St Nicolas Church, Shoreham

Archaeology South-East undertook a watching brief during the construction of a vestry extension, disabled access and associated drainage at St Nicolas’ Church, Shoreham. This building incorporates Saxon elements, chiefly within the nave, and was substantially remodelled in the Norman period. Further alterations took place in the 13th and 19th centuries, the latter of these being commissioned by the wealthy local Bridger family at a time when the church was verging on dereliction.

During the excavation of the graveyard soil by the ground workers, it became clear that a large number of stratified articulated skeletal remains were present as shallow as 250mm below existing ground level. This resulted in the entire area being excavated in c.100mm spits by archaeologists in order to minimise the damage to the human remains prior to recording and subsequent removal for reburial (no detailed analysis of the remains was to be undertaken). The identification of individual graves cuts within the homogenous graveyard soil was largely unfeasible and was only possible where they had disturbed the underlying geological strata. All graves were aligned in symmetry with long axis of St Nicolas’ Church, being east-south-east by west-north-west, with heads located westwards.

The complete and partial remains of up to 21 skeletons were found in the area of the vestry extension and a further five grave cuts were located where the bodies had been interred at a depth beyond the limitations of the groundworks. Two further articulated skeletons and a grave cut were located in a 1m2 soakaway 5m to the west and another two articulated skeletons were present in a drainage trench running to the east.

A number of graves were obviously of children and include a twin baby/foeti burial within a coffin adorned with decorative zinc strips and six miniature handles (Grave 10). Graves 6 and 7 had flint nodules placed around the head. This practise is found in Saxon contexts (e.g. Raunds, Northamtonshire), but also continues into the medieval period. The southern edge of a grave cut partially revealed in the soakaway was lined with a c.100mm thick creamy lime mortar that showed evidence of a smooth inner face.

A possible explanation for the apparent shallowness of many of the graves may be that they were dug when the ground level was higher. Later lowering of the ground surface during landscaping works, possibly associated with the mid 19th-century restoration of the church and in particular the construction of the existing vestry and adjacent Bridger tomb, would have had the effect of bringing the bodies closer to the surface. This hypothesis is grounded on documentary evidence that suggests that the church was in a semi-ruinous state by at least 1840 and that “…earth had accumulated on the south side [of the Nave] to the height of about four feet…” (Simpson 1958, 35 [The Ecclesiologist 1842, 12-13]). That such a build up of earth is documented as having occurred on the south side of the church may indicate that a similar state of affairs may have conceivably occurred against the north.

Dating of these burials is problematic. Continual reworking of the graveyard soil has resulted in a broad date range of pottery being well mixed within it. The small quantity of comminuted and mostly abraded pottery sherds recovered dated to the Bronze Age, Romano-British (grog-tempered East Sussex ware), Anglo-Saxon (6th to 7th century), Saxo-Norman and medieval periods. It is not possible to confidently date any of the graves by means of such artefacts, but the fact that no sherds dated to later than the 13th century may indicate that there was a hiatus in burials in this part of the graveyard at this time, or that pottery from nearby occupation was no longer becoming incorporated for some reason. Graves that were observed to have been cut from higher in the soil horizon, and in most cases truncating earlier burials, are thought to be post-medieval in date. Where coffin furniture was recovered, it could be stylistically dated to the mid 18th to mid 19th century.

The human remains and the small amount of datable artefacts recovered during this limited investigation has illustrated the longevity of St Nicolas Church as a burial site. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that Roman and prehistoric activity was taking place in the vicinity long before the foundation of the existing church.

Project Officer: Neil Griffin
Client: Carden & Godfrey