York Historic Environment Record

Cemetery close to the Minster. Limits undefined. A watching brief close to the west face of the Minster in June 2015 revealed truncated medieval burials barely 20cm beneath the modern paving stones. The soil indicated, from the inclusions of brick and tile that it was composed of mortary demolition material. Eighteenth century depictions of the west end of the minster show that there were then no steps up into the building. It therefore seems likely that demolition material was brought in to raise the height of the ground to the level of the doorways. The ground must then have been used as a cemetery for some considerable time. The truncation and overlapping of the skeletal remains suggest multiple reuse of the areas for burials. A suggestion also supported by the amount of disarticulated charnel in the soil. Subsequently the area was reduced in level by skimming off the soil and steps were reintroduced to the west end of the minster. This has left some skeletons barely a few centimetres under the modern paving. Presumably this lowering of level and landscaping of the area was done in the nineteenth century. The burials all seem to have been in shrouds and not coffined. This might suggest that the cemetery was used by poorer elements of the local population. It is also clear that the area continued in use for a considerable period with new burials inserted over older ones.