This may be of interest to histarchers

Dan Hicks
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Archaeology/staff/danhicks.html

----- Original Message -----
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 9:19 AM
Subject: St Pancras cemetery to be destroyed


>     Apologies for the length of the following (taken from the CBA Newsfeed
> service), but it seems to demand some sort of response.  When a similar
> thing happened in Sheffield city centre a few years ago we lost the
> opportunity for an unparalleled study of the 18th and 19th century
> population.  Please consider contacting your MP to protest at this
> outrageous treatment of an archaeological site.
>
> Chris Cumberpatch
>
> This is LONDON
> 26/11/02 - News and city section
>
> Graves destroyed by Chunnel diggers
> By Geraint Smith, Science Correspondent, Evening Standard
>
> More than 1,000 graves are being destroyed by contractors building the
> King's Cross Channel Tunnel terminal in what government advisers have
called
> "a desecration" and "an outrage against human dignity".
>
> Archaeologists excavating human remains from up to 2,000 graves have been
> suddenly ordered off the site of the Camley Street Cemetery at St Pancras
as
> the Channel Tunnel Rail Link company (CTRL) prepares to start digging them
> out. They had completed work on only about 100 graves.
>
> The experts wanted to identify the graves and then contact living
relatives
> of the dead. They also believed they could gather vital information which
> would help build up a picture of life in London during the Industrial
> Revolution.
>
> "There will be many people alive who have relatives buried in this
> graveyard," said Simon Thurley, chief executive of the government
> archaeology watchdog English Heritage. "The archaeologists were excavating
> these remains with respect, as they are required to do. Normally that is
> done using sheets to protect the remains from public view, and with
> meticulous care.
>
> "Now, instead, the company will be sending bulldozers straight through the
> lot, loading the soil, bones, bits of coffin and name plates into what
they
> call a muck- away truck. Archaeologists will then pick over them for
bones.
>
> "It is a total desecration of human remains. If this were happening
anywhere
> else - if it were an aboriginal cemetery somewhere, for example - there
> would be an outcry. It is outrageous that they can just drive through a
> churchyard - people's grandparents and great-grandparents - in this way."
>
> English Heritage is powerless to act, despite what it says is the
invaluable
> record the graveyard contains of life in London, with the most recent of
the
> graves dating from 1854.
>
> CTRL - which operates under a special Act of Parliament, giving it virtual
> carte blanche - has obtained a Home Office licence to remove the graves,
> although English Heritage says it is missing the usual clause insisting on
> their "respectful and dignified removal".
>
> A CTRL spokesman said: "It has been known for many years that essential
CTRL
> works at St Pancras would involve the removal of human remains and we have
> all the relevant permissions required to do so. We are working with a
> competent specialist contractor to find the most appropriate methods."
>
> Mr Thurley, formerly the head of the Museum of London, dismissed the
> company's explanation that the "limited" period available for the
> archaeological investigations had come to an end. "You can be certain that
> if they had had some other type of problem like an underground gas main
they
> would have taken the time to go round it properly."
>
> Archaeologists had been allowed only three weeks to work on the site. They
> had originally been told that they would be allowed to excavate from
August
> until mid-January and had so far excavated only about 100 graves. Employed
> by the developers, they have been forbidden to talk about the site.
>
> Harvey Sheldon, head of the archaeology pressure group Rescue, said: "In
> effect, the company decided that there was too much archaeology there and
> called the archaeologists off."
>
> According to English Heritage's chief archaeologist, David Miles, the
> decision will also destroy an invaluable record of the population of
London
> during the crucial period of its expansion. "The remains are well
preserved.
> We are dealing with people for whom there is documentary evidence. We know
> who they were, often what jobs they did, and what they died of. They
> included rich and poor, immigrants and natives.
>
> "The bodies already excavated have been showing very interesting
> pathologies, and we now know that burials like these are enormously
> important historically."
>
> The row echoes that surrounding the building of St Pancras Station in the
> mid-19th Century, when the Midland Railway company cut through the same
> graveyard, disturbing 40,000 graves. The public outcry that resulted led
to
> the appointment of the novelist Thomas Hardy to ensure that the remains
were
> correctly treated.
>
> "It seems today that little has been learned. It is of great concern that
> this may set a precedent for the way early modern burial grounds are
> treated," said English Heritage.