Site of Medieval Cemetery at St John's

Description of this historic site

Excavations have revealed a possible Medieval cemetery associated with the Medieval chapel and hospital of St Johns. The cemetery lies underneath flats at St Johns, Warwick.

Notes about this historic site

1 Human remains have been found on a number of occasions. Bodies were disturbed and reburied during the construction of prefab houses on the site in the Second World War. When, about twenty years ago, flats were built on the site, human skeletons were found. The remains of thirteen individuals are now in the Museum store. One individual appears to have suffered trepanation. In January 1987 the Museum was informed by the Police that skulls had been found by workmen digging a trench to repair a 19th century culvert. Three skulls came from the W end of the trench, and two grave pits to the E indicate a total of five burials. These eighteen bodies probably formed part of a Medieval cemetery associated with the chapel and Medieval Hospital of St John’s (PRN 1928).
2 The skulls found in 1987 were from middle-aged to elderly Caucasians.
3 Remains of 2 individuals encountered during water mains renewal works on the east corner of St Johns and Coten End comprising parts of limb bones and a mandible.
4 Disarticulated human remains were recorded from the northern area of an observation, potentially the mixed grave fills from the cemetery assoicated with the medieval hospital.

More from Warwick