WORK to improve Whalley Abbey has thrown light on life in the years after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.

The Blackburn Diocese is carrying out £1million worth of work to upgrade its historic retreat house and conference centre.

It will include creating a new dining hall and reception area, installing en-suite bathrooms in its 32 bedrooms and putting in a new disabled lift.

But work, which started at the end of January, has already thrown up a number of architectural clues to the building's use in the time of the Reformation.

Stone foundations, figurines and partition walls have been uncovered during preparation and demolition work.

Archaeologists hope the findings will shed light on the house's use in the years immediately after the abbey was closed by Henry VIII in the 1540s.

Workers have uncovered a wattle and daub partition wall in the east wing and a centuries-old figurine .

Nigel Neil, a consultant archaeologist employed by the diocese to oversee the work at the abbey, said: "We are getting good evidence over a huge part of the Abbot's house about what it was used for in the post-dissolution era.

"We've found previously unseen partition walls, foundations of a wall that could be medieval and we've uncovered foundations of part of the Long Gallery.

"This was built in 1560, just 20 years after the dissolution, and stretched from the River Ribble to the other side of the abbey.

"Most of it is still standing, but these foundations could tell us more about that room.

"It was originally used for ladies to promenade in when they didn't want to go outside.

"This all tells us more about what the house was like in the years after the dissolution - its first years as a secular home after the monks had been thrown out."

Plans have been in the pipeline to refurbish the attraction since 1997.

The building, founded about 1300, was sold to private owners in 1553. It was then bought back by the

Church in 1923 and became the retreat house and conference centre in 1926.

When work is completed on the retreat house in August this year, the diocese hopes to attract more business conferences, wedding receptions and social functions.

It's hoped the work will ultimately see the site break even or even make a profit.