A whole history of Hull literally buried is now being revealed and, as our sepultural excavation correspondent Angus Young reports, it sounds fascinating.
It’s an oasis of green next to Hull’s busiest road. At the moment there is currently no public access to Trinity Burial Ground thanks to the ongoing construction work on Castle Street. But people will once again be able to visit when the £200m highways upgrade is finally completed next year. One of the reasons the wider scheme has taken so long was the need to excavate part of the site to eventually make way for a new slip road.
Originally used by the parish church of Holy Trinity (Hull Minster), the burial ground was used between 1783 and 1861 after space immediately next to the church in the Old Town became limited. A team of 90 archaeologists sensitively excavated nearly 10,000 bodies which were subsequently re-buried within the grounds. Their work uncovered a cross-section of Hull’s population at the time and represented the largest ever scientific excavation of a post-medieval burial ground in Northern England.
As well as the bodies, personal items and coffins, they also discovered the footprints of various buildings including an 18th century prison, a 19th century timber yard and, most intriguing of all, a previously unrecorded limestone building which is thought to have been part of the 12th and 13th century settlement of Wyke.
Examination of the human remains has helped build up a detailed picture of the health of Hull’s population at the time through evidence of injuries and disease. The investigations were carried out under a special licence issued by the Diocese of York to main contractors Balfour Beatty who, in turn, hired Oxford Archaeology to carry out the excavation.
With the human remains reburied and work on the main A63 project now in its final stages, attention is turning back to the burial ground. A Balfour Beatty spokesperson said: “The Trinity Burial Ground redevelopment is going well. We have retained over 70 per cent of the area and are now working to complete the carefully-restored brick walls, with new landscaping, planting and pathways alongside returning a number of the original headstones which will be displayed to the public. The final layout and landscaping for the area will provide a welcoming public space for the local community. The burial ground will be open to the public on completion of the scheme in 2026.”
As archaeologists continue desktop work to catalogue all their work, some of their finds at the site are currently on public display at Hull Minster and in the church’s Trinity Room cafe during normal opening hours.