Welcome to the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society Website 

Happy New Year! Our first lecture of 2023 will be held in the small hall at Glastonbury Town Hall, at 7.30pm, on Friday 10th March. Entitled ‘Drawings, Inns and Elephants: Some Glastonbury Curiosities’, as the title suggests, it will cover a variety of subjects, including some mysterious pachyderms. The talk is richly illustrated and will be given by the Chairman.

‘Glastonbury Market Place’ by Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827). Taken from Rowlandson’s World in Miniature, 1816.

For an update on the museum, please see the 'Glastonbury Museum at the Tribunal' page on this website. 

The AGM last year (2022) was held on Friday 4th November, at Glastonbury Town Hall. This was a highly appropriate venue, as the small hall in the town hall held the original Glastonbury Museum, established by our society after its foundation in 1886. The AGM was well attended, after which Dr Richard Brunning, of the South West Heritage Trust, spoke on his latest research findings regarding the Godney Canoe.

The Godney canoe is housed in our museum on Glastonbury High Street. Wood samples from the canoe were sent for carbon dating earlier this year. Tests revealed that the canoe is not of Iron Age date as had been previously assumed, but is actually of Anglo-Saxon manufacture. Dating from between the early 6th to early 7th century, it is the only Anglo-Saxon boat to have been found in Somerset.

A paper containing all the latest reserch on the canoe can be found at the bottom of this page.

A New History of Glastonbury's famous thorn.



Dr Adam Stout's history of the Holy Thorn and its legends is now available - click here to find out more or buy the book .