A slightly creep discovery may have a simple solution, as our aged cist correspondent Angus Young reports.
During a recent renovation project at St. Mary’s Church in Hull’s Old Town, archaeologist John Buglass made an unusual discovery. He had been hired to keep a watching brief as work was carried out to replace the church’s crumbing Victorian tiled floor and corroded heating pipes underneath which no longer worked. The removal of the floor exposed a number of brick-built burial vaults. The vaults were originally constructed to provide the last resting place for some of the wealthiest members of the church’s congregation who could afford them.
Although unable to physically inspect them, John did manage to record five lead coffins still surviving in their original locations in three different areas. However, to his surprise, the lids of four of the coffins had been cut open while a fifth remained intact with stone slabs placed on it. He believes the remains of the bodies were probably removed when the tiled floor was laid in the 1860s.
He said: “The exposed coffins had all been opened by having the lids cut around the edges and then pulled off. In addition to the obviously opened coffins, all the other voids did not appear to contain coffins and were simply filled with loose backfill material. Although it is not entirely certain why both the vaults and coffins appear to have been emptied, the most likely time this happened would seem to have been during the 1860s restoration work. At this time we know various ledger stones within the church were lifted and moved into the adjacent churchyard. It would seem quite possible that any living descendants may have taken the opportunity to relocate the remains of any forebears, possibly along with their monuments, to a new location. The fact that there are a significant number of vaults reflects the location of St. Mary’s in the heart of the Old Town of Hull with its associated wealthy merchants. This would have led to a large number of burials in various parts of the church with location depending on the wealth and status of the individual.”
The discovery led to speculation that one of the empty coffins might once have been occupied by the remains of Sir Samuel Standidge, a former Mayor of Hull and five times Warden of Trinity House, who as a successful shipowner was one of the richest men in 18th century Hull. Records show he bought his own vault for five guineas in 1778 some 13 years before his death. However, it’s unlikely Standidge and his fellow vault-dwellers fell victim to Burke and Hare-style bodysnatchers.
John’s theory that relatives simply took the opportunity of relocating the bodies to the churchyard seems more plausible, particularly considering the ever-present risk of flooding from the nearby River Hull. The churchyard was at least on higher ground than the vaults sunk deep under the church.
Today, visual evidence of where Standidge and the others might have ended up is hard to find. Most of the churchyard’s stone ledgers have faded with the passing of time and the inscriptions are difficult to make out let alone read.
As well as the vaults, John’s other most significant discovery was the remains of walls which once formed part of the earlier phases of the medieval church. Elsewhere, a small part of an earlier brick floor was also uncovered with some of the oldest identified bricks re-used in later building projects thought to date back to 1423. As well as the new stone flooring, the church now has new heating and electrical systems, indoor toilets and a new refreshment space.
Amanda Habergham, chair of the Friends of St. Mary’s. said: “Any visit to the church used to usually require the wearing of at least five layers of clothes just to keep warm. Thankfully, the new heating – which includes underfloor heating and some renovated radiators from the 1930s – has changed all that although it’s also a bit of a double-edged sword because we now have to keep a close eye on our energy costs.
“As a church, we get no capital funding from the Church of England or the local authority so everything we raise is either from the congregation or through grants.”