NHER 65145 (Monument record) - Medieval and post-medieval burials, churchyard of St Edmund's Church

Churchyard of St Edmund’s Church (NHER 8600).

July 2019. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of excavation of trench for new soakaway and drainage connection trench.
The deep trench for the new soakaway revealed multiple burials, which appeared to represent at least three distinct phases of activity. The earliest were probably medieval and were generally less well preserved than the overlying post-medieval burials – the majority of which were associated with evidence for coffins. Remains of a minimum of thirteen individuals were lifted, including three children. The shallowest burials were encountered at between 1.10m and 1.25m below modern ground level. The lowest burials, which were presumably medieval, lay at a depth of c.1.4m. The small number of finds recovered included a medieval brick fragment, a medieval/post-medieval copper alloy pin, post-medieval pottery and a late post-medieval roof tile fragment.
A relatively shallow drainage connection trench excavated between the new soakaway and the north porch of the church disturbed only the mixed backfill of previously excavated service trenches. Only fragmentary human skeletal remains were recovered.
It was noted that the flagstones in front of the porch are reused head and foot stones from graves of probable 17th- to 18th-century date, all of which appear to have been placed legend side down.
Human remains disturbed by these works were reburied within a machine-excavated hole at the base of the main trench, prior to the installation of the concrete soakaway.
See report (S1) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2020.17).
P. Watkins (HES), 19 July 2021.