In one of the most exciting recent finds related to the region’s colonial past, volunteer archeologists have discovered what they believe to be remnants of a historically significant plantation lying just inches below the ground in a Mathews County subdivision.

"We have a major archeological treasure that nobody knew about," Forrest Morgan, vice president of the Middle Peninsula chapter of the Archeology Society of Virginia, said of North End Plantation, which is at North, near the border with Gloucester County.

North End Plantation was built in the late 1740s by John Page, son of Mann Page of Rosewell. While not quite as grand as his father’s Gloucester County estate, North End Plantation is believed to have been similar in size and design to other colonial-era estates such as Shirley Plantation in Charles City County, or Mannsfield, the Spotsylvania County home of John Page’s brother, Mann Page II. Mannsfield was destroyed during the Civil War.

Tho...