Chantry House Garden

I don't know if it was found damaged and in two pieces as it is now or whether a stone lid was found.

Curiously the pillar was built partially on top of it in the 15th century.

I doubt that this was the coffin's original position in the church - despite their weight these coffins tend to have been moved around the interiors of churches during the Middle Ages.

Some stone coffins were not buried but were partially sunk into the floor.

At Clopton in the north of the county is one decorated with incised decoration around the sides suggesting it was above floor level.

Similarly, at Little Woolstone in Milton Keynes, some archaeological investigations over 30 years ago revealed a stone coffin under the church floor which must have been previously partially above ground level as some of the parishioners who sat on it had carved a nine-mens-morris game on the lid.

I have wondered whether the decaying body in such coffins caused problems for those attending the church soon after the burial but have recently found out that some bodies were salted and wrapped in hide before burial.

Needless to say we have no idea who was interred in the Towcester coffin other than it must have been someone of significance.

Brian Giggins