13 September – The Living Churchyard
In this blog, excavation director Mathew Morris explores how the living have used the churchyard.
We have talked a lot about the remarkable archaeological discoveries from excavation work at Leicester Cathedral undertaken by University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) for the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project. About the Roman cellar 'shrine' and the altar stone, and about the thousand medieval and post-medieval burials, and we will talk about them further as new information comes from the analysis of the archaeological material and the human remains. Meanwhile, the assessment of the Small Finds (the archaeological term for artefacts which are considered distinct or unique and warrant individual recording) has raised some interesting questions about how people used the churchyard for non-burial activities.
From the beginning of the excavation, it was noticeable that the burial soil contained a large amount of domestic refuse – broken pottery, animal bone, clay tobacco pipe and other broken, discarded or lost artefacts, ranging in date from the 11th century through to the 19th century. But why was it in the soil? Was it evidence of historic fly tipping, was it imported with soil to raise the burial ground and make room for more burials, or was it evidence of people living in, or using the churchyard?
In the post-medieval period, some people, perhaps those living around the churchyard, were clearly using the burial space for rubbish disposal. This is demonstrated by items including a fragment of a pipeclay hair or wig curler of 17th to 18th century date, and fragments of a slate pencil and a teaspoon of 19th century date. Buttons and sewing pins in the burial soil may have been used in dressing the bodies, but some could equally have been losses from people visiting the churchyard, and the recovery of three thimbles gives us a picture of people bringing their sewing to the area. There is also evidence of children playing there in the later 19th century, in the form of glass and porcelain marbles.
Eighteenth-century houses overlooking the excavation of St Martin's churchyard. Image: ULAS
Finds from the burial soil at St Martin's which are more likely to be associated with the churchyard's living landscape: 1) Broken terminal of a 17th/18th century pipeclay hair/wig curler; 2) Front of a small 19th century pointed copper alloy spoon bowl; 3) tip of a 19th century slate pencil, used as an alternative to chalk to write on a slate board; 4) 18th century copper alloy button with basket weave and 19th century bone buttons; 5) white porcelain 19th century marble with four polychrome bands; 6) two 18th/19th century copper alloy thimbles. Images: ULAS
This interaction between the landscapes of the living and the dead continues today with the churchyard's gradual redevelopment over the past 80 years into the Cathedral Gardens, a tranquil green space in the heart of the city. As a place of burial, the churchyard brought the remembrance of the dead into everyday life, providing a physical and emotional focus for grieving families, from funerals to graveside visits. In densely settled urban spaces like Leicester, churchyards were also often the only available 'green space', and as a result they frequently hosted large gatherings – from weddings, to open air sermons and public meetings – and provided valuable open space for people to socialise.
Midday in St Paul's churchyard, New York (c.1910) - a vital green space in the densely urban area of Lower Manhattan. Image: Library of Congress (https://lccn.loc.gov/2014699365)
We have also identified a period of activity in the 11th century between the interment of a localised group of early burials and the main burial ground activity. Some of this may relate to construction work on St Martin's church, pits quarrying the local alluvial sands and gravels and a lime kiln were probably dug on the eastern side of the churchyard to produce aggregate and mortar, and represent a builders' compound (much like the building site currently occupying the Cathedral Gardens for the construction of the new Heritage & Learning Centre). However, gravel surfaces, a hearth and a large quantity of 11th and 12th century domestic waste might also suggest that parts of the burial ground were interchangeably used for burials and for other, more domestic, activities during the formation of the churchyard.
This corroborates evidence of a possible 12th or 13th century building in the south-west corner of the churchyard, previously recorded in 2001 during archaeological monitoring at the south end of the St Martin's West passageway. There are also references in borough and church records of tenants whose dwellings were described as being within the churchyard in the 15th-18th centuries. These included the repair of Robert Walle's house 'yn the chirche yarde' in 1494, a 'house and garden in St Martin's Churchyard in the occupation of Widow Wilcocks' in 1688 and 'Mr Needham who lived in the churchyard' in 1730.
Leicester city centre in 1935. St Martin's churchyard remained a rare green space in the dense urban centre. Image: Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/record/EPW047642
This historic use of the churchyard as a social space will be explored in more detail as the project develops. It will provide new insights about St Martin's Church, and the influences it had on the development of the surrounding townscape, and it will help build a picture of how the people of St Martin's parish have historically used the space for non-burial activities, adding a new dimension to the Cathedral's story.
Mathew Morris MA ACIfA
Project Officer
Archaeological Services (ULAS)
University of Leicester
