Monument record 1160/7/6 - The Churchyard, St John's Hospital

A burial ground was associated with the hospital chapel. A large number of human remains were found during the excavation of a cellar for a public house on Bridge Street in 1820. Said to have been used for the burial of the dead after the Battle of Northampton. A burial was identified in 2005 during archaeological observation of drainage works.

{1} There is a cemetery in the chapel ground; footnote: "a great many skeletons were found on digging foundations for the new houses adjoining near the street; they were supposed to have been buried at the time of the Battle of Northampton".

{2} "There is also a chapel close adjoining with a burying-ground attached.""Mr Williams states that he formerly used to christen & church parishioners of All Saints in this chapel & bury in the churchyard."

{3} There is a cemetery in the chapel ground;

{4} 'At the house in Bridge Street in this town, known by the name of the Three Cups, which this week has in part been taken down, for the purpose of being rebuilt, while the workmen were excavating a portion of the old scite to make a cellar, they dug up, in the course of Tuesday and Wednesday last, upwards of 400 skulls and other human bones; from the situation in which they were discovered; and the appearances of the skulls strongly indicates that these were young or middle aged persons, it fairly may be conjectured they had been deposited there after some great battle. The premises form a part of St John’s Hospital.'

{5} A burial was identified during the excavation of a new soakaway to the north-east of the hospital chapel. Grave earth containing numerous fragments of human bone was also identified in the north and east section faces. The investigation identified walls of a probable earlier medieval conventual building over the foundation sof which later medieval and post-medieval burials had been placed.

<1> Wetton, 1849, Guidebook to Northampton and its Vicinity, p.79-81 (unchecked) (Book). SNN1032.

<2> The Charities Commission, 1837, Report of The Commissioners, p.809 (unchecked) (Report). SNN1206.

<3> De Wilde G.J., 1872, Rambles Roundabout and Poems, p.212 (unchecked) (Book). SNN1106.

<4> 1820, Northampton Mercury, 9th September (Newspaper cuttings). SNN111876.

<5> Soden I.; Leigh D., 2006, An Archaeological Watching Brief at St John's Hospital Chapel, Northampton, 2005, p. 6 (Report). SNN105642.

Record last edited

May 23 2025 12:50PM