Monument record BXT 028 - The Old School House, Boxted

Oct 1999: Inhumation found in underpinning trench for cottage adjacent to church BXT 009 (s1) Excavation followed. (S2) Jan 2000, partial human skeleton recovered , fairly good condition, though fragmented, no skull. Mature-elderly man with joint problems. (S3)


Underpinning of a house immediately adjacent to Holy Trinity Church disturbed a human burial. The grave was aligned roughly east-west and lay underneath the front wall of the house - the wall and the burial being perpendicular. The skeleton was partially excavated in order to allow the underpinning to continue. The position of the grave outside the churchyard was thought to indicate that the churchyard had extended further to the west and that this burial would be one of many, but no further graves were encountered and it must now be assumed that this was a single burial that had been deliberately placed outside the churchyard.
The skeleton, which consisted of most bones below the shoulder girdle and above the ankles, was that of a mature or elderly male. His bones were robust and there was evidence that he was well-muscled. He had suffered for many years from osteoarthritis and related degenerative disease, which had affected in particular his spine, collar bone joints with the breast bone, and his left wrist. Mild changes were also noted in the hip joints. Other pathological evidence identified included the presence of a common non-specific infection of the shins, and a possible infection of the lower spine. A partially healed cut on the back of his right hand probably disabled his middle finger and resulted in a short-term infection which had not run its course before he died. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 1999 (S4).