cleeve Abbey is a fantastic place to explore as so many of its buildings still survive. Teresa was a mine of information and gave us lots of fascinating and fun facts about the history of the abbey, including witch marks, graffiti and carvings of monsters to ward off evil. The highlight of the tour was the magnificent medieval tiled floor which had been in the old refectory.

Teresa had put out some finds for us to look at which had been excavated by the local rabbits! We could also try our hand at making up our own tiled floor patterns and printing medieval tile designs. We even got the chance to dress up as monks!

The session ended with a Mythical Creatures Trail. Pictures of different creatures had been hidden around the abbey and we split up into teams to try find them all. By this time it was raining but the MAYANS didn’t seem to mind and everyone succeeded in the quest. Before going home we all had an ice cream treat courtesy of Nigel!

A big thank you to Teresa for making us so welcome and for being such a fun and informative guide.