Monument record GRU 046 - OUTLINE RECORD: Medieval to post medieval burials, St. Mary's Church, Grundisburgh

2014: Three evaluation trenches were excavated within an area proposed for an extension on the north side of St. Mary’s Church, Grundisburgh. Trench 1 showed significant disturbance under the blocked north door through underpinning and work associated with the church heating system, but no evidence of any structures such as a porch was identified. Trenches 2 and 3 contained at least twenty four intact burials present at depths that would be affected by the extension and deep enough to have survived previous landscaping within the churchyard. Whilst no graves are believed to have survived directly below the boiler house footprint, it is likely that the rest of the proposed development area is as densely packed with burials as the sample trenches. A significant quantity of Saxon pottery reflects the proximity of the site to known Saxon occupation, however as no church is recorded in Grundisburgh until the late 13th/early 14th century, the pottery present within what is now cemetery soil may represent Saxon activity on the site itself. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2014 (S1).Full report to follow.

2019: Excavation was carried out within the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Grundisburgh, in advance of an extension. Part of the area had been destroyed by the construction of a 20th century boiler house which had disturbed several burials. A total of 34 complete or partial in situ burials were excavated from 30 graves and a small assemblage of disarticulated bone was recovered. Few of these were closely datable, although it was clear that the assemblage represented burials dating from the earliest use of the standing 13th century building through to the post-medieval period. In demographic terms, the male to female ratio was about equal, as expected within a secular churchyard. Age groups were also represented equally within the adult group. Most of the thirteen child burials under sixteen years of age were infants. Many of the individuals are likely to have been at the lower end of the social scale, evidenced by signs of poor nutrition and associated diseases. Coffin burials were identified within the assemblage, including the remains of two burials which had used pitch to line or glue the coffin; however, the majority of the group had been buried in a simple shroud. A number of graves on the north side of church had been cut by later burials, suggesting that they were unmarked and invisible by the time the subsequent grave was dug. The earliest burials in the stratigraphic sequence were interred within anthropomorphic grave cuts, where a recess in the base of the grave was roughly cut to the shape of a human body, specifically outlining the head and shoulders. This relatively rare type of grave is often associated with monastic sites and dates from the 7th–13th century, the latter end of which just coincides with the foundation of the existing church. A sample from one of these burials returned a radiocarbon date of 1040-1270 AD (95.4% probability), which fits with the accepted time frame for such graves. This suggests that these burials could be associated with the foundation of the 13th century church, or alternatively could be indicative of an earlier building. The finds assemblage recovered during the excavation consisted almost entirely of redeposited material within grave fills. Much of this was Saxon in date and appeared to be domestic waste associated with activities on the site pre-dating the church, or which relate to the known Saxon settlement site (GRU 037) immediately west of the churchyard. One small segment of a probable ditch containing Middle Saxon Ipswich ware was recorded within the excavated area, but the density and depth of burials is likely to have destroyed other earlier features pre-dating the church, had they been present. Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2019 (S2). Full report to follow.