St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire - A Parish Church and its Community by T Waldron

St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire - A Parish Church and its Community by T Waldron

The excavations at St Peter's church, Barton-upon-Humber, between 1978 and 1984 have yielded the largest collection of human remains in the UK, dating from the late tenth century to the mid-nineteenth. The twin aims of the project were to understand the architectural history and setting of this complex, multi-period building (Volume 1), and to recover a substantial sample of the population for palaeopathological study (Volume 2). An extensive programme of historical and topographical research also took place in order to set the archaeological evidence firmly in context. The parish registers, which extend back to the mid-sixteenth century, were transcribed, and these provide an important demographic overview of the population. The cemetery evidence revealed that the population is entirely secular, representing a cross-section of all levels of society living in the town and its hinterland. In total, 2,750 inhumations were examined, but there were also thousands of disarticulated bones - approximately three tons in weight - which could only be given the briefest examination. Those who were buried at St Peter's were subject not only to the normal visitations of disease and trauma but suffered an outbreak of the plague in 1593, when about a fifth of the population was lost. Taking the long view over the entire period, however, it is striking how many of the marks of health and vigour, popularly supposed to have changed substantially between the middle ages and the Victorian era, have remained relatively constant. Together, the two volumes provide fascinating insights into that mainstay of settlement - the small English market town.

This is an important book that provides a solid foundation for more valuable research on the collection in years to come' -- British Archaeology British Archaeology This volume is a must have for any student of paleopathology or the bioarchaeologists or osteoarchaeologist who has come of age during the analysis of this amazing collection from Barton-upon-Humber.' -- International Journal of Osteoarchaeology International Journal of Osteoarchaeology these remarkable volumes can be recommended as a readable, well-planned and comprehensive study of one of this country's best-known churches. -- Journal of Stained Glass Journal of Stained Glass "Following on from the publication of volume 2 by Waldron (The Human Remains, 2007), this lavish two-part volume, incorporating a raft of specialists, represents the culmination of over three decades of research. This is a detailed and richly illustrated pair of books reporting on the results of excavation and building survey between 1978 and 2005...this study marks a key moment in the development of church archaeology. The exemplary investigation of a single building and its environs is to be highly applauded, not only in terms of the quality of the material reported and the archaeological methods employed in the work, but also the scholarly depth and comparative analyses presented therein. This is a book that is far more than the sum of its superb elements. Still, one wonders when and where comparable analyses of other parish churches will emerge that match Rodwell's study in terms both of its detail and breadth." -- Howard Williams The Archaeological Journal

by Tony Waldron with contributions by Warwick Rodwell

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781842172834
ISBN 10	1842172832
Title	St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire - A Parish Church and its Community
Author	T Waldron
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxbow Books
Year published	2007-05-29
Number of pages	216
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.