EDO5053 - Junction of Newland and St. Swithin's Road, Sherborne; observation of foundation trenches for a new house

C. E. Bean observed the excavation of foundation trenches for a new house at the junction of Newland and St. Swithin’s Road during 1955. At least 15 burials were recorded, including children and the elderly, in shallow uncoffined graves. The partial remains of two were excavated, one with the right arm under the body, but no dateable finds were recovered. Unstratified 12th-14th century pottery and a 14th-15th century silver gilt oval brooch were found on the site. The brooch was inlaid with garnets and alternate gilt leaves around the edge. This part of Newland was formerly called St. Swithin’s Street and may have been the site of a fair dedicated to him, although no record exists of any chapel or church dedicated to him. Burials were reported to have been found when St. Swithin’s Road and North Road were constructed and old people say that more were found on land to the south of Newland, immediately opposite The Avenue. Furthermore, Hutchins’, 1815 mentions ‘a timber yard where human bones are found, supposed site of Church or Chapel’ in a note on his Sherborne town map (1). A more precise grid reference for the burials recorded in the proceedings, vol. 77, p. 145, would be ST 64151685.’ (2)