Monument record MDO19013 - Static Water Tank, Borough Gardens, Dorchester; burials

1942, 'Skeletons of Plague victims' Dorset County Chronicle (Article in serial). SDO9771.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 582, no. 222a (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(222) BOROUGH GARDENS AREA (a) Inhumations found in the Borough Gardens between 1895 and 1942. … In making a static-water tank to N. (68889053) in 1942, over a dozen fragmentary skeletons were found, some within 1 ft. of the surface, with no attempt at orderly burial; others deeper were apparently in confusion. Mr. W. Yard, a council employee known to be a reliable informant, has however estimated (in 1951) a total of about 50 skeletons on this occasion, some of children, extended in different directions with no observed grave-goods or signs of coffins. Some of the remains could be of more recent plague victims, but the diffusion is in favour of regular burial, and the Roman age of some is unquestioned. (Moule, letter 4 Dec. 1895, in Haverfield Library, Ashmolean Museum; D.C.C., 7 Dec. 1921; 17 Sept. 1942.) …’

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:35PM