York Historic Environment Record

The excavation was restricted to a 3m square trench no more than 1m deep, it showed that the post-medieval and modem deposits overlaid levelling/dump deposits dating to the 14th century or later. Beneath those lay similar deposits, dating to the 11th/12th centuries. More interestingly, there was evidence that the site was used as a cemetery in between the two levelling/dump episodes. At least nine burials were cut into the 11th/12th century deposits. They were aligned east-west, and were probably in wooden coffins (Fig.2). Several bodies disturbed by later burials were reburied in wooden caskets, placed in large pits, or simply discarded in the graveyard soil that built up on the site. The charnel pits were evidently cut from various levels within the graveyard soil, which suggested that the site had been in use as a cemetery for a considerable period of time. As the objective of identifying the cemetery had already been achieved, it was not necessary to excavate the human remains. So, with the minimum of effort and expense, it was possible to confirm that this had been used as a cemetery in the medieval period. It was almost certainly St Wilfrid’s churchyard. YORAT and YORYM code 1994.3211. RCHME microfilm PRN: 5310. York Archaeological Trust Clarke A/1994/The Judge's Lodging: an evaluation report. York Archaeological Trust annual report 17 1994-5