SNN103863 - Excavations in The Churchyard at The Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton

Plans to remove and rebuild an unstable 9m stretch of the north cemetery wall at the Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton, entailed a reduction of the surrounding burial ground level by up to 3m. Archaeological excavation within this area uncovered three burials from the Victorian period, cut through 4 to 5 feet of imported burial soil, into a pre mid-19th century horizon. The underlying burial soil contained disarticulated human bone, suggestin that the graveyard may also have been landscaped. The lower burial soil contained pottery, glass and tile dating from te 13th century through to the post-medieval period, and an assemblage of bone tentatively ascribed to tannery waste. Although the graveyard was apparently closed in the mid-19th century, burials continued to be interred until the late 19th century.