The Results Part 2
It was obvious that many graves would be discovered - and it was determined that they would be excavated to a reasonable standard - the huge number (particularly outside the church to the west and south-west) was not anticipated. The density of burial occurring in a churchyard in a small market town was simply not known. The skeletal assemblage is the largest ever excavated from an English parish church and churchyard, and it dates from the late ninth to the mid-nineteenth century. By the end of the 1985 season of excavation, 2836 graves had been excavated and 2817 of these had produced articulated human remains.
Part of a mid-Saxon, pre-church enclosure was found, as was the
ditch of a short-lived Norman fortification. These link the church
into a wider topographical picture, and are relevant to
understanding the origins and early development of settlement at
Barton.
Because the mid-Saxon enclosure ditch acted as an underground water channel, part of the site was waterlogged, and that in turn provided localized conditions for the preservation of buried timber. Over thirty coffins of late Saxon and Norman date were sufficiently preserved that they could be lifted, in whole or in part. Approximately 130 additional early coffins were recorded, but were not salvageable.
These unexpected
quantities and discoveries led to a refinement of the original
objectives of the project. The detailed study of the congregation
of the church, their burial rites and social context, became a
major objective.
Coffin lid drawn by Simon Hayfield