The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Middle Ages: churches, castles and monasteries
• 233 •
Figure 13.2 Composite ground-plan of St Peter’s church, Barton-upon-Humber, Humberside. The original church
was of three cells (AD 990±70). In the mid-eleventh century, the old chancel was demolished and replaced with a
rectangular nave and apsidal chancel, with the former nave serving as the tower. This church was replaced by c.1200 by
a large, aisled building that involved the extension of the nave, the addition of a south aisle and two chambers to the
north side of the nave that were incorporated subsequently into a north aisle. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
the aisles were widened, and in the fifteenth century the chancel was rebuilt.
Source: Rodwell and Rodwell 1982, Fig. 3
Before the twelfth century, burial was prohibited inside parish churches, with the exceptions
of the graves of founders and priests. After this, important patrons and wealthy individuals were
able to attain burial in the church interior; this space was, however, commonly used for postmedieval
graves and vaults, which sometimes riddle the interior of medieval churches (e.g. St
Augustine the Less, Bristol). The first phases of the cemetery generally correspond with the
foundation of the church, at least in eastern and southern England, while in places such as
Winchester and Hereford the cathedral church retained the monopoly over burial of the dead
until later in the Middle Ages. Excavation of cemeteries has yielded important information on
inhumation practices, zoning of burial according to age or sex, and information from skeletons
regarding demography, health and life-expectancy (e.g. St Helen-on-the-Walls, York; St Nicholas,
Shambles, London) (see Rodwell 1989, 157–179). Some progress has been made in investigating
the churchyard itself, for instance at Raunds and Wharram Percy, including evidence for the
evolution of boundaries, and the development of paths and structures such as bell-houses, charnel