Information for record number MWA676:
Site of Undated Cemetery, Lighthorne

Summary The site of a cemetery of unknown date. A number of skeletons were found when quarrying was taking place. The cemetery site was located 400m south of the church at Lighthorne.
What Is It?  
Type: Cemetery?, Burial, Inhumation
Period: Anglo-Saxon (410 AD - 1065 AD)
Where Is It?  
Parish: Lighthorne
District: Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire
Grid Reference: SP 33 55
(Data represented on this map shows the current selected record as a single point, this is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an accurate or complete representation of archaeological sites or features)
Level of Protection National - Old SMR PrefRef (Grade: )
Sites & Monuments Record
Description

  
Source Number  

1 A gentleman remembered digging up old skeletons in a field called 'Old Borough'. This field is fairly flat with a sharp fall to a ditch. Nine skeletons were found in a line when digging for stone on the brow of the hill. They were all upright and seated on their haunches, the skulls being about 0.3m below the surface. 'There was not a button found with them.' The bodies were probably found 70 to 75 years earlier and were buried again in the same spot.
2 In about 1846 some hanging bowl escutcheons were found at Lighthorne, and Meaney suggests that they came from this site.
3 A second cemetery to the N of the church (MWA680) appears to be a more likely location for the discovery of the escutcheons.
4 Relates the discovery of nine male skeletons as described in Reference
1. The stone quarrying apparently took place in 1847. The placenames Owberry and Lighthorne are discussed. Owberry, formerly (19th century) Old Borough field, might come from burghsaeten meaning a burial place while a local historian (Dugdale) suggested that Lighthorne came from Anglian Lic-hyrne, meaning valley of the dead.
 
Sources
Source No: 2
Source Type: Bibliographic reference
Title: A Gazetteer of Early Anglo Saxon Burials
Author/originator: Meaney A
Date: 1964
Page Number: 217
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 1
Source Type: Descriptive Text
Title: Lighthorne
Author/originator: Chatwin P B
Date: 1923 & 1956
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 4
Source Type: Unpublished document
Title: The Incomplete History of Lighthorne
Author/originator: Hinman, P
Date: 2000
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Source No: 3
Source Type: Verbal communication
Title: R.C. Hingley personal comments
Author/originator: R C Hingley
Date:
Page Number:
Volume/Sheet:
   
Images:  
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Glossary

 
Word or Phrase
Description  
monument SITE * Unclassifiable site with minimal information. Specify site type wherever possible. back
monument INHUMATION * An interment of unburnt, articulated human remains. Use specific type where known. back
monument STONE * Use only where stone is natural or where there is no indication of function. back
monument CHURCH * A building used for public Christian worship. Use more specific type where known. back
monument FIELD * An area of land, often enclosed, used for cultivation or the grazing of livestock. back
monument CEMETERY * An area of ground, set apart for the burial of the dead. back
monument DITCH * A long and narrow hollow or trench dug in the ground, often used to carry water though it may be dry for much of the year. back
monument BURIAL * An interment of human or animal remains. Use specific type where known. If component use with wider site type. Use FUNERARY SITE for optimum retrieval in searches. back

* Copyright of English Heritage (1999)

English Heritage National Monuments Record