Question - Cathedral, [St. Peter And St. Paul] - Does Anyone Know?

[Unitedite Returns]

I realise that this is perhaps quite a morbid question to ask, but does anyone know as to whether there has ever been any realistic assessment as to the probable number of internments contained within the precincts of the Cathedral, [st. Peter and St. Paul]?

My interest in asking the question was prompted from my recent visit to Exeter Cathedral, where they have recently been trying to assess as to the likely number of burials that they are likely to encounter, in anticipation of reopening excavations within the Cathedral grounds with a view to determining the nature and the extent of the Roman archaeology upon which the present structure stands.

Their original estimates based on existing records had suggested a figure of roughly 200,000 internments contained within the Cathedral grounds.

However, they have recently revised that number upwards, to as a possible MINIMUM, a staggering 500,000, simply by assuming that within the known 1,000 year history of the Cathedral, that there surely must have been, during that time, on average, a minimum of ten internments each and every week.

For at least, the first 500 years of the Cathedral's history, there would have been no records kept for most of those internments and even though population numbers were much smaller back then, mortality rates, especially amongst the young, were much, much higher.

Bearing in mind the long history of Sheffield's own Parish Church of St. Peter and the fact that Sheffield is today, a much larger city than Exeter, then possibly, the number of burials contained within the precincts of the former church might be even greater still?

All of which I suppose, is quite sobering, when I think of the number of times that I must walk across those same precincts without that much thought for all of those who lie beneath!

[saw119]

I know from experience the rather sad answer to this very question. I was interested to find out what happened to all my relatives who at one time had been buried in the then Parish Church graveyard only to discover that the council dug most of the bodies up in the 1950's and dumped them somewhere. I can't find the thread in question but somebody posted a newspaper article regarding the controversy at the time and how as a child people used to collect the bones!

In fact just found the thread but it wont let me paste it, just search for Removal of cathedral burials

[madannie77]

Removal of Church Burials

The newspaper article is the ninth post in that topic

[HughW]

An earlier reburial. This is from the burial register of Wardsend Cemetery (St Philip's Parish) 6 Apr 1937. I can't tell from the current reconstruction of the plan of the cemetery where exactly this plot might be found in the New Portion above the railway. It could be close to the known site of the reburial of remains from St James'
 

[History dude]

I was told by a member of the staff there that even the bodies in the vaults of the Shrewsbury Chapel are missing.

Overcrowding in the church yard was always a problem in churches. Many had charnel houses, where bones dug up in the graveyard for burring more recent burials in the 15th to 16th Century, where placed. I don't know if the Cathedral had one, but it could have, as many were demolished.