Dug up old church ground at the far end — a large vessel buried inside (9)
I believe the answer is:
excavated
'dug up' is the definition.
('excavate' can be a synonym of 'dig up')
'old church ground at the far end a large vessel buried inside' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'old' could be 'ex' and 'ex' is found in the answer.
'at' is present in the answer.
'a' is within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for excavated that I've seen is " Dug or hollowed out".)