The riddle of the missing bodies.

Acrylic-bob · 22-01-2006, 20:33

I was watching Time Team earlier this evening. Yes I know it's facile and superficial but it is a marginal improvement on Songs of Praise and You've Been Framed. Anyway, it started me thinking. Since Accrington is a Saxon place name and there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest that the roots of the area may go back even further, it occured to me to wonder what had happened to all the people who had died in the borough between then and now.

Clearly some of them ended up in Church Kirk and some of them ended up in Altham, but in either case there are no grave markers that date back before the civil war. It is as though the hundreds of dead of the period 700ad to 1650-ish have just disappeared. Even if people died at the miserly rate of one per year that still represents 950 burials.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever mentioned coming across late saxon, norman or medieval burials in their gardens while they were digging the foundations for their conservatory.

So, where are they?

Madhatter · 22-01-2006, 20:43

Where the graves marked back then?, were they reused?
Time team might be facile and superficial but it got you thinking and I certainly would be very pleased if they visited my area,as I'm sure you would if they were in accy. that is unless they decided to dig up your pitch.

Tinkerbelle · 22-01-2006, 20:48

Sorry A-B i know it won't be medieval but I remember a very old graveyard on Hyndburn Rd were Homebase is now. Don't know old the graves were though, I was only tiny when we used to pass it on the way to my Grandparents.

Madhatter · 22-01-2006, 20:50

so they put homebase on the grave yard?, is homebase a busy store or is it always dead in there

Uncle Mick · 22-01-2006, 20:57

Presumably there would have been a burial site somewhere on the Dunkenhalgh estate. Anybody got one of those geophys gismos we could play with?

Busman747 · 22-01-2006, 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever mentioned coming across late saxon, norman or medieval burials in their gardens while they were digging the foundations for their conservatory.

So, where are they?

So obvious A-b, They are alive and well - - and serving on Hyndburn Council! or was that neanderthal man?

Actually, didn't they prefer funeral pyres in those days?

Doug · 22-01-2006, 21:08

Nice one A-B. I’m going to come back to this subject because it’s such a worth point of discussion for those who care sufficiently of there past. It not just the graves of those lost to history, but our own families’ grave that have been lost.

That said it’s difficult enough finding the grave of our own, let alone those of centuries back. First place to start is manorial records and old maps of the areas of interest, folk lore will play its part as will many false leads that draw us in many wrong directions.

WillowTheWhisp · 22-01-2006, 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkerbelle

Sorry A-B i know it won't be medieval but I remember a very old graveyard on Hyndburn Rd were Homebase is now. Don't know old the graves were though, I was only tiny when we used to pass it on the way to my Grandparents.

That was a Baptist graveyard which was known as "Macpelah" (sp?) which I was told means "God's Acre". It wasn't a particularly old one in comparison to Time Team excavations but when the land was to be sold for redevelopment the last burial was at least 100 years old by then and none of the graves were being tended. I believe they were all exhumed in a respectful manner and re-interred elsewhere.

Madhatter · 22-01-2006, 21:59

(sp?) <what does that mean, i keep seeing it in forums?

WillowTheWhisp · 22-01-2006, 22:00

It means I'm not sure how to spell that and if anybody else knows please will they tell me.

Tinkerbelle · 22-01-2006, 22:01

Thanks for that Willow. It's funny how you curiously remember little things like that.

Margaret Pilkington · 22-01-2006, 22:10

Yes, Willow I remember seeing about the Macpelah graveyard in some old books about Accrington......they were from about 1860ish......and there was a more recent one with photographs in it.

Wasn't there a graveyard down Union Street too.......just by the side of what are now the Social Services offices.......I vaguely remember that building being some sort of Church.

There were also graves in front of the New Jerusalem Church too.......and I think by the Wesleyan Chapel......but I am sure none of them went back as far as A-B is asking.

Margaret Pilkington · 22-01-2006, 22:12

And A-B I would prefer to watch something like Time Team than some of the other dross that is currently being served up as entertainment......at least Time team has provoked this discussion.

Lockie25 · 22-01-2006, 22:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkerbelle

Sorry A-B i know it won't be medieval but I remember a very old graveyard on Hyndburn Rd were Homebase is now. Don't know old the graves were though, I was only tiny when we used to pass it on the way to my Grandparents.

Hmm yes I remember this graveyard too, very daunting as a young child because everything (headstones etc) were ancient, very derelict and in such a bad state of repair! (I wish they were still there as I'm currently trying to do my family tree and now stuck!) I seem to remember that when the foundations were dug for the fore mentioned store that remains had been found (such an uproar ensued) they are now buried in Accrington Cemetary.

Acrylic-bob · 22-01-2006, 22:15

Your spelling is spot on, Willow.

As far as I am aware the Macpelah graveyard, though situated in "Old" Accrington did not date back much beyond the middle to early 19th Century, though I could be wrong.

The practice of cremation fell out of use with the advent of Christianity and its doctrine of the resurrection of the body as well as the soul.