York Historic Environment Record

(16) Former Burial Ground, early mediaeval, extending across the parish boundary between All Saints, Pavement, St. Crux and St. Sampson's, probably belonged to a lost church; a reference to a vanished St. Swithin's Lane, off the Shambles, may provide the dedication (Raine, 188). Finds during the 19th century and in 1929 under premises in Parliament Street and Pavement, now part of stores belonging to Marks and Spencer and Curry's Ltd., indicate a large graveyard with coffined burials extending back from Parliament Street to the Newgate Market. Carved stones (listed below), a monoxylic coffin, and a papal bulla of Honorius III imply that the graveyard was in use from the late Saxon period until at least 1217 (election of Honorius III) (YG, 9 July 1825, 9 Nov. 1929; YC, 9 Feb. 1837, 2 March 1837, 4 May 1837, 15 June 1837; Yorkshireman, 26 March 1836, 6 May 1837, 1 and 8 July 1837; YMH (1891), 74–5, Nos. 4, 5).

Pre-Conquest Stones: in Yorkshire Museum. (1) Grave-slab, 36 in. by 12 in., and (2) grave-slab, 33½ in. by 14 in., were previously published as items v and vi in the list of mediaeval sculpture in the museum (York IV, xlv). (3) Headstone fragment (Plate 21), of coarse gritstone, 29 in. by 13½ in. by 9½ in. tapering to 9 in., found in conjunction with (2) and of similar width; front carved with pellet-bordered single panel containing double-strand plait; left side badly worn but appearing similar to right side, with row of pellets and double cable beneath similar double-strand plait; back without carving. The bare base would have been sunk into the earth; the original arrangement is best illustrated in the pre-Conquest cemetery discovered under the S. transept of York Minster (Arch., civ (1973), Burials 1 and 4, Plates XXXIX and LII).

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 5, Central. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1981.

NMR Information

Sources
1 Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, volume 3 : York and eastern Yorkshire 1991 by James Lang p107-8

RCHME, 1981, City of York Volume V: The Central Area, p.49 (Monograph). SYO65.

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