During the Industrial period, the funerary trade became firmly established
as the accepted means of providing a respectable send-off for loved
ones. Evidence of this appears in the archaeological record form the
growth in the number of funerary monuments and the presence of coffins
in the majority of the population. In the medieval period, it was common
for a parish to use one coffin for the majority of its members for funeral
services in the Church and for the desceased to be interred just in
a shroud. Whilst shroud burials were still taking place in pauper graves,
the individuals at St. Andrew's were accompanied by coffins with name
plates and associated coffin furniture.
Ossafreelance would like to thank Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service and Mercian Archaeology for their contribution towards this case study.
Whilst it
was hoped that a respectable burial would remain undisturbed, the burial
grounds of the individual parishes towards the 1840's had become so overcrowded
that many were closed. Contemporary accounts record complaints from local
residents about the stench arising from the churchyard and sextons were
unable to dig any new graves without disturbing old ones. It was clear
from the excavation that several burials had been disturbed by later ones
and some bones had been cut through by tools not long after burial, such
through femoral heads (top of the legs).
The situation
in the graveyard was not unsimilar to living conditions in St Andrew's
- unsanitary and overcrowded. By 1858 all inner city parish churchyards
were closed and in 1898 the parish was abolished altogether, ensued by
the demolition of the majority of the buildings. The success of the industries
in this area appear to have led to an untenable increase in its population
and ultimately to the parish's demise.