Site of Undated Cemetery, Lighthorne

1 A gentleman remembered digging up old skeletons in a field called ‘Old Borough’. This field is fairly flat with a sharp fall to a ditch. Nine skeletons were found in a line when digging for stone on the brow of the hill. They were all upright and seated on their haunches, the skulls being about 0.3m below the surface. ‘There was not a button found with them.’ The bodies were probably found 70 to 75 years earlier and were buried again in the same spot.
2 In about 1846 some hanging bowl escutcheons were found at Lighthorne, and Meaney suggests that they came from this site.
3 A second cemetery to the N of the church (MWA680) appears to be a more likely location for the discovery of the escutcheons.
4 Relates the discovery of nine male skeletons as described in Reference 1. The stone quarrying apparently took place in 1847. The placenames Owberry and Lighthorne are discussed. Owberry, formerly (19th century) Old Borough Field, might come from burghsaeten meaning a burial place while a local historian (Dugdale) suggested that Lighthorne came from Anglian Lic-hyrne, meaning valley of the dead.