ARCHAEOLOGISTS hope they can answer some of the burning questions raised by their dig last year after the council granted permission for the excavation to be extended.

Marlow Archaeology Society discovered artefacts and the remains of a cellar in Rookery Park in 2012 dating back to the 17th century.

Wycombe District Council has now given the green light for the history hunters to delve further into the land containing clues to Marlow’s past.

And by excavating a larger area, the team hopes to confirm the hunch that they may have stumbled on a medieval chapel said to have been built by the Knights of St Thomas.

Society chairman Peter Borrows said: “We have been allowed to extend but it will not immediately be as extensive as before.

“One problem is the cycle path that has been built through the middle of the site, but the council has been very supportive indeed.

“The thing about archaeology is that it answers one question and throws up two more. We’d really like to see how far the cellar extends to get an idea of the size of the building.

“Could we have uncovered the crypt of the chapel? There was also a manor house in the town, could we have discovered the cellar of that house?”

Among the artefacts unearthed were clay pipes with marker’s marks dating from 1670.

There is no record of a building on the Rookery Park dig site from before 1770s, raising the question of what exactly stood in the spot behind Chapel Street and when it was built.

The dig was started in March 2012 and Mr Borrows is hopeful work can resume around the same time next year depending on the weather.