NHER 67945 (Monument) - Saxon or medieval burials

September 2010. Watching Brief.
In 2010 work to renovate the Chequers Inn (which had been gutted by fired the previous year) disturbed what appeared to be in situ human remains. These were clearly of considerable antiquity as they lay directly beneath the north wall of the oldest section of the building (which is now thought to be as early as 16th century in date). Subsequent archaeological investigations confirmed that the remains uncovered were associated with an east-to-west aligned extended inhumation. Only the lower portion of the skeleton survived in situ, the remainder removed as a result of both the recent work and previous underpinning of the wall. On the north side of the wall the grave had also probably been truncated by a modern pit that was found to contain a cache of World War Two American firearms and ammunition. The only find recovered from the grave fill was a single sherd of Middle Saxon pottery and it was sealed by a grey-brown silty deposit that potentially represent a surviving portion of the original topsoil. Single sherds of Roman and medieval pottery and a small amount of animal bone were recovered from this deposit.
The skeleton was found to be that of a male individual who had been middle-aged or older at the time of his death. Although the bulk of the disarticulated bone recovered clearly represented displaced elements of this skeleton it is recorded that pieces of redeposited human bone were present throughout the grave fill. The detailed examination of the bone confirmed the presence of remains from an additional, younger individual. This makes it much more likely that this grave was part of a larger cemetery, rather than an isolated burial as had initially seemed to be the case.
No other remains likely to predate the Chequers Inn were recorded during this work.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited. The results of this work are also summarised in (S1)
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2011.206).
P. Watkins (HES), 7 February 2024.

2012.
In 2012 the human remains uncovered at the Chequers Inn were reburied in the churchyard of St John the Baptist’s Church, following a brief service.
Interestingly press articles reporting the reburial make reference to scientists who were "…able to use DNA testing to date the bones to around 665AD". If reliable and accurately reported (which is far from certain) this would be clear evidence for a Saxon cemetery predating that associated with the medieval church. However, at present no additional information on this work has been located.
See (S2) and (S3) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 7 February 2024.