Lay cemetery, 15th-19th century
/During April and May 1990 three small trenches were cut against the Chair Store of Rochester Cathedral, in advance of a scheme to underpin the store, built in 1970. The excavation commissioned by the Cathedral architect, Mr. Martin Care and the Cathedral's archaeological adviser, Mr. Tim Tatton-Brown, was funded by the Dean and Chapter of Rochester Cathedral.
The Chair Store is situated in the Lay Cemetery built against the north side of the cathedral in the western angle of the north transept. The trenches, excavated to natural head brickearth were cut below the concrete slab foundations of the Store to enable contractors to underpin and stabilise the structure.
Three trenches, each 3 metres by I metre were cut against the Chair Store walls to an average depth of approximately 4.5 metres below the existing subsoil of the Lay Cemetery. Despite the restricted size and exceptional depth of the cuttings (steel shoring was installed by the contractors, Tradpin Ltd.) an interesting sequence of archaeological deposits was encountered.
At the level of natural brickearth deposits of Late Iron age topsoil were exposed in association with a small number of pits and a ditch yielding pottery of the first half of the first century A.D.
The earliest occupation horizon was capped by further deposits of clay and loam indicative of upcast from the cutting of a number of nearby Roman pits. The pits, three in number, yielded pottery of first-to third-century date. A fourth pit, located during the underpinning operation was cut late in the sequence, and contained substantial quantities of daub from a burnt timber-framed mud-walled structure, perhaps indicating the presence of a nearby Late Roman building.
Very little archaeological evidence for the Anglo-Saxon period was recovered, this consisting of one residual shred of seventh-century organic-tempered pottery found in a Medieval grave.
Overlying the latest Roman horizon was a 3 metre thick deposit of disturbed dark loam, containing a substantial number of inhumation burials. Although slight colour and textural changes in the loam were in evidence, individual grave cuts were almost impossible to determine and the phasing of the sixty-three or more human burials exposed during the work was established on the basis of intercutting or superimposed skeletal material.
The earliest burials were contained within stone-lined cists, of mortared chalk block, tufa and ragstone construction. Some of this masonry may have been gleaned from a Roman source. One cist burial contained the fragmented remains of a pewter chalice, deliberately placed in the hands of the deceased at burial. The chalice awaits precise dating within the period mid thirteenth to early sixteenth century A second phase of cist burials overlay or cut the first. These were in turn cut or sealed by graves dating from the late medieval period to the nineteenth century.
The sequence of the late Iron Age and Roman deposits in such a small excavation area is difficult to interpret, but the occurrence of pits would tend to confirm that the area was open ground and peripheral to settlement. However, the large amounts of daub within the latest Roman pit might suggest the presence of a nearby timber building of the late Roman period, and overall the recovered pottery assemblage implies occupation to the end of the Roman period. A coin of the House of Theodosius (388-395) was found redeposited in one of the Medieval graves.
The earliest reference to the Lay Cemetery seems to occur in 1418 although it was
Burials 29-32 of medieval date burials 30 and 31 are within the remains of chalk block cists; of the latter burial only the skull remains (scale 1 metre)
Burial 60. The best preserved medieval cist with a further stone block beneath the skeleton, the skull of which is missing having been disturbed by later burials.
probably in use long before this. The cemetery's history is related to that ofthe parish of st. Nicholas which appears to have been in existence by the mid twelfth century. The parishioners had the use of an altar within the nave of the cathedral from 1147 and possibly from 1077 (Hasted 1797, 155). In 1312 an agreement was reached whereby the parishioners would ca
stem a church. However
probably in use long before this. The cemetery's history is related to that ofthe parish of st.
Nicholas which appears to have been in existence by the mid twelth century. The parishioners had the use of an altar within the nave of the cathedral from 1147 and possibly from 1077 (Hasted 1797, 155). In 1312 an agreement was reached whereby the parishioners would cease to use the altar if the monks built them a church. However, there is no further documentary mention of the church until 1418 when a licence to 'continue and compel' the building of a church in the 'cemetery to the north was issued by the bishop. The church of St. Nicholas was consecrated in 1423,
Nineteenth-century prints show that the cemetery was walled at some time between 1806 and 1833. Within the walled area the ground level seems to have been raised byc. 1 metre, presumably so that more burials could take place. The nineteenth-century wall had iron railings which survived into this century, when they were probably removed as part of the war effort. Photographs of c. 1900 show that there were many more gravestones than are present now. The recording of surviving grave markers formed an important part of the project and was carried out entirely by local volunteers who hope to compile and eventually publish a comprehensive record of all the memorials in the cathedral and cemetery. Many of the markers that survive in front of the cathedral are now laid horizontally. Although one modern stone dating to 1970 is present, it seems that burials ceased in the mid to late nineteenth century, when a new cemetery was opened on the outskirts of the city.
Alan Ward
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Piecing together the thousands of architectural components and evidence from excavations and other sources informing the architectural history of the site.
