Barton upon Humber

Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire St. Peter's Church and St. Mary's Church.

At one time this small town was a considerable port with two churches within a stones throw of each other and remained so from The Domesday times right through the Medieval period, after which it was rapidly overtaken by Grimsby and Hull.

St.Peter's Church

St Peters Church, Beck Hill is made up of two thirds of an Anglo Saxon church with a fully developed and later church added onto its east end by various stages of demolishing and rebuilding. In 13th century this two apses were destroyed as well as a narrow south aisle which was removed to make way for a much broader onewas added on the north side. This church is well worth a visit as it was fully explored, and another aisle excavated by Warwick Rodwell. Please see also the Green Man column capitals in this church.

St. Mary's Church

St Mary’s church Burgate only 150 yards from St Peters. This is another well rewarding church to visit. It dates from approximately 1170 . It contains Brasses from circa 1380 & 1443 and monuments from 1626 to 1729.
Church of St. Mary Website

One of Barton’s earliest surviving buildings is Tyrwhitt Hall, L shaped with a medieval section and 17th & 18th century alterations.

There are many more houses of interest and several other religious buildings such as the modern Roman Catholic church of St Augustine of Canterbury. 1987 to 1988.

The Humber Bridge stands nearby.

The indoor/outdoor excavations

The church of St Peter was subjected to a very extensive and comprehensive excavation both inside each of the segments of the church and tower. As can be seen from the accompanying photograph a lot of exploring was done inside the church and many skeletons removed from inside and from the churchyard which was also extensively excavated. After scientific evidence had been gained from each one it was then put into its own bag and packed together with nine more into a box and labelled. When all had been prepared in this way they were all packed into a couple of vaults inside the church and the whole was re-floored.

The skull of the skeleton on the left has been subjected to an extensive post mortem examination in the late eighteenth century. The vault of the skull has been sawn to enable it to be lifted off for examination or removal of the brain. We are told that glue was used to "re-unite the parts for a tidy burial"!!!

See CHURCH ARCHAEOLOGY BY WARWICK RODWELL in the recommended reading section..

This church is VERY well worth a visit.

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