Church Renovations Reveal Forgotten Burials

PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND—Workers discovered burials while installing a new heating system in the floor of Stoke Damerel Church, which is thought to have been built in the thirteenth century. A large burial vault was uncovered near the center of the floor and may hold as many as twelve coffins. Most of the burials have been found toward the rear, older part of the church and may date to the fifteenth century. “When the church was extended through the eighteenth century, people seem to have had scant respect for burials as bones were all over the place and must belong to all sorts of people,” church warden John Steer told The Plymouth Herald. The remains will be reburied as close to where they were found as possible under the new church floor. To read more about archaeological work in English churches, go to "Writing on the Church Wall."