Latest News about the Finds
This section will describe some of the types of finds:
Silk and gold
Small fragments of what was once an object of considerable value were found on top of a medieval coffin buried in the North Aisle of the church. The remains are now just a few square millimetres of crumbling brown textile, but investigation carried out at Textile Research, York, using the same techniques as police forensic scientists, has allowed at least part of the object's history to be revealed.
The St Peter's textile
might have looked like this. It is a 15th-century gold-brocaded
velvet, with gold embroidery at the top and braid trimming at the
bottom.
There are four components present, namely a velvet woven in silk, linen and gold; a backing fabric of plain linen; some gold embroidery threads; and a narrow trimming worked in silk and gold. The gold in the velvet is a strip of gilded animal gut, spun around a linen thread. This is a south European technique and indicates that the velvet was almost certainly made in Italy or southern Germany in the 14th or 15th century. The gold used in the embroidery and the braid is the more usual type for English work, which is plain metal strip spun around a silk core.
Medieval churches were furnished with many more textiles than their modern counterparts. Silks and embroideries, often bequeathed by wealthy patrons, were used for wall hangings, curtains, mass vestments and drapes for statues on feast days. How such a valuable object arrived on top of the coffin at St Peter's remains a mystery. Did it have some connection with the young woman in the coffin below? Or did it fall into the grave accidentally, as the earth was being piled in? For the time being, even forensic science cannot provide an answer.
Small Finds
Quita Mould is looking at the large number of small finds dating from the Roman period through to modern times that have been recovered from the excavations.
Silver pendant crucifix 14/15th Century
from a burial
While the majority of the finds are coffin fittings of the 18th and 19th century, nails from earlier burials are also well represented. A number of personal items had been interred with the deceased. Amongst the more interesting are a pewter chalice and paten placed in two priest's burials that lay alongside each other in the area of the South Porch, and a silver pendant crucifix worn by a young woman buried in the north aisle.
In addition, a range of small personal and decorative items had been lost by members of the community both when inside the church and whilst passing through the churchyard. A small number of objects date to a time before the church was built. All these finds, when viewed alongside the skeletal and documentary evidence, will help to tell us more of the former residents of Barton-upon-Humber.
A copper alloy strap end, 9th
century.
Floor Tiles
Jennie.Stopford writes:
An inscription, read as the initials ‘T L’ and the
date ‘1762’, was found on one of the many clay floor
tiles found in the excavations of St Peter’s. This tile
belonged to a group laid in a floor in the south aisle of the
church. They were not glazed but had been fired in specific
conditions. Oxygen was intentionally either included or excluded
from the kiln, so that half of the tiles were reduced and fired
grey, while the other half were oxidised and fired orange or pink.
The tiles were laid diagonally to the church, alternating the grey
and pink examples to give a chequered effect. Some examples have
now been re-set around and under the altar at the east end of the
north aisle.
The inscription
remains something of a mystery. Tiles of this type would generally
be thought most likely to date to the seventeenth century, although
we have few well-dated examples. As a result it was first thought
that the inscription might be a later addition to the tile, cut
into the fired clay to make it into a commemorative plaque. Many
small stone slabs were used in this way in the eighteenth century.
However, when you look carefully at the lettering the incisions
seem so clean-cut, particularly on the curves of the number six and
two, that it is possible that it was made by the tile maker before
the tile was fired. If so, the letters T L are the initials of a
tiler working in the Netherlands. Chemical analysis of the fabrics
has confirmed that the tiles were made in the Netherlands and
shipped over to Barton, probably via Hull.
We are now looking at the dating evidence for the tiled floor in the south aisle to see if this can confirm a later eighteenth century date. We will also see if there were any deaths of people with the initials T L recorded in 1762.
Worked Stone
Jackie Hall has been studying the loose stone objects. Because this covers a wide range of material, she has turned to other experts as well - Peter Makey looked at the flints, Philip Lankester at the priestly effigy, Sally Badham at incised slabs and Peter Ryder at cross slabs. The focus has mainly been on the architectural fragments, coffins and other sepulchral fragments and, with Geoff Gaunt, the geology of the pieces. Altogether, this has revealed information about lost parts of the church (e.g. the 14th century chancel), about patronage and about trade. Her favourite piece is this one:
It is a tiny and
exquisite finial from an internal fixture in the chancel (a sedilia
or tomb perhaps), and has survived as if it were just carved, with
every tiny tool mark visible.
Conservation
Julia Park, has conserved the waterlogged St. Peter's coffins. The work is being re-visited with a view to commenting on the development of techniques, discussion on the methodology used and the overall results. This, along with a summary of work done will constitute a final paper for the archive of the project.