Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 559: summary

An archaeological watching brief at St Leonard’s church, Hythe Hill, Colchester, Essex: May 2010
by Adam Wightman

Date report completed: July 2010
Location: St Leonard’s church, Hythe Hill, Colchester, Essex
Map reference(s): TM 0127 2472 (c)
File size: 450 kb
Project type: Watching brief
Significance of the results: *
Keywords: Church, burials

Summary. An archaeological watching brief on the contractor’s excavation of trenches for the strengthening of the southern graveyard wall at St Leonard’s Church revealed a brick burial vault and a large quantity of fragmented disarticulated human bone (this was re-buried on site). The large quantity of bone close to the wall is probably the result of the redeposition of bone collected during an apparent re-alignment of the graveyard wall in the 19th century. This realignment allowed a widening and straightening of Hythe Hill by removing a small area of the southern edge of the graveyard.