Monument record MWX801 - Inhumation burials, The Rectory, Kings Road West, Swanage

Undated inhumation burials were recovered during construction work at the Rectory, Kings Road West at some time before 1965. At the time, the burials were considered possibly to be Roman in date. They are now considered more likely to be Saxon because they were laid out in a 'clock' formation with heads to the centre which is known in late Saxon execution cemeteries.

SZ 02757877. A number of inhumation burials were found some years before 1965 in building a garage at the Rectory, King's Road West. <1>

Listed under 'Roman Remains'. <2>

About 10-12 inhumations were arranged in 'a clock formation with heads to the centre and a stone over each head'. No dating evidence was found with the burials, but this type of arrangement has been noted in late Saxon execution cemeteries. <4>

<1> Farrar, R A H, 1965, Inhumation burials at Swanage. , 112-113 (Article in serial). SWX7833.

‘Inhumation burials at Swanage
Mr. P. A. Brown reports local information of a number of skeletons found some years ago in building a garage (SZ 02757877) at the Rectory, King’s Road West, Swanage, which lies below the 50 ft. contour on or near the outcrop of Purbeck ‘marble’. His informant, a Mr. Parsons, who was the finder, stated that ten or a dozen skeletons were found under the present garage floor on “clay” subsoil, disposed in clock formation with heads to the centre and a stone over each head. The bones, said to have been brittle, were subsequently scattered. A reporter on the Swanage Times, who saw the remains after lifting, told Mr. Brown that they were noted in a news-sheet issued during a national strike; the owner of the Rectory, also a Mr. Parsons, unrelated to the finder, confirmed the discovery. This bizarre find adds to the variety of curious burial arrangements reported at various times in Dorset (cf. these Proceedings, Vol. 86 (1964), p.119), none of them adequately attested archaeologically even by the standards of their day. Nevertheless the site is a perfectly reasonable one, while properly authenticated burials at the Cottage Hospital some 500yds. to the south [Footnote: Dorset Proceedings, Vol. 76 (1954), pp. 76-7], show that the area was occupied in ancient times.’

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 612 (Monograph). SDO150.

A circle of burials, undated, was reported 500 yds. to N.

<3> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 415 (Index). SDO147.

Burials destroyed after discovery and the site is now built over. Situated in a built up area of the town.
7/7/E TWA/IOP/1985

<4> Cherryson, A K, 2006, Gazetteer of Early Medieval Sites, 41 (Unpublished document). SDO17464.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 457474 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 4:53PM