Excavations at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber

St Peter's Church at Barton-upon-Humber (TA 0347 2194) was declared redundant in 1972 and taken into public guardianship in 1978 by the then Department of Environment. Given that it had long been recognised that it had a late Saxon origin, a major programme of excavation and survey was instituted. This explored the church and its churchyard, and ran from 1978 to 1984 under the direction of Warwick Rodwell. The programme has meant that this is the most intensively studied and recorded parish church in the country. It also produced the largest collection of human remains ever excavated in the UK. The latter provide a unique insight into the population of a small, relatively isolated, market town over 900 years.