Record Details
| NHER Number: | 2434 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Medieval churchyard |
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Summary
Several human skeletons have been found since the 1950s on this site, which is adjacent to St Mary's churchyard, see NHER 2468. Cropmarks of unknown date have been recorded on this site, and they are included with a number of other cropmarks under NHER 35584. Metal detecting has been carried out on the site but no significant finds have been recovered.
Images - none
Location
| Grid Reference: | TF 6231 0488 |
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| Map Sheet: | TF60SW |
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| Parish: | WIMBOTSHAM, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK |
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Full description
1950. Opposite church, east of main road. At depth of 76cm (2.5') in laying GPO lines.
5 human skeletons, all adult. Only 2 in good condition. Oriented apparently east to west. Reinterred in churchyard.
'Some years before' human remains found in same area when laying water main.
Main road alleged to have at one time run further east.
Information from [1] who visited site 16 January 1950 and interviewed engineers and police.
See (S1).
Copy of (S2) by R.R. Clarke (NCM).
1980.
Cropmarks show the above mentioned old road course curving around the site with attached field boundary stubs. Indicates present road a straightening across churchyard.
See 6inch and 1:2500 overlay and county series map 57/14 and 69/2.
J. Bown (NAU) 1980.
December 1981. Garden of 34 Lynn Road (new house across road from 1950 finds).
Several human skeletons reported.
Information from owner to R. Trett (NAU).
Skeletons removed by police before site could be visited, but probably also from churchyard as above.
E. Rose (NAU) 7 December 1981.
Early 1994. East of main road. Metal detecting.
No significant finds.
A. Rogerson (NLA) 18 August 1994.
The cropmarks noted above in 1980 by J. Bown are not given an aerial photograph reference and the aerial photographs cannot now be traced. However the same cropmarks were included by D. Voisey in NHER 35584 and the aerial photos for that site show that these are not an old road course, but part of a series of rectangular enclosures.
(S3) shows the roads to east and south of the church on their present courses, but wider towards the church rather than away from it. It seems very improbable that the main road has been moved in the post medieval period.
E. Rose (NLA), 21 April 2005.
Monument Types
- FIELD BOUNDARY (Unknown date)
- ROAD (Unknown date)
- CHURCHYARD (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
- INHUMATION (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
Associated Finds
- HUMAN REMAINS (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
Protected Status
Sources and further reading
| --- | Record Card: Ordnance Survey Staff. 1933-1979?. Ordnance Survey Record Cards. TF 60 SW 1. |
| --- | Secondary File: Secondary File. |
| --- | Record Card: Clarke, R. R. and NCM Staff. 1933-1973. Norwich Castle Museum Record Card - Human Skeletal Remains (HSR). Wimbotsham. |
| <S1> | Newspaper Article: Eastern Daily Press. 1950. Human skulls found at Wimbotsham. 14 January. |
| <S2> | Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card. |
| <S3> | Map: 1840. Tithe Award Map. |
Related records
| 48964 | Related to: Multi-period finds and features (Monument) |
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