NHER 68119 (Monument record) - Churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church

Churchyard of St Peter and St Paul's Church (NHER 2698). Previously recorded under NHER 2698.

January 1973.
Southern churchyard boundary walls of to west and east of White Lodge (NHER 37599) listed Grade II. These 18th- and 19th-century walls are now recorded separately as NHER 68116.
P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2024.

Autumn 1989. Field Observation.
...In churchyard by path directly south of south transept is a stone coffin slab.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 10 November 1989.
Previously recorded under NHER 2698.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2024.

October 1995.
Mid-19th-century iron gates at western entrance to churchyard listed Grade II. These are now recorded as NHER 68123. An iron gate of a similar age was added to the listing for the churchyard walls east of White Lodge (NHER 68116). The remains of the town pound adjacent to the north wall of the churchyard were also listed Grade II at this time (now NHER 68124).
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA), 13 November 1995. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2024.

The Town Gardens Survey grades the churchyard three-star (national importance). It was extended eastwards after 1845 by demolishing the vicarage, tithe barn and pound. In 1846 the extension was fenced with iron railings by Plowrights (whose foundry lay on the opposite site of the Market Place - see NHER 2674). A well was altered to make it look like a tomb. Much ironwork was removed for salvage in 1942. An avenue of limes was planted in the old churchyard in 1709 and a second in 1762; a scaffold was kept in the church for pruning them. Avenue on south-east of yard connects with that across the Antinghams.
See report (S1) for full details.
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA), 14 July 1998. Previously recorded under NHER 2698.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2024.

However [as noted above] there is a pound, listed Grade II on south side of Mangate Street, and dated as around 1730 restored 1978 (NHER 68124). Was it the one destroyed in 1845 and now rebuilt?
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA), 16 March 1999. Previously recorded under NHER 2698.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2024.

J. Lodey (NLA), notes documentary references to a workhouse adjoining the tythe barn before 1845.
Previously noted under NHER 2698.
E. Rose (NLA), 6 September 2002.

May 2015-February 2016. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with installation of new drainage system.
A deep trench for a new soakaway to the south of the chancel revealed a total of 40 burials, only six of which lay at a depth where the associated remains would be undisturbed. The remainder were subject to careful hand excavation and any skeletal remains removed from the area. The stratigraphic and physical relationships between the graves suggested that several distinct phases of burial were represented, each of which comprised a group of graves likely to have been broadly contemporary. At least some probably represented related, family groups. Apart from a single nail there was little evidence to suggest the earliest graves had contained coffins, although dark material at the margins of several potentially represented traces of some form of organic linings. A number of the later burials were though clear associated with coffins, with several containing coffin nails and other coffin fittings. A stone slab that had probably been a cover or lid from a coffin was also present in one grave. At least two juveniles was noted but the majority of the skeletons uncovered appeared to be those of adults. As would be expected, finds were fairly scarce in the earliest graves, with a much wider range of objects recovered from the more recent cuts. These would have been mostly chance inclusions, the one potential exception being a possible shroud pin. Other finds from the graves included medieval and post-medieval pottery sherds, late medieval/early post-medieval and post-medieval window glass, a piece of post-medieval bottle glass, a post-medieval clay tobacco pipe stem, medieval floor tiles and medieval/post-medieval and post-medieval brick and tile fragments. Unstratified finds from this trench included several prehistoric flint flakes, Late Saxon, early medieval and high medieval pottery sherds, a medieval roof tile fragment, pieces of post-medieval clay tobacco pipe and single fragments of post-medieval window and bottle glass.
The various drain trenches excavated to the south of the church mostly only disturbed the deep churchyard soils. The exceptions included probable make-up deposits and former path surfaces observed immediately to the south of the porch. One trench also exposed the solid footings of the south aisle buttress immediately east of the porch, which consisted of medium to large flints set in a sandy lime mortar. There was no trace of such a solid footing beneath the buttress to the east, with only brick rubble noted. The footing of the south wall of the south transept was also exposed, which comprises flint rubble with occasion brick fragments bonded with hard, chalky lime mortar.
Hand augering also took place to help identify the cause of sunken ground in the northern part of the gardens of remembrance to the east of the chancel. Although a variety of deposits were identified no voids or particularly soft areas were encountered.
See report (S2) for further information and NHER 2698 for details of observations made during the internal improvement works that took place around the same time. See also photographic archive (S3).
P. Watkins (HES), 22 February 2024.