This post in our “Notes & Queries” series takes a look at Dr. Talfourd Ely who excavated at the temple site over 100 years ago.

Talfourd Ely was a classicist and archaeologist who taught Latin and other classical languages at University College London. His obituary in the science journal Nature gives some interesting details of his life and career, as well mentioning an interesting sounding episode involving his routing of “brigands” at Olympia during a trip to Greece.

Talfourd Ely wrote a short article on the Antiquities of Hayling Island in volume 55 of The Archaeological Journal published in 1898. The article text is available in full from the Archaeology Data Service: { link to PDF }. In the article he describes his first visit to Hayling in the late 1860s and relates how he became aware of the temple site.

Excavation on the site began in 1897 and went on, on a seasonal basis, for the next five years or so. To find out more about what Talfourd Ely found, and what he thought it was, please come along to the Museum on the 27th of 28th.

In the meantime, here are a few images of Talfourd Ely and his excavations to have a look at:

Portrait of Dr. Talfourd Ely

A photograph of the 1901 excavations.

Awaiting the train at North Hayling Halt