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Summary

Site of a small sloping churchyard in front of the former St. Barnabus Church. The front boundary walls are listed.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1209931: FRONT BOUNDARY WALLS TO THE CHURCH OF ST BARNABAS

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CHURCHYARD (XIX to XX - 1801 AD to 2000 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1855-1895, First Edition 1:500 Town Map (Cartographic). SDV338879.

Shown on 1855-95 town map with a flight of steps leading up to the entrance to the church. A letter box is marked against the front wall on the north side of the entrance.

Fletcher, M. J., 2008, Archaeological Watching Brief in the Grounds of 33 Newcomen Road, Dartmouth (Report - Watching Brief). SDV348159.

Sloping plot in front of the former St. Barnabas Church. The ground was partly excavated in 2008 to provide a flat area at road level for a bin store and the installation of a chairlift. The church was built in 1831 and added to in 1884. It was deconsecrated many years ago and the building put to other uses. In 2007/8 it was converted to sheltered housing. The church is shown on 19th and earlier 20th century mapping with the plot in front subdivided by wide entrance steps. It is not marked as a churchyard although an undated photo shows a grave marker on the right hand side of the plot. The marker is late Victorian in style and burials are recorded in the parish register in 1878.
Pieces of human bone were recovered during the excavation works. Also recovered were shered on non-descript 19th century glazed pottery, numerous oyster shells and building debris broken handmade brick and pieces of roofing slate.
The excavation showed that the plot was a heavily disturbed area and it is suggested that the unstable shillet sub-strata was excavated during the construction of the retaining wall of the church and that the upper part of the plot was gradually filled with debris principally from the building works but also spoil from grave digging. The majority of the bones lay between 1.0-1.4 metres below ground level. Their fragmentary condition (no articulated or complete skeletons were found) suggests that they had been redeposited from elsewhere. All the burials would have been removed when the church was sold for reburial elsewhere, probably in the parish churchyard. These fragments, therefore, either represent pieces of bone overlooked or discarded during that process or were redistributed across the site when successive graves were dug and the spoil spread across the site. During the 19th and early 20th century 'consecrated' soil was spread across the existing ground rather than being taken away.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV5567 - Archaeological Watching Brief on Former Churchyard, Newcomen Road, Dartmouth

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