York Historic Environment Record

An extensive 3rd-4th century cremation and inhumation cemetery was discovered in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in clay pits, for brick and tile works then situated S.W. Of St. Peter's School, recognisable in fields to S.W. Of the footpath between Queen Anne Grammar School and Westminster Road. The area is limited on the N.E. By Road 5, beyond which, in land occupied by playing fields and untouched by building-development, no discoveries are recorded. This site was first mentioned in 1681 by Dr. Martin Lister, who was more concerned to distinguish between different types of pottery than to describe individual finds from individual sites. More important accounts are by R. Thoresby and F. Drake. In 1692 the York schoolmaster, N. Hodgson, writing to Dr. Gale, described urns, small glass 'ampullae' and a hoard of 'above 100 copper coins' In 1696 a brick tomb was found, large enough to accommodate three or four corpses. In 1697 were found two cremations, pottery, including a flagon, and terracotta waterpipes; in 1698 a 'coffin' made of tegulae was found. In 1701 a lead coffin was found and in 1702 another, 7 ft. Long and 9 ft. Below ground containing a skeleton and enclosed in an outer casing made of oak planks 2½ ins. Thick nailed together. In 1712 R. Thoresby described fourteen or sixteen small red urns surrounding a large one containing cremations, and three other urns also containing cremations. F. Drake describes 'graves for urns, square spots in the earth, the bottom covered with white sand on which the urns were placed, inverted, three, four, or more together', and two stone uninscribed sarcophagi 'lately discovered'. (RCHME, 1962, p.73-74).

RCHME, 1962, Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York, Volume 1 Eboracum, p73 (Bibliographic reference). SYO62.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.